Sausages

Sausage making is an ancient food production and preservation technique, used to ensure that every part of the animal could be either eaten or stored for later use. Scraps of meat were ground with herbs and spices and packed into a casing made from the animal's intestines. These sausages could either be eaten fresh, or salted or smoked for later.

Nowadays, there is an enormous range of different types of sausage, varying from country to country and from region to region. They can be made from a variety of meats, such as pork, beef, chicken, veal or liver, which may be roughly chopped, minced or ground into a smooth paste. They may also be sold fresh, pre-cooked or preserved in some way.

We've put together a handy guide to the vast choice of sausages available today, including the fresh, meaty Cumberland sausage, the salted salami of Italy and Europe, slicing sausages such as mortadella, pudding sausages such as faggots and haggis, and finally, preserved sausages such as frankfuters and zambone.