History
Sausage is known to be the oldest and most enduring form of processed meat. In some respects, it may even be considered the world's very first "convenience food." The history of sausage production parallels the recorded history of man and civilization. In fact, for as long as man has been carnivorous, the intestinal tract of meat animals has been used for sausage casings - not to mention a variety of other uses as well. |
 |
It's only during the last thousand years, however, that Sausage Making has come into its own as a venerable and highly developed craft. The practitioners of this trade have fostered a rich tradition - at once sophisticated and yet personal. In many cases, families handed down their particular sausage making art |
|
over several generations and across dozens of nations, with each "wurstmacher" contributing his taste and heritage to the art. Of course, the art was also influenced by breitling replica the demand of the marketplace and by the availability of the various ingredients which went into the sausage.
The twentieth century brought on the Industrial Revolution - exploding onto the scene with new technology - and adding billions to the world's population. This "one-two punch" generated a need for mass production in virtually all industry segments... especially food! At first, the goals of mass production were primarily "quality" and "speed". But gradually, "quality" struggled toward the forefront of this new technology. The meat processing industry faced its own inherent challenges in slaughter, processing, and food safety. "Efficiency" and "quality" became the norm for those processors who rose to the challenge and managed to withstand the test of time.
Sausage making has now evolved into a highly specialized business, with processors ranging in size from independent "mom & pop" shops producing one-of-a-kind gourmet sausages, to multi-million dollar "mega-processors" producing millions of pounds of product each and every week.
Today 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. Much information and instruction about these man-made products is available through the major manufacturers of breitling replica these casings and it is not our place to delve into them here. As for Natural Sausage Casings, however, surprisingly little qualitative or quantitative information is readily available to processors about these products.