The Secret to Sausage

We at Asenzya® have taken a forward-thinking approach by exploring trends at the grass-roots level, and then applying these trends to product development by merging Culinary with Food Science. This approach is especially important in the art of producing sausage. Sausage is a very expressive form of food. Its sources of raw materials can be extremely expansive, from the expensive Kobi beef to the inexpensive pork trimmings. Even your use of non-meat ingredients is limitless, ranging from wine and beer to fruits and vegetables to grains and spices.

History

When I introduce sausage-making, I like to start with the history. Why is history so important? Well, in my point of view when you study where something came from, you start to understand how it got to where it is today. And from that vantage point, you can see where you can take it in the future.

Sausage comes from the Latin word “salsus” meaning “salted.” The art of making sausages goes back centuries. Early humans made the first sausages by stuffing roasted intestines. Some of the earliest written mentioning of sausages is in the ancient Greek plays and poems. These early sausages were a means of using the left-over parts of a pig, such as intestines, blood, lungs and brains. These can still be found today in the various forms of blood sausage, liver sausage, head cheese and haggis.

Balance Salt and Nutrition

So there you go, a sausage can be made using nearly anything, but there is one essential ingredient. And it is right in the name, salt! Plain old sodium chloride. First and foremost, salt is essential when making a reconstructed product using animal proteins. It is needed to build the structure by activating what are called Salt Soluble Proteins, or the Actin and Myosin proteins found in all muscle tissue. In a living organism these proteins provide the motion and work of a muscle. In a sausage they provide the structure of the product. It is how you treat these proteins that you can change the functional aspects of your meat item.

Salt is the work horse of sausage-making, but it is not a one trick pony. It enhances flavors, inhibits bacteria and lowers the water activity of not only sausages but all foods. But even with all these positive aspects, there are health concerns surrounding the sodium cation. So as a sausage developer, we must balance the functional with the nutritional. This balance means it is sometimes necessary to explore other ingredients to make your food taste great as we lower the salt content.

In this regard, we typically focus on ingredients which enhance the umami flavors. Umami, being the fifth of the basic tastes, is sometimes described as savory or mouth watering. The umami receptors on your tongue typically respond to glutamate, such as monosodium glutamate. Contemporary trends strive for cleaner and more transparent ingredient statements. So we look for other food types rich in umami, such as animal broths, tomatoes and soy sauces.

Asenzya® can help

So as we develop a sausage product for you, we are not just here to put together a seasoning. We also bring to you our years of experience in the craft of sausage-making to help you develop something with a unique flavor profile for your company. So, give us a call and see and taste the Asenzya® difference.