From what and how is sausage made?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

You can buy sausage, boiled or smoked, today in absolutely any supermarket. Store shelves are literally bursting from this beloved by many products. But should you include sausage in your daily diet? What is this popular product made of today? How sausage is made and what ingredients are usually included in its composition - read about this in the article.

Soviet GOST

To buy a stick of sausage, the citizens of the USSR had to stand in long queues. However, at the same time, this product itself was made exclusively from meat and, at least, was not harmful to he alth. Pork and beef in the Soviet sausage contained at least 99%. Perhaps, various kinds of sanitary rules were not particularly carefully observed at meat processing plants in those days. However, no harmful ingredients were added to it to reduce the cost of sausage. Well, or they did it extremely rarely.

Today, unfortunately, the situation has changed radically. According to modern standards, the sausage must contain at least 45% meat. But even this indicator is not observed by the mills.always.

How sausage is made: manufacturing technology

About what exactly domestic and foreign manufacturers can add to this product in our time, let's talk a little lower. Now let's figure out how, in fact, sausage should be cooked according to all the rules. Its manufacturing technology is actually relatively simple.

So, how do they make sausage at the factory? The manufacturing process for this popular product includes approximately the following steps:

• pork and beef entering the enterprise are pre-deboned, trimmed and sorted;
• meat is minced, s alted and set aside for maturation;
• the mass prepared in this way is fed into the grinder for the second time;
• ready stuffing is injected into the casing with strapping.

The answer to the question of how to make boiled sausage or smoked, thus, is actually simple. The minced meat stuffed into shells is simply dipped in boiling water or subjected to a long smoke treatment.

Varieties of sausages

Thus, we found out how sausages are made in factories. The price of this type of meat products in stores, however, can vary significantly. The cost of sausage today, as in the days of the USSR, depends on its variety. Currently available upon request:

1. Sausage of the highest grade. According toregulations, such products are supposed to be made from a ham, shoulder blade or dorsal muscle.
2. Products of the first grade. Such sausage can contain up to 6% connective and adipose tissue.
3. Sausage of the second grade. Products in this group may contain up to 10% fat.

It is from these products, and not from any others, that a real sausage should be made. However, in practice this is quite rare. Meat alone contains in our time, perhaps, only the highest grade sausage. And then not all and not always.

Most Common Supplements

What do modern factories actually make sausage from? In order to reduce the cost of the final product, in addition to the actual meat, manufacturers nowadays can mix in minced meat:

• soy;
• fiber;
• ground skin, tendons and even bones.

About there, how to make sausage using these ingredients, and we'll talk further.

Soybeans to reduce prices

The fact that this product of plant origin is almost without fail added to sausage today, probably everyone has heard. By itself, soybeans cannot cause any particular harm to human he alth. The problem in this case is different. The fact is that some manufacturers add genetically modified soybeans to the sausage.

Not so long ago this product was supplied to Russia from Europe. And made with hisusing sausage was, if not very tasty, but at least relatively safe. However, recently the situation has changed somewhat. Today, manufacturers add mainly Chinese soybeans to sausages. The fact is that, firstly, it costs less, and secondly, it turned out to be more affordable. Here is Chinese soybeans and can easily be genetically modified.

How is sausage made with soy? In this case, everything is extremely simple. Beans are first ground into powder. Next, this white “dust” is mixed with water, tinted and added to the minced meat, replacing part of the meat with it.

Is fiber good or bad?

This ingredient today can contain even quite expensive sausage. Fiber is usually produced from carrots. However, no vitamins remain after processing. Moreover, the body does not absorb this ingredient at all. Some scientists believe that fiber is useful in that it can cleanse the intestines and stimulate its work. In Germany, for example, this ingredient is added to almost all semi-finished products. However, this product, of course, does not have a very beneficial effect on the taste of sausage. In addition, the use of fiber allows manufacturers to write things like “Contains only natural ingredients” and “No soy” on the packaging. As a result, the sausage is sold out with a bang. But, of course, it cannot be compared with real pork or beef.

Furthermore, fiber, unfortunately, oftenis made not only from carrots or, for example, oats, but also simply from … sawdust.

Skin and bones

The use of such ingredients also allows manufacturers to position their product as completely natural. Bones and skin in the manufacture of sausages are simply ground into porridge, diluted with water and added to minced meat. At the same time, it is written on the packaging that the sausage is made exclusively from pork or beef. Perhaps the bones are a product and not the most harmful, but in some ways even useful. However, the information presented on the packaging, in any case, is latently misleading the consumer. Well, who, one wonders, will prove that the bones and skin are not parts of a pig or a cow? That is, not beef and not pork

How to make sausage at home

The above permitted additives can be called the safest. Let them worsen the taste of sausage, but still, for the most part, they are not harmful (with the exception of modified soybeans). However, other, much less harmless components can be added to sausages today. These can be, for example, various kinds of dyes, thickeners, “meat flavor” additives. Therefore, many housewives, of course, would like to learn how to make sausage on their own. After all, only in this case you can be sure that the final product will not contain anything harmful.

To prepare the simplest homemade sausage you will need:

• food wrap;
• thin cord;
• meatminced meat.

The film is pre-cut into pieces. Then minced meat is laid on each of them and everything is rolled up with a “sausage”. The meat in the resulting stick should be packed as tightly as possible. Next, the cling film is tied with a cord on both sides and everything is sent to cook in low-boiling water for about 40 minutes.

You can, of course, make more complex types of sausages at home, including smoked ones. But this requires special equipment. For example, you will need to purchase a powerful electric meat grinder with a special attachment and a smokehouse.

How to make chocolate sausage

In addition to the usual one, you can make such a sausage at home. To prepare it, you will need cookies (1 kg), butter (200 g), milk (250 g), sugar (200 g). You will also need to prepare some cocoa powder. Cookies for making such a sausage should be put in a bag and crushed with a rolling pin, and melt the butter in milk on gas. Sugar is mixed with cocoa and poured into a saucepan.

How to make chocolate sausage next? And then - everything is simple. Milk with butter, sugar and cocoa is tediously poured into cookies and kneaded into a thick "porridge". The resulting mass should be rolled up with a "sausage" in cling film and placed in the freezer.

Instead of a conclusion

So we figured out how sausage is made. The horror of everything that happens in modern enterprises specializing in the production of such products is not that fat and bones are added to minced meat instead of meat. For this meatpacking plantscriticized in Soviet times. However, these days, various chemicals can be added to the sausage - dyes and thickeners. This is perhaps the scariest thing. Well, the question about meat remains open: is it really pork or beef? During Soviet times, sausage, at least, was completely natural. Today, unfortunately, this is far from the case.

So cook this product at home and try to buy it less often in the store. And if you decide to buy sausage in a supermarket, carefully read the packaging and look at the price tag. Too cheap product in any case will harm your he alth and the he alth of your loved ones.