THE EUROPEAN SAUSAGE INDUSTRY by John Schut* I. HISTORY another, e.g. cookc d sausage, became more and more known and popular in the northern and eastern Regular meat supply to man began with the domes- countries. But it was not until the beginning of the tication of the mammalian species sheep, cattle and 20th century that - due to the development of cli- pigs. The sheep was domesticated with the aid of mate chambers - acceptable raw and dry sausage dogs before a settled agriculture was established could be produced all over Europe and the whole (7000 B.C. ). By 3500-3000 B.C. several breeds of year around. domestic sheep were known in Mesopotamia and Egypt. The domestication of cattle followed the estab- A second period of spreading happened after lishment of settled agriculture about 5000-4000 B.C. World War I1 when, as a consequence of extensive Evidence is found that about 3000 B.C. cows were business, but, above all, holiday traveling, the pro- milked, and cattle fattened by forced feeding in Egypt duction of cooked sausage got under way in the south at that time. It is assumed that the domestication of European countries. pigs is from a later date. However, in an area of However, the mechanism behind the distribution Europe, now known as Hungary, pigs were domesti- was a different one. In north and middle Europe raw cated by about 2500 B.C. In the Greco-Roman period and dry sausage production grew rapidly because the the animal became of great importance, when hams people liked them. In south European countries, the were salted and smoked and sausages were manu- production of cooked sausage started because of the factured. The word “sausage” is most likely a deriva- billions of north and middle European tourists, who tion of the Latin word “saIsus,” which means salted, asked for them. It took another two decades before and it has been suggested that the original types were the local population began to accept comminuted prepared from cured meats and took the form of a cooked sausage itself. This is only true for cooked “dry sausage.” The ancient town of Salamis gives a meat sausage. The production of liver sausage in place association for salami. Other types were known Spain is still limited and in Italy not worth men- as Tomacina, Cirelli and Botuli, the latter providing tioning. an unfortunate link with food poisoning (Botulism). Similar developments in the field of dry sausage 11. CLA4SSIFICATIONAND NOMENCLATURE took place in the southeastern part of Europe. It is OF SAUSAGE PRODUCTS interesting to note, that, even today, a considerable Ways to classify the various types of sausages are number of these types of sausages in southern and many. The one chosen for this survey is based on the eastern Europe are still just cured and dried (not grouping and terminology used in Germany. This smoked). The process of fermentation - now one of country more than any other country has put its stamp the most essential steps in salami manufacture - was on sausage manufacture for many centuries in Europe an unavoidable circumstance, inseparable from the and outside. only possible production method. In the middle European areas, these sausages could only be made In principle, this classification is based on the tem- during the winter season and it is understandable that perature treatment of either the final product or the other types of sausages developed here - sausage raw materials. preserved by curing and heat treatment. Particularly In the tables I to IV, names and terms are given an area, now indicated on the map as Germany and I both in the German and English languagc. Austria, was the nursery of the cooked sausage. Still more northward, ie., roughly, in the Scandi- navian countries, the main preservation method, be- “J. SCIiUT sides salting, was cooling and freezing. And although drying was also known as a way of food preservation. Manager Research and Development, Laborn- this initially was used mainly for fish (e.g. stockfish). tmy, Zuid Netlerlnnclse Illelkin,tlustrie B.V., N.C.B.luan, Postbus 13, Veghel, Holland, 5640 As time passed on the areas shaded off into one BA -5- AMERICAN MEAT SCIENCE ASSOCIATION TABLE I TABLE II CLASSIFICATION OF SAUSAGE/COMMINUTED MEAT A NON HEAT TREATED SAUSAGES PRODUCTS ACCORDING TO AI RAW SAUSAGE ROHWURST HEAT TREATMENT BY THE PRODUCER A I, non fermented fresh sausage Bratwurst pork and beef - Thuri*iger HEAT TREATMENT OF (fein) - Group ingredients finol product Nurnberger (3rob) - A Row souroge A I? fermented - Frixhwurst No No Mettwu rst Rohwurri Braunsch- weiger t Thuringer BI + Zervelat + Cooked sausage Theewurst + No Yes Regensburger Brdbwurrt knack + Thuringer B I/ knack + Frankfurter + Cooked sousoge Yes Yes A I1 DRY SAUSAGE DAUERWURST Kochwurst Solami type? Salami Italian t- Hungarian + -- 71 Jellied products Zervelat t Yes Yes Plackwurst + Sulze . ~- + = smoked ~ = not .mokcd Minced hkot Products "Hockfleisch" TEcmorxxY Thr tcdino1og:cal aspccts of thc sausage mariiifac- turing can be dividcd in thc following items, vix: From figure I, it cm bc> dediiccd how many vari- a. Manu f act r ing cqiii pmcmt and pro ccss(~s. nt:ons can 1x1 made on the subjcct sausage. In fact, u most of thc possible combinations are actually pro- 1). Formulations antl raw matc~ials. duced in bigger or smaller ciuanitities. The majority c. Riiidcm and additives. of thc cooked sausage consists merely of fine-meat cmulsion (figure I, no. I), but many combinations with either semi-coarse lean (2) or semi-coarse fat (3) and with both (6), as well as meat-emulsion I)lendcd with coarsc-lc~.m or coarse-fat (5) and (4) a. Equipment and 111 ncesser.. its combination (7) are known. The main equipment for aw and dry sausagc pro- i\mong the salami types combination5 of sclmi- 1 duction i\ the mincc~antl: or bowl choplicr, ( vacii- coarse Ican and fat (10) and cnnrsc-lcan and fat (13) um ) mixer. 5tuf€c>r,climate chamber and in a 1iumbc.r are mostly swn. of cases thc. ~mokchouw.In bigger opcrations thc Particul2irly in thc field of Bratwurst all possible vaciiiim chopper is gLiinmgpopularity. In Italy and in combinations arc applicd. The result is at least a some parts of cmtern Europc the minccr is the, c'x- couplc of thoii~anddifferent tcpcs. (311 top of this, clusive macl-ine for comminution. I11 most otlier coun- many similar k;nds of sausage havv diflcwnt names. tries and, part;crilarly, for those factories using de- So, the terminology of sausage is rather complex, boncd frozen inrat the bowl chopper is applicd. I11 altlrough somc kind of system can bc found, based on some cases part of thc, lcdn mcat IS minced and association with localitics, spccial occasions, sensory l~lcmdrd\\ Ith tl-r. halanccx of thcb choppcd mc>,it aiid the fat, c~itlwrat low specd in thr howl chopper, or, pcwqtion, ctc., as is oiitlincd in tal)l(B 1'. -6- AMERICAN MEAT SCIENCE ASSOCIATION TABLE Ill taste. Although exceptions are found, one can gen- erally say that coarse products like some types of B HEAT TREATED Mettwurst are cold smoked, whereas very fine and B I Heat treatment of final product spreadable sausage like Teewurst get warm smoke. COOKED SAUSAGE 1 BRU HWURST For dry sausage production, basically, the same B I, non fermented Small goods Wurstchen machinery and processes are used. In big scale pro- ductions mincing, blending and stuffing are per- cured Frankfurters Frankfurters + + formcxd continuously. After blending, the sausage mix Vienna’s + Wieners + Hot Dogs + Knocker + is automatically transferred by a plunger into stain- Bockwurst + less stecl cylindcrs which arc transported by rail and automatkally fitted to the stuffers. The further proc- For slicing Aufschnitt esses arc’ done either according to the natural or the Polony - Lyoner + rapid method. Lyoner + Jogdwurst + Pork luncheon Fruhstuck- In the former, fermentation, drying and smoking, meat + - fleisch - if any, are done at temperatures between 12” and Schinckenwurst + Bierwurst + 15°C (53 to 59°F) during times ranging from some weeks to several months. In the lattcr case, fermenta- Loafs Formproducte tion is pc1rformt.d at temperatures between 20“ and Veal and pork - Leberkase 25°C (68 to 77°F) and relative humidity (R.H.) of (Bavarian) 92-95R. The subsequent smoking and drying are done Veol ond egg - Fleischkaze Luncheon - at ternpcratures preferentially below 20°C (68°F) and gradually decreasing R.H. down to about 75%. B 11’ non fermented Bruhbratwurst - This method takes froin 5 days to 3 weeks. Limited uncured ungeroted amcunts of glucono delta lactone (G.D.L.) are used, Gelbwurst - but its use is not widely spread. Starter cultures are Munchener more frcyiiently used, particularly when frozen im- Weisswurst - B 1:: fermented Mortodello + Mortadella + cured Cooked solami + Koch Salami + TABLE IV + = smoked ~ = nLt smoked B II Heat treatment of raw materials COOKED SAUSAGE 2 KOCHW U RST in a vacuum mixc,r to achievc a lwtter hinding and B Ill Liver sausage Lebenvurst CCl, ierc nw. Braunschweiger- Braunxhweiger- - A trend has startcd to stuff the sausage mix at a Thuringer- Thuringer- +- Country style- Hausrnocher- + lower temperature then formerly practised. Especial- Land- - ly, the fast contiiiuous stuffers demand a low tem- Berliner- - perature (-4°C; 25°F) to prevent smearing. The use of frozen fat to achieve a IOW sausage mix tempera- B Ilt’ Blood sausage Blutwurst/Rotwurst ture is an unfortunate custom, since mincing and Block pudding Thuringer +- chopping of frozen fat give rise to a considerable Nort deutsche- - Sud deutsche- - damage of thc cell walls of the fat tissue. This results Hessische - cften in dripping of fat from the final sausage, partic- Leberblutwurst - ularly in warm countries.