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Natural
casings used for stuffed meat products are assumed to have their origins
in the Neolithic Era, some 15,000 years ago, probably near Babylon.
These cooked sausages used goat stomach as the container vessel. A
Sausage Recipe was first recorded in the Greek Cookbook Banquet
of Sophists (Athenaeus, 228 BC) Later in Rome, during the period
surrounding the birth of Christ, M. Gabius Apicius recorded formulations
for liver sausage, smoked little sausage, linked pork sausage, and
round sausage.
The Medieval European Period saw increased use of casings, and the
use of meat inspection by the Germanic and French peoples. Casings
became delicacies, often in short supply, and written about in song
and poem as being luxurious (guess unrequited love wasn't big
back then). Around the turn of the 17th century many cities
in Germany and Austria held sausage making contests to see who could
make the largest sausage, and in 1613 Vienna a sausage was displayed
at 999 meters (or 3,278 feet) long. Haggis, another natural casing
product was a staple in 18th Century Scotland. Very similar to the
earlier Babylonian product; as defined Haggis is a "pudding
made of heart, liver, and lungs of sheep or calf, minced with suet,
onions, oatmeal and seasonings, and boiled in the stomach of the
animal".
The 19th Century and the Industrial Revolution continued to demonstrate
improvements in meat presentations and processing methods, but new
casing recipes were almost always based on knowledge and art of Old
World methods.
Perhaps the greatest explosion in casing science took place during
the 1960's, with the introduction of collagen, cellulose, and plastic
casings. Of course, natural casings of pig, sheep, and calf, remain
important to several segments of the food processing industry.
As food safety becomes increasingly important in North America,
plastic casings are often the most hygienic products available to
the meat processors. That combined with the array of functionality
and vibrant artwork display available in plastic casings; suggest
that all food processors should consider evaluating plastic in their
day-to-day business.
We owe a lot to the inventors, butchers, chefs, and even artists of
old in the development of today's modern food processing methods and
casing formulations. So at HOVUS we understand that Old World Knowledge
indeed meets New Age Application. Yes Haggis, even you...
Excerpts
taken from Sausage Casings - 1st Ed., (Z., & I., Savic) 2003
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