Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Sausage

SAUSAGE, a well-known preparation of food, consisting of beef, pork, or veal, cut in small pieces; seasoned with pepper, sage, or other spice; and then closely stuffed into skins obtained from the intestines of animals.

The most esteemed sausages are those made at Bologna, Venice, and other parts of Italy, whence considerable quantities are annually exported to various countries in Europe. They are made of raw pork beaten to a pulp in a mortar, together with garlic, pepper, and other spices; which, being intimately blended, are filled in the same manner as the common sausages, excepting that the larger intestines are preferably employed by the Italians.

This species of food affords very substantial nutriment, in whatever form it may be dressed:—sausages should not, however, be esten by persons of weak or relaxed habits; as a vigorous stomach is required to digest them. The most unwholesome preparations of this kind are blood-sausages, more generally known under the names of hog and black puddings. These are composed of bacon and the blood of the same animal, together with thyme, sage, and other vegetable spices, to correct in some measure their rancidity. Such incongruous mixture, however, is at all times difficult of digestion; and, if the sausages have been smoked, the bacon necessarily becomes still more acrid, while the blood is concreted: in this state, the whole forms a most pernicious compound, which ought never to be eaten, even by persons who possess the most active powers of assimilation.