Super sausages
Sausages could well be considered the world’s first convenience food and have been around for many years in various forms. And while sausages originated as a way to use up leftovers and the less appealing meat cuts, today, sausages have become a speciality in their own right.
No longer considered merely a by-product of poor cuts of meat, sausages have shed their image of being cheap and bland while sausage making has graduated into an art form. Sausage are now available in an endless range of varieties, made with different meats, flavourings, spices, casings and sold raw, cooked, cured and smoked – from the basic pork banger to an unusual game meat sausage or a gourmet flavoured delight.
A variety of fillings, casings and flavours mean that whether your customers are looking for a quick and simple dinner solution or a gourmet product, there is a sausage to fit their desire. Although sausages are still what they always set out to be – a great convenience food that requires little effort to cook – butchers can cater to every taste and budget, which translates into a product range that appeals widely and boosts sales in your butchery.
The options are truly endless. Pork bangers are, of course, mandatory, but what about beef sausages, mutton sausages, poultry sausages and bacon sausages? While the standard ‘raw’ sausages are always a formidable seller at the deli counter, cooked, cured and smoked offerings are a great way to expand the range. Think along the lines of the perennial favourite vienna, German staples such as bratwurst and bockwurst, frankfurters, merguez, chipolatas, chorizo, and many more.
The flavourings available open a world of possibilities for each of these types of meat sausages. There is BBQ and curry flavours, or oriental, tomato and chakalaka options. Your beef sausages could be spiced up with horseradish, mustard or chilli, or perhaps a chilli, lime and coriander mix. Chicken sausages could include rosemary or sweet chilli flavours. Mutton sausages are a treat and a mutton banger could add even more variety. Pork sausages get a new lease on life with lemon and chilli flavourings.
Of course, butchers do not have to make their own sausages. Suppliers such as Feinschmecker, Hartlief Deli, Seemanns, Enterprise and Eskort offer a substantial selection that could prove to be a cost effective option that also guarantees availability and absolute consistency.
However, butchers who relish the challenge of making world-class sausages can rely on innovative and comprehensive ingredient and equipment solutions from leading suppliers, as well as vital expertise and advice.
Making the perfect sausages involves meat, flavourings, spices, casings and often processing to produce cooked, cured and smoked variations. While all these factors are important individually, the combination of all of these factors greatly influence the final result and for this reason the advice and expertise of experts from ingredient and equipment suppliers could prove to be crucial.
Obviously, the better quality the meat, the better the final product. Nevertheless, advances in food technology and flavourings have created novel ways of improving the taste profile of cheaper meat blocks in sausages.
Spices and Flavourings –
It is also becoming easier to offer a range of different sausages and flavours with spices and flavourings from Exim International, Crown National and Freddy Hirsch to name but a few.
Exim International has a wide variety of products created to suit the unique needs of their clients. They offer natural and artificial casings, natural herbs and spices, seasoning blends, machinery, packaging, butchery requisites and commodity ingredients.
Exim’s signature blends are very popular with their customers. They have a selection of best-selling spice packs for boerewors, braaiwors, wors, burgers, sausages, grillers, biltong, droëwors and more.
Browse Exim’s product range here: https://www.exim.co.za/full-range-of-butchery-supplies-casings-spices-machinery-packaging/
Freddy Hirsch also offers a range of flavouring packs that allow you to successfully expand your sausage range with innovative new and traditional products alike. These gourmet flavours will entice even the most avid foodie among your clientele.
Crown National’s Meister Club range includes Sweet Chilli, Pork and Lemon, Premium Frankfurter and Curry Grill flavourings to name but a few. Delivered in a batch pack perfect for making beef, chicken, mutton or pork sausages with a tang and requires only meat to be added. It also comes with full colour labels for easy merchandising.
Casings –
While the meat, flavourings and spices and other ingredients used in making sausages are of paramount importance, the casing used is crucial to the quality of the final product.
Both natural and synthetic sausage casings are readily available through ingredient suppliers. In choosing between the two, the overriding consideration should be the best fit to the types of sausages produced and methods of production.
