We all know and love sausages for their juicy, lip-smacking taste, but one thing we love about sausages is their amazing versatility.

 

 

Grilled, fried, baked (see our delicious Baked Sausage recipe here), boiled, stewed or slapped marinated on a braai, sausages can be enjoyed as an accompaniment or on its own. Sausages are generally an easy to prepare meal source – a  sausage stew is always a good choice for parties because you can throw all the ingredients together in a pot and leave it to cook.

 

 

If you need another reason to enjoy a healthy serving of sausage, one humble sausage contains 11g of muscle-building protein. There is one essential mineral that only pork sausage contains – fluoride. When consumed in the appropriate amount, fluoride maintains the strength of your teeth and enamel. It can also help prevent cavities and osteoporosis.  Sausages contain Niacin (Vitamin B3), an according to Men’s Health enough Niacin will keep away depression. So yes, it’s a scientific fact that sausages will make you happy!

 

Pork is a very affordable, healthy meat choice and has always been the standard sausage filling, but that is rapidly changing, for example have you tried Colcom Oxford Beef Sausages? (They are actually PORK-FREE – an excellent choice ).

 

They are a few important points when it comes to why pork fat is used in sausages. Pork fat is extraordinary in the world of culinary fats for its properties.

 

Pork fat is a much different consistency and composition than beef, lamb, goat, or chicken fats. Pork fat is a very neutral flavour, it melts at a lower temperature, and at room temperatures is “sticky” and acts to bind meats together into a coherent mass in a sausage – unlike more crumbly beef fat. It also does not go rancid as quickly and easily as lamb or goat, and does not so easily carry salmonella as chicken fat can (though, when being rendered using heat, this is not much of a concern).

Pork as compared to beef has more of a neutral flavour and takes spices/seasonings better. Beef is comparatively quite strong in flavour and it takes more seasoning to overcome this. Beef fat carries a stronger flavour, and does not emulsify with the meat in the same was pork fat does. It can be used in sausage, but the texture will be dryer and different than if pork fat is used.

The Colcom sausage range includes uncooked frozen sausages (also known as fresh sausages), ready-to-eat/special sausages including bangers from the Tastee range, as well as the firm crowd favourite, boerewors.

 

Bon Appetit!