Food is culture—is it not? Each person grows up in the world eating the foods of their culture. What we eat becomes a deep part of who we are as an expression of our shared cultural identity. Our cuisine weaves cultural roots into our current generations within various communities, regions, and countries. These roots will be passed on to future generations, even in a different time and place.
The cuisine of a country or community reflects its values, its habits, its history, its lifestyles, and its beliefs. We can think of food as a portal or an open doorway that unifies people across generations and cultures alike. Food culture allows us as humans to connect and relate directly to one another.
As the world today becomes more and more globalized, it is far easier now to access food from diverse cultures than ever before. Interestingly enough, sausage is a staple food found in countless cuisines around every corner of the globe. Sausage has found its way across cultures to be a beloved complement in a plethora of ethnic dishes. If you’re curious about this sausage craze, we’ve compiled a list of a number of types of sausages from around the world. Slim Jims will not be included.
What Is Sausage, Really?
Sausage is a dizzying, peculiar array of a meat product, defined by the dictionary as one product that consists of finely chopped and seasoned meat. Beyond that basic definition, sausage is a whole slew of endless possibilities. You may think of these links as the cornerstone of breakfast food, barbeques, tailgates, ball games, carnivals, or fundraisers.
In general, we recognize sausages today as ground-up meats, tissues, or organs stuffed into casings with various seasonings. Divergent cuts of fat and pork traditionally are the common base, but beef, poultry, or seafood, and any meat you could ever think of has been used to make sausage in the past and present. You can’t authentically draw a clear line.
The core sausage seasoning is salt for preservation purposes. This where the Latin root of the word originates from. Prior to the more moderation revelation of refrigeration, people used a wide array of meat preservation techniques, such as drying, smoking, and fermentation. Universally, the most common method was salting throughout all climates and seasons.
Puzzling Origins of a Unique Food
A cultural fondness of sausage is one thing that most people all around the world have in common. Well, that and love and war and hope for peace someday. The mystery of its true origins remains unclear, but many would advocate for its critical role that’s been found in man’s diet for around twenty centuries. The first mentions of sausage in literature were in the ancient times of the Greeks and Romans. However, the roots appear to trace back to Mesopotamia far before that.
The mere ubiquity of this staple meat product is what makes its initial inception difficult to pinpoint. There was a common problem that all cultures likely came up against at one point or another: food waste and preservation. The sausage was a delicious solution to the problem, as the first food to go through a form of processing.
All in all, humans began to manufacture sausage thousands of years ago. Thanks to technological knowledge and scientific development, sausage is still a relevant and growing part of the food industry in nations around the world in current times.
Italian Sausage
Out of various types of sausages from around the world, one classic version is Italian sausage. Regardless, there’s nothing plain about it. Many meat-lovers say this mixture is ideal for any time of day. Commonly made from pork, pork rind, and fatback, in addition to a base seasoning of fennel, Italian sausage has a sweet, hot, and yet mild flavor profile. This flavor can dramatically transform a meal to suit a mishmash of tastes and recipes.
Chorizo: Spain or Latin America
Within the world of chorizo sausage, a multitude of varieties exist. Mexican chorizo is typically made from raw, fresh pork and contains a solid blend of herbs, spices, and chili peppers. This version needs to be cooked before eating, as it’s sold unsmoked. Its European counterpart is fairly distinct in taste and form. Spanish chorizo has a unique taste that’s subtlety sweet and spicy. This chorizo is made with herbs and coarsely chopped pork. Pimentón is the special paprika that produces its characteristic red color.
Vienna Sausage: Austria
Vienna sausage is a beloved meat product across the world. This sausage gets its name from the remarkable city of Vienna, where sausage booths are a traditional fabric of the city's culture. Authentic Vienna sausages are not the canned versions seen in supermarkets. Rather, they vie for the title of the original hot dog. You can find them made out of beef, pork, or poultry.
Bratwurst: Germany
Germany is world-renowned for its splendor of sausages, and the go-to has to be bratwurst. Bratwurst can be a generic term, but a genuine bratwurst is truly its own subset of sausage. The technique behind its creation was once one of survival during the cold winter months; now it’s a delicacy. While multiple regional variations exist, the basic recipe is most popular. Classic bratwurst is a blended mixture of pork and veal and includes a sprinkling of spicy seasonings such as coriander, sage, or nutmeg.
Sundae: South Korea
Despite its name association, sundae sausage has nothing to do with scoops of ice cream. Rather, sundae is a type of blood sausage. This popular Korean street food, pronounced soon-dae, is made from boiled intestines from a cow or pig that’s delightfully stuffed with spices and transparent sweet potato noodles. As a snack, sundae has a pleasant and intense taste, but to enhance the flavor, additional ingredients such as traditional kimchi, tofu, garlic, soybean paste, or rice are common.
Gourmet Sausages
Food is culture, and with culture comes innovation and creativity. Specialty, artisanal sausages are becoming readily available online for mail-order delivery. You can find such sausages with a selection of ingredients, forms, and flavors that are top-notch in quality and taste. Wagyu sausage is one such gourmet sausage unrivaled in flavor and tenderness.
Here at Lone Mountain Wagyu, we’re an American ranch raising high-quality cattle. We’ve created the perfect gourmet beef sausage that’s suitable for any palate. Made out of our finest full-blood Wagyu beef, our special blend of ground beef and high-grade beef cuts make up a delectable link. You won’t find any additives or preservatives that are common in more mass-produced links. Browse our selections of Wagyu beef products today to have them delivered to your front door soon.