Traditional or natural casings are made from pork, sheep, and less often, beef intestine. Natural casings are generally more expensive than their synthetic counterparts but lend themselves to the smoking process very well. They do not detract from the flavour of the meat and have excellent elasticity.
Natural casings are great for those butchers making sausages the old fashion way – tying or linking sausages by hand. For customer satisfaction, the “snap” of natural casings cannot be beaten, and they offer excellent cooking characteristics, even over an open fire.
In addition, using natural casings could be a great way to attract those consumers looking for “natural” products. Combined with quality ingredients and few additives, there is potential to tap into this sector by ensuring customers are alerted to the fact that the sausages are all “natural” products.
Natural casings have been used throughout history, but with technological advances and an increased demand for the convenient and generally economical meat option, artificial versions have also become extremely popular amongst sausage producers. As bigger companies mass produce sausages for larger commercial delis and meat counters, and automatic linking machines are used, collagen casings have proven to be more suitable for this method of sausage production.
While collagen sausages casings have to be manufactured, they are of animal origin, so they are not technically artificial or synthetic. The advantages of using a collagen casings include consistency in thickness and sizing, texture and cost, whereas natural casings will vary in size and therefore the final products may slightly inconsistent in size. Collagen casings do not always handle heat as well as natural casings and therefore could be susceptible to bursting at higher temperatures.
Cellulose casings are made from materials such as cotton and are not edible. Dyed red, the casings are used for different kinds of sausages such as frankfurters, where the sheathing is peeled off before eating. Plastic and paper casings are used more commonly with salamis and unsmoked products.
The differences between the various casing options highlight the fact that the right casing will vary according to what type of sausage is being made. One size certainly does not fit all, and looking for the cheapest casing is certainly not the best way to choose the right one.
Exim International procures natural hog, sheep and beef casings, both locally and abroad. Artificial casings are also procured and come in the form of collagen, cellulose and plastic. Their casings plant has two divisions, Halaal and non-Halaal. The casings undergo a number of strong quality control tests in their casings plant prior to selling to gauge calibre, quality and strength.
Crown National are also suppliers of top quality Gold Crown Natural Casings casings in South Africa.
Only the highest quality and most tender casings qualify to be branded ‘Gold Crown’. Crown National is justifiably proud to be recognised as a leader in the supply of natural casings of good and consistent quality to their customers.
Equipment –
The right ingredients and casings are paramount in creating a top notch sausage, but it doesn’t matter how good they are if you don’t have the appropriate machinery to do the job. Cutting bowls, mincers and a whole range of sausage filling machines are available on the market.
Choosing the best one for your business requires some careful planning to ensure the equipment can deliver exactly what you want to achieve. The size of your operation will greatly affect what kind of equipment you need, and the style of sausage you wish to make – natural and handmade, or mass-produced for efficiency – will directly impact, for example, the kind of sausage filler you invest in.
For those struggling to keep up with demand or looking to increase productivity, the traditional way of making sausages by hand may no longer be the most suitable option. Equipment is available that allows you to produce sausages in the most up-to-date and efficient way. Continuous vacuum sausage fillers and co-extrusion sausage fillers allow for consistent filling of sausages with automated portion control and automatic linking, which means that the time and skill once involved in hand linking sausages are no longer necessary.
Nevertheless, there are consumers who are willing to pay a premium for the luxury of traditional, handmade and non-mass produced food. For those wanting to capitalise on this particular demographic by offering handmade and natural fare, a hand operated sausage filler will still be required.
So no matter what market you are targeting with your sausage range, the various ingredients, flavourings, casings and equipment available mean that you are limited only by your imagination. Thinking beyond just taste will open up your product lines allowing you to cater to customers who are looking for gourmet, quality, traditional, natural or just a good old basic banger. The world’s first food of convenience has come a long way over a couple of thousand of years, and one thing is for sure, sausages are here to stay as a firm favourite.
Exim International supply an excellent range of sausage making equipment from Mincers to Mixers and Fillers.
See the full Exim Big Five range here: https://www.exim.co.za/our-brands/big-five/
