Sausage making facts for kids

Sausage making started a long, long time ago when people figured out that salt could keep meat from spoiling. This was super important for saving and moving meat around. Early societies also learned to add dried berries and spices to their dried meat.

The basic idea of putting meat into a casing (like a skin) is still the same today. But over time, sausage recipes have gotten much better, and making sausages has become a respected cooking skill!

There are two main kinds of sausages: fresh and cured. Cured sausages can be cooked or dried. Many cured sausages are also smoked, but not all of them. The curing process changes the meat and gives it special flavors. Think about how different a pork roast tastes compared to a ham – that's because ham is cured!

All smoked sausages are cured for a very important reason: to prevent a serious illness called botulism. A tiny germ called Clostridium botulinum can grow in places without air, like inside a sausage, especially in warm temperatures. Curing sausages before smoking helps keep them safe to eat.

Types of Sausages and How to Store Them

Sausages come in different types, and knowing how to store them helps keep them fresh and safe.

Fresh Sausages: Simple and Delicious

Fresh sausages are just seasoned ground meats that you cook before eating. They usually don't use special curing salts (like Prague powder #1), though you can add them if you want. Fresh sausages also typically don't use smoke flavors, but you could use liquid smoke. It's important that fresh sausages are never smoked in a cold smoker because of the risk of botulism.

The main flavors in fresh sausages come from salt and sugar. People also add different tasty herbs and spices, and often vegetables like onion and garlic.

For example, a British fresh sausage usually has about 10% butcher's rusk (a type of breadcrumb), 10% water, 2.5% seasoning, and 77.5% meat. When you buy them, British sausages often say "actual meat content X%." This percentage tries to show how much lean meat is in the sausage.

Cured Cooked Sausages: Smoked and Safe

Cured cooked sausages are different from fresh ones because they include a special curing salt called Prague powder #1. You usually add about 2 teaspoons of this cure for every 10 pounds of meat.

After adding the cure, these sausages are typically hot smoked. This means they are cooked and smoked at the same time. You can also get a similar smoky taste by adding liquid smoke to the recipe. Smoking temperatures can vary, but they are usually less than 155°F (68°C). Once the sausage reaches an internal temperature of 152°F (67°C), it's fully cooked.

Sometimes, a cold smoke is used. If this happens, the sausage might have been cooked beforehand in a water bath. For example, to make Braunschweiger, the sausage is put into hot water (70°C or 158°F) for 2 to 2.5 hours until its inside temperature reaches 67°C (152°F). Then, it's cooled quickly in ice water and cold smoked at 46 to 49°C (115 to 120°F) for 2–3 hours.

Cured Dry Sausages: Long-Lasting Flavors

Cured dry sausages are made in a similar way to cured cooked sausages, but with a key difference: they use Prague powder #2 instead of Prague powder #1. Also, the meat used for these sausages must be specially prepared. Since these sausages are never heated to a temperature high enough to kill certain parasites (like trichinella), they need to be made safe in other ways. One common method is by freezing the pork.

The rules for freezing pork for dry sausages can be complicated, depending on the meat's thickness and how it's packaged. There are also specific rules for how long they stay in drying rooms and the temperatures in smoke rooms.

Even though it takes a lot of specific knowledge, it's possible for a small sausage maker or a hobbyist to create excellent cured dry sausages. Another option is to simply buy pork that has already been certified as safe for this use.

Tools for Sausage Making

Traditional sausage making in Hungary

The tools you need depend on how much sausage you're making. For a small amount at home, you might only need a meat grinder and some basic measuring tools. For a larger business, you'll need bigger, more powerful equipment.

No matter the size of your operation, three very important tools are an accurate thermometer, a good scale, and a meat grinder. If you're making smoked sausages, you'll also need a smoker or a commercial smokehouse. For sausages like frankfurters or bologna, which have a very smooth texture, a special machine called a bowl chopper is used to make the meat very finely ground before it goes into casings and is cooked or smoked.

Meat and Other Ingredients

You can use many different kinds of fresh meats for sausages, like beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, and even game meat. The meat should be fresh, good quality, have the right amount of lean meat to fat, and be able to bind well together. It's also very important that the meat is clean and free from germs. Mixing spices and seasonings in the right amounts is key to making a delicious sausage.

Curing Salts: Keeping Sausages Safe

Making dry sausages involves special curing salts that contain sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate. Nitrites are used for almost all types of sausages. Nitrates are only used for dry-cured sausages. Over time, the nitrates change into nitrites with the help of natural or added bacteria.

Our own digestive system actually makes nitrites, which helps prevent botulism from growing in our gut.

Cured meat products usually have very small amounts of nitrites.

Sometimes, potassium nitrite and potassium nitrate are used instead of sodium versions to make sausages with less sodium. However, potassium can sometimes make the sausage taste bitter, so other ingredients are added to hide that flavor. Old recipes sometimes used saltpetre, but this isn't recommended anymore because those old recipes often used too much curing ingredient. Modern methods are much safer and work better.

In the sausage industry, nitrites and nitrates are already mixed into products called Prague powder #1 and Prague powder #2.

• Prague powder #1 has 6.25% sodium nitrite and 93.75% regular salt. It's used for all cured meats and sausages except the dry type.
• Prague powder #2 has 6.25% sodium nitrite and 4.0% sodium nitrate (the rest is salt). It's used for cured dry sausages. Prague powder #2 should never be used on food that will be fried at high temperatures, like bacon, because it can create harmful substances.

When using these curing powders, it's extremely important not to use more than the recommended amount. For Prague powder #1, this is about 2.5 grams for every 1 kilogram of meat (or 2 teaspoons for 10 pounds). Using too much can be dangerous because nitrites can be toxic in large amounts. Just a small amount of Prague powder #1 (about 2 ounces) contains enough sodium nitrite to be very harmful to a person.

Morton's Tenderquick is another brand of curing salt, but it's not the same strength as Prague powder #1 or #2. Because it's so important to use the exact right amount of nitrite for safety, you can't just swap one for the other in a recipe. You always need to calculate the precise amount of nitrite needed and adjust accordingly.

Spices for Sausages

Spices are super important for giving sausages their unique flavors! Here are some common ones:

Sausage Making in Culture

Sometimes, when people talk about "how the sausage gets made," they mean a process that might be a bit messy or complicated, and maybe you don't want to know all the tiny details! This saying comes from an American poet named John Godfrey Saxe, who wrote in 1869 that "Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made." He meant that sometimes, knowing every step of a process can make it seem less appealing.

Images for kids

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  Small scale industrial manufacturing in Russia

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  Meat ready for sausage making

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  Intestine for sausage making