You can buy sausage, boiled or smoked , in absolutely any supermarket today. From this beloved by many products, store shelves literally burst. But is it worth it to include sausage in your daily diet? What is this popular product made of today? How sausage is made and what ingredients are usually included in its composition - read about this in the article.
Soviet GOST
To buy a stick of sausage, Soviet citizens had to stand long lines. However, at the same time, this product itself was made exclusively from meat and, at least, was not harmful to health. Pork and beef in Soviet sausage contained at least 99 % . Perhaps various kinds of sanitary rules were not particularly carefully observed at meat processing plants in those days. However, no harmful ingredients were added to reduce the cost of sausages. Well, or they did it extremely rarely.
Today, unfortunately, the situation has fundamentally changed. According to modern standards, meat in sausage should contain at least 45 % . But even this indicator is not always observed by plants.
How to make sausage: manufacturing technology
We will talk a little bit about what specifically domestic and foreign manufacturers in our time can add to this product . Now let's look at how, in fact, sausage should be prepared in accordance with all the rules. The technology of its manufacture is actually relatively simple.
So how do sausages make in a factory? The technological process for the manufacture of this popular product includes approximately the following steps:
pork and beef coming to the enterprise are pre-deboned, veined and sorted;
meat is crushed, salted and laid off for maturation;
the mass thus prepared is fed a second time into the grinder;
ready-made stuffing is stuffed into a shell with strapping.
The answer to the question of how to cook boiled sausage or smoked , in this way, is actually simple. The stuffed stuffing in the shells is simply dipped in boiling water or subjected to long-term smoke treatment.
Varieties of sausages
Thus, we found out how to make sausage in enterprises. The price of this type of meat product in stores, however, can vary significantly. Today, as in the days of the USSR, the cost of sausage depends on its variety. Currently, if desired, you can purchase:
Sausage of the highest grade. According to the regulations, such products are supposed to be made from ham, scapula or spinal muscle.
Products of the first grade. This sausage can contain up to 6 % of connective and adipose tissue.
Sausage of the second grade. Products of this group may contain up to 10 % fat.
It is from such products, and not from any other, that a real sausage should be made. However, in practice this is quite rare. Only meat nowadays contains, perhaps, only premium sausage. And that is not all and not always.
Most common supplements
What are modern sausages actually made of? In order to reduce the cost of the final product, in addition to the meat itself, producers these days can mix in the stuffing:
About how sausage is made using these ingredients, and we will talk further.
Soya for cheaper
Probably, everyone has heard that this product of plant origin is almost mandatory to be added to sausage today. Soy itself, in principle, cannot cause any particular harm to human health. The problem in this case is different. The fact is that some manufacturers add genetically modified soybeans to sausages.
Not so long ago, this product was shipped to Russia from Europe. And the sausage made with its use was, albeit not too tasty, but at least relatively safe. However, recently the situation has changed somewhat. Today, manufacturers add mainly Chinese soybeans to sausages . The fact is that, firstly, it costs less, and secondly, it turned out to be more affordable. So Chinese soy can easily turn out to be genetically modified.
How do they make sausage with soybeans? In this case, everything is extremely simple. Previously, legumes are ground into powder. Then this white “dust” is mixed with water, tinted and added to the minced meat, replacing them with part of the meat.
Is fiber good or bad?
This ingredient today may even contain quite expensive sausages. Fiber is usually produced from carrots. However, no vitamins remain after processing in it. Moreover, the body does not absorb this ingredient at all. Some scientists believe that fiber is useful because it can cleanse the intestines and stimulate its work. In Germany, for example, this ingredient is added to almost all convenience foods. However, this product has, of course, not a very beneficial effect on the taste of sausage. In addition, the use of fiber allows manufacturers to write on the packaging something like: “Contains only natural ingredients” and “Without soy.” As a result, the sausage is bought up simply with a bang. But, of course, she cannot be compared with real pork or beef.
In addition, fiber, unfortunately, is often made not only from carrots or, for example, oats, but simply from ... sawdust.
Hide and bones
The use of such ingredients also allows manufacturers to position their product as completely natural. In the manufacture of sausages, bones and skin are simply grinded into porridge, diluted with water and added to the minced meat. At the same time, the package says that the sausage is made exclusively from pork or beef. Perhaps the bones are a product and not the most harmful, but in some ways even useful. However, the information presented on the packaging, in any case, covertly misleads the consumer. Well, who, one wonders, will prove that bones and skin are not parts of a pig or cow ? That is not beef and not pork
How to make sausage at home
The permitted additives described above can be called the safest. Let them worsen the taste of sausage, but still they are mostly not harmful (except for modified soybeans). However, other, much less harmless components can be added to sausages today. It can be, for example, various kinds of dyes, thickeners, additives “taste of meat”. Therefore, many housewives, of course, would like to learn how to make sausage on their own. Indeed, only in this case, you can be sure that the final product will not contain something harmful.
To prepare the simplest home-made sausage you will need:
cling film ;
thin cord;
chopped meat.
The film is pre-cut into pieces. Then, mincemeat is placed on each of them and everything is rolled up with a “sausage”. The meat in the resulting stick should be packed as tightly as possible. Next, the cling film is tied with a cord on both sides and sent to boil everything in slightly boiling water for about 40 minutes.
You can, of course, make more complex types of sausages at home, including smoked ones . But this will require special equipment. For example, you will need to purchase a powerful electric meat grinder with a special attachment and a smokehouse.
How to make chocolate sausage
In addition to the usual, at home, you can make such a sausage. For its preparation you will need cookies (1 kg), butter (200 g ), milk (250 g ), sugar (200 g ). You will also need to make some cocoa powder. Cookies for making such sausages should be put in a bag and chopped with a rolling pin, and melt the butter in milk on a gas. Sugar is mixed with cocoa and poured into a pan.
How to make chocolate sausage next? And then everything is simple. Milk with butter, sugar and cocoa is tedious to pour into cookies and knead a thick "porridge". The resulting mass should be curled "sausage" in cling film and placed in the freezer.
Instead of a conclusion
So, we figured out how to make sausage. The horror of what is happening at modern enterprises specializing in the production of such products is not that instead of meat , fat and bones are added to the minced meat. For this, meat processing plants were criticized in Soviet times. However, today, various kinds of chemicals — dyes and thickeners — can be added to sausages. This is perhaps the most terrible thing. Well, the question remains open about meat: is it really pork or beef? In Soviet times, sausage, at least, was completely natural. Today, unfortunately, this is far from the case.
So cook this product at home and try to buy it less often in the store. And if you decide to buy sausage at the supermarket, carefully read the packaging and look at the price tag. Too cheap a product in any case will harm your health and the health of your loved ones.