the most luxurious.
Sausages
The word sausage comes from the Latin for
“salt,” and names a mixture of chopped meat
and salt stuffed into an edible tube. Salt plays
two important roles in the sausage: it controls
the growth of microbes, and it dissolves one
of the fiber filament proteins (myosin) out of
the muscle fibers and onto the meat surfaces,
where it acts as a glue to bind the pieces
together. Traditionally the edible container
was the animal’s stomach or intestine, and fat
accounted for at least a third of the mixture.
Today many sausages are housed in artificial
casings and contain far less fat.
There are an infinite number of variations
on the sausage theme, but most of them fall
into a handful of families. Sausages may be
sold raw and eaten freshly cooked; they may
be fermented; they may be air-dried, cooked,