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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