The invention of sausage

Sausage is one of the oldest known forms of processed meat and has been a very desirable, “quick-and-easy” meal for generations. The word ‘sausage’ has been described as originating from the Latin word salsus, which means salted. This would imply that sausage processing, in the form of adding salt to meat, existed at least several hundred years BC.

Sausage has been an age long method of preservation as recorded by the primitive man, the ancient Egyptians and American Indians. Texts discovered from the times of the Ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia mentions stuffing meat into intestinal casings.

The first recognizable mention of this meat food is found in a Greek play called ‘The Orya’ or ‘The Sausage’ written about 500 B.C. Thereafter, the word Sausage occurs with frequency in Greek writings such as in the ‘Odyssey’ written by Homer in 830 B.C. Homer referenced sausage in the Odyssey as one of the favorite foods of the Greeks.

Homer mentions often in the Odyssey details of the slaughter of beef, goats and sheep. The prize of a sausage was awarded Odysseus when he defeated the sturdy beggar Iros in a boxing match. The sausage was described as a type of black pudding, stuffed with blood and fat and sizzled on the hearth.

Roman festive occasions were considered incomplete without sausage. Apicuis in his Roman Cookery describes puddings, loaves, and molded sausage like products.

Sausages were mentioned in AD 228 by Athenaeus in the Deipnosophists, the oldest known cookbook.

Sausage making evolved as an effort to economize and preserve meat which could not be consumed immediately after slaughter. This practice could be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans who made sausages which were usually plain and unspiced.

In the middle age, people started developing sausages with spices which led to modern sausage. At that time many European cities became known for their local sausages which were aptly named for their place of origins such as the bologna, named for Bologna, Italy and romano, named after Rome.

Many of the sausage products common in the USA can be traced to their origins in Europe and other parts of the world. In most cases, the type of product is related to environmental conditions within the geographical region in which they originated.
The invention of sausage

History of sausage

The origin of meat processing is lost in antiquity but probably began when mankind learned that salt is an effective preservative. Sausage making evolved as an effort to economize and preserve meat that could not be consumed fresh at slaughter.

It is often assumed that sausages were invented by the Sumerians in the region that is Iraq today, around 4000 BC. Reference to a cooked meat product stuffed in a goat stomach like a sausage was known in Babylon and described as a recipe in the world’s oldest cook book 3750 years ago.

The Chinese sausage Làcháng, which consists of goat and lamb meat, was first mentioned in 589 BC.

Homer referenced sausage in the Odyssey as one of the favorite foods of the Greeks. He gives in detail the slaughter of a heifer as part of a religious ceremony. The collection of the blood from the animal and the manner of slicing and roasting the meat reflects the importance the Greeks placed on animal products as food. The prize of a sausage was awarded Odysseus when he defeated the sturdy beggar Iros in a boxing match. The sausage was described as a type of black pudding, stuffed with blood and fat and sizzled on the hearth.

Epicharmus (ca. 550 BC - ca. 460 BC) wrote a comedy entitled “The Sausage”. Numerous books report that sausages were already popular among the ancient Greeks and Romans.

It is believed that sausages were brought to Britain by the Romans some time before 400 AD. Since then, various English counties have each had their own way of flavouring their local sausage – Lincolnshire favours fresh sage and Cheshire uses caraway and coriander.

The history of sausage is literally given by its name and many of today’s sausages derive their names from the city where they originated, such as Vienna, Frankfurt, Mettwurst, Genoa, Knoblanch, Bologna, Salami, and many others.

Nowadays there are numerous types of sausage casings including: Natural and artificial such as Collagen, Cellulose and Plastic. Collagen, Cellulose and plastic casings are relative newcomers to the artificial field, mainly born out of market demand during the technological maelstrom of the early twentieth century.

Today, the sausage manufacturing industry in the U.S. must adhere to government standards for ingredients and processing. In addition, accurate labeling requirements ensure that the consumer is informed of the ingredients in a sausage product. Regulations are more specific for several categories of sausage products, which have specific production processes and storage requirements.

History of sausage

History of frankfurter sausage

Most sausages sold as frankfurters in America are made of a mixture of pork and beef, unlike the original frankfurters which consist only of pork.

Sausage making invented as a means of preserving meat and goes back as far as recorded history and many present day sausages are named for their place of origin.

The frankfurter originated to the fifteenth century in Frankfurt, Germany and Germans immigrants brought the technology to the USA.

It was said that frankfurter was developed there in 1484 5 years before Columbus set sail for America. 

Another history mentioned that frankfurter was created in the late 17th century by Johann Georg Lehner of Coburg who took his creation to the old Imperial capital, Frankfurt.

When Frankfurter sausages were introduced internationally at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1883, they were such a success that producers from Frankfurt wanted to prevent culinary plagiarism.

In 1929 a court in Berlin decided that only sausages made in the Frankfurt are could legitimately be labeled Frankfurt Würstchen or Frankfurter sausages.

Needless to say, populations, cities were formed and sausage kitchens started along with them. They duplicated the homemaker’s recipes on a commercial basis.
History of frankfurter sausage

Sausage in ancient world

The word sausage is derived from the Latin word ‘salsus’. Literally meaning salted or preserved, sausages and salamis were originally made out of bare necessity, like clothes and shelter, as a way of preserving meat without refrigeration.

First salamis were pounded with mortar until a meat paste was obtained, then paste as stuffed into casing and dried.

Homer wrote 2,800 years ago of roasting sausage in the Odyssey. He mentioned that sausage as a favorite food of the Greeks.

By the time of Julius Caesar, the arts of seasoning and preserving meats had advanced to a high level. Caesar gained advantages over his barbarian enemies by issuing preserved meats to his legions.

It is one of the oldest forms of processed food. The history of sausage production extends back to the ancient Babylonians, who produced and consumed sausages 3,500 years ago.

By 589 BC, the ancestral Chinese made a kind of semi-dried sausage called ‘lupcheong’. This sausage contained small pieces of lamb, salt, sugar, green onions, pepper, wine, and soy proteins.

The first Italian cookbook, Liber de Coquina in 1300s, outlines a fresh fish sausage made from wrapping boiled fish and chopped herbs in cheesecloth before frying it in oil to hold its shape as it heats.
Sausage in ancient world