History of Sausage

Article by Jim Smith

The History of SausageSince sausage-making is essentially a technique used to preserve meat it’s likely impossible to pinpoint the exact time period or originating point of sausage.

The usual complications of studying the history of food crop up here because historians have to rely on the few written literary sources that exist because food and other topics related to the home were not generally written down in recipe books.

One thing we can say for sure is that the origin of sausage is clearly connected to the butchering of animals and the desire to use the entire catch…meat, organs, blood and all. Although there is a very clear link between sausage and offal the two are very much separated in mainstream media for obvious reasons. Never-the-less, if you can imagine the earliest humans hunting animals, killing them and trying to find ways to extend the usability of their meat, you’ll likely be able to imagine the intersection between this practice and the emergence of spices coming out of the Far East.

Building on this concept of spices leading to sausage-making, we can pinpoint the earliest evidence of spice use by humans to around 50,000 B.C. Although we have archaeological evidence from that time period, the spice trade didn’t develop throughout the Middle East until around 2000 BC with cinnamon and pepper leading the way. By 1000 BC, China and India had a medical system based upon herbs. Early uses were connected with magic, medicine, religion, tradition, and preservation.[0]

Regardless of the lack of written resources and no clear connection between the origin of spices and the origin of sausage, I am attempting to consolidate all known references to sausage and sausage making in early history to uncover the evolution of a food staple so important to almost every culture on earth….the almighty sausage!

If you have any information that differs or adds to the information contained herein, please contact me through the about page. My intent is to create a living document that grows with the content and knowledge of our readers.

GREECE:

Most of ancient history begins with the Greeks so that’s where our research begins. Based on their early literature, we know the ancient Greeks made and ate sausages, mostly ones made of pork. They were bought and sold alongside offal at the food market in Athens. This is not to say that the Greeks invented sausage so much as it is clear that they had them. The Greek word for sausage was allas and the word for minced meat was isikion.

The Odyssey contains what might be the oldest reference to sausage. In book 18 a type of blood sausage is mentioned: “there are some goats’ paunches down at the fire, which we have filled with blood and fat, and set aside for supper; he who is victorious and proves himself to be the better man shall have his pick of the lot”.

A sausage seller was also the hero of Aristophanes’ satirical play The Knights (424 BCE). The sausage seller, Agoracritus, was very lowly person yet was picked by an oracle to rule Athens. His trade is described by the slave Demosthenes as the perfect preparation for a politician:

Mix and knead together all the state business as you do for your sausages. To win the people, always cook them some savory that pleases them. Besides, you possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, cross-grained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing.

In common era Greek sources there are references to a smoked sausage called louk