Name: A brief history of sausages | Edible Histories Episode 8 | BBC Ideas
Uploaded: 2020-10-20T19:10:47.000Z
Duration: 2 min 57 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hang on, just what is a sausage? And why do they taste so good?

The concept of sausages goes back to antiquity -

stuffing animal guts with a meat, fish or sweet batter mixture

to make easily cooked, transportable food.

Originally, they were seen as small puddings –

done in a stomach, rather than a length of gut -

and, like puddings, they were often boiled rather than fried.

and sausages really were a type of pudding.

Sometimes they were smoked or air dried to keep through winter.

Everywhere, though, for those who could afford it,

a spiced fresh meat sausage was a pretty staple item.

Even for those who couldn't afford good meat and fine spice,

There was a play called The Sausage Seller written in the 5th Century BC,

In the medieval era, northern, wetter climes such as the UK

developed a speciality in fresh meat sausages,

Elsewhere, in dry climates such as the Mediterranean

which had good, stiff breezes and mountains,

dried or smoked sausages were more popular.

and not simply go green as they would in Britain.

There were still mixtures with fish, fruit and blood –

most European sausages became based on a mixture

They were not posh, and by the 18th Century

they rarely appeared at the dinner tables of the wealthy -

though they happily ate them as suppers and snacks.

and available for almost every possible budget.

Mass production became possible by the mid-Victorian times,

and even cheaper sausages came out, with a hefty filler of bread or rusk.

Saveloys in particular gained a reputation

or indeed, horsemeat and sawdust in some people's view.

rubbed shoulders with the more expensive ones –

when meat shortages meant that no-one got much meat in their casings.

One theory as to why they became known as bangers,

is that the level of filler meant they banged and popped when fried.

However, it's just as likely to come from their shape,

not least as they were still often boiled to cook them.

Today, eighty-five percent of Brits regularly consume sausages,

plain, as bangers and mash or as in toad-in-the-hole –

though globally it's the cocktail sausage which is the king,

we've had sausages for thousands of years,

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A brief history of sausages | Edible Histories Episode 8 | BBC Ideas

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