Gone are the days when you walked into the butcher shop and had the choice of two sorts of sausages – pork or beef. We are all developing a taste for many different sorts of sausages, from German bratwurst to Spanish chorizo and South African droewors. Not every sausage is suitable for eating with mash and gravy, so it’s important to understand the different types and their uses.
Traditional British Sausages
You can still get the basic beef and pork sausages from your butcher or supermarket, but just glance on any supermarket shelf and you’ll see varieties such as pork and apple, turkey or sweet chili sausages. All of these types of products are cooked in the normal way and although you might not fancy a sweet chili sausage with your eggs and bacon, they are great when eaten with mash or barbecued in the summer. Check out your local farmers’ market for the best sausages around and try sausages made from venison, chicken or turkey if you are looking for something a little bit different.
Chorizo
The beauty of chorizo is that it is so versatile. Chorizo is a pork based sausage made using paprika and can either be eaten in thin slices like salami or ham or used in cooking. Cooking chorizo is sold in long, thinner sausages and has a myriad of different uses. It is delicious fried and added to scrambled eggs, sprinkled over a salad instead of bacon bits or chopped into chunks and added to a pasta sauce or bean casserole. Chorizo freezes well, so chop it into chunks and keep it in the freezer for when you need to add a little oomph to your pasta or stew.
Snack Sausages
As a snack, meat is high in protein and can be low in fat, so makes an ideal snack for a child’s lunchbox or to take to work. Products such as jerky, biltong or Droewors are pre-cooked, small sized dried sausages or strips of meat which are tasty and satisfying as a snack. Droewors are spiced with coriander seeds and traditionally made from pork, veal or beef. Until recently this sort of South African sausage has been hard to find in the UK, but as we look further afield for new types of food and snacks, it’s becoming easier to find it in supermarkets, specialty delicatessens and from online food retailers.
Bratwurst
Germans love their sausages almost as much as the British and one of the most famous types is bratwurst. This type of sausage is eaten hot and cooked by grilling them or pan frying. Every German market or event has a bratwurst stall, with long queues of people waiting for freshly cooked sausages in long rolls, served with ketchup, mustard or curry sauce. There is no standard recipe for bratwurst and much like our traditional British sausages; the type varies from region to region. Particularly worth trying is the weisswurst or white sausage found in the south of the country, which is made with veal and bacon.
Black Pudding
Various types of sausage made using blood are found across the globe, from China to Europe. Traditional black pudding has fallen out of favor in recent years and few of us eat it with our morning breakfast. However, it is coming back into fashion as chefs start to pair it with scallops or use it in stuffing and the recent news that Stornoway black pudding has got legal protection for the name has brought it back to public attention again. Most of the black pudding eaten in the UK is made using pig blood, but in China you will find similar sausages made with duck or goat blood.
About the Author
Jasmin Blunt is a writer who understands the fascination that many cultures have around the world for sausages. She recommends trying the South African drywors sausage if you fancy biting into something a little different.
The post What Different Types of Sausage Are There? appeared first on The Chef's Cookbook.
