Really? Because we aren’t. There are at least half a dozen One True Meanings for barbecue, and at least that many more bastardizations.
And a tailgate differs from a sizzle in that a proper tailgate is just a bunch of friends, not anything for sale (though they might give a brat away to a passerby, if you catch them in a good mood).
Yeah I have never heard of paying for food or libations at a tailgate.
Oh, how I miss sausage sizzles! It seems to me that sausages are much more expensive in the US, so don’t have the same niche in people’s budgets. Also not so good to fundraise with, as overheads would be higher.
Are US sausages just marked up more?
My experiences with “breakfast links” are fairly awful, with yucky seasonings like maple and loads of sage. This is the ingredient list for Coles (Aust supermarket chain) Classic Pork Sausages: Pork Sow Stall Free (76%), Water, Potato Starch, Sea Salt, Mineral Salt (451), Dextrose (Tapioca, Maize), Preservative (223), Dehydrated Vegetables (Onion, Garlic), Herb & Spices, Flavours, Mustard Flour, Natural Colouring (Fermented Red Rice), Canola Oil, Fruit Oil, Antioxidant (306)
THAT SOUNDS AMAZING. Mmm, cheap sausages…
I don’t know what the Aussie prices are, but I’d expect a grilled sausage to be somewhere around $3-$4 at like a church fair or whatnot. (Oh, I see the OP mentions $2-$2.50, but another $2 for the drink, which seems about a buck too high for me.)
Missed edit window, but I was talking USDs. $2.50 apparently is closer to $2 USD, which would be rather on the cheap side of things for a sausage. It’d still be profitable, but most people, I’d think, wouldn’t blink an eye at a price of $3 USD.
not really, as far as I know. to me, the “sausage sizzles” Martini Enfield is talking about are basically cookouts where the primary offering is breaded sausage. we do the same thing but sausage isn’t the primary player, BBQ chicken and pork are usually also offered. with cookouts which focus on one primary dish, it’s usually a Catholic church putting on a fish fry on fridays during Lent.
Nothing to add about the prevalence of sausage sizzles outside Australia and New Zealand, but they are absolutely ubiquitous here.
And not just at hardware stores; we get sausage sizzles when we go to vote. They’re fundraisers for the school or community organisation whose premises are being used as a polling station.
Is this a possible solution to the famously low participation rates in US elections? 
So instead of a “chicken in every pot”, it’s to be a “sausage in every hand.”?
That sounds so wrong.
The sausages served at a sausage sizzle are the cheapest you can buy. Plus, they’re bought in bulk. Plus, since they are going to a community organisation for a fundraiser, the supermarket can usually be persuaded to knock a few more cents off the price.
They’re fundamentally a rusk-based vehicle for animal fat and salt. The meat content of the sausage will be beef, but you won’t be able to tell that by taste. Most of the actual taste is provided by the sugar-rich sauce, which may be either runny tomato ketchup or a sort of mild mustard having the colour and consistency of newborn’s puke or, if the sizzle is really sophisticated, barbecue sauce, and by the fried onions.
Fat, salt and sugar; what’s not to like? They are delicious.
We don’t use the term “sausage sizzle”, but as a fund-raising event outside the Sobeys (grocery store) or Canadian Tire (general hardware and auto supply)? Sure! Most Saturdays in the summer, there’s a team outside the Sobey’s or Canadian Tire. Sometimes pedestrian hot dogs, but sometimes brats or kohlbasa.
Precisely. The “barbeque” aspect of it refers to the device upon which said meats are cooked. We are aware of the American-Style Barbeque restaurant with its smokey BBQ sauce goodness, and South American Barbeque places have also started popping up in places with more progressive foodie scenes too.
But if you say to an Australian “barbeque sausage” without any context, they’re going to be thinking of something either like a sausage sizzle snag or perhaps something a bit fancier cooked on a barbeque in someone’s backyard.
And yes, snags are generic sausages, usually from the supermarket or local butcher. Perfectly edible, nothing fancy, and of questionable nutritional value. 
I’ve never encountered it at any of the countless community sports events I’ve attended as a journalist. There’s usually a sausage sizzle inside the event, and also usually a canteen selling hot (meat) pies, sausage rolls, hot chips and so forth, and if the club is really organised they’ll have a liquor licence sorted so they can flog booze to the grown-ups.
Hanging around in the carpark having a fry-up Just Isn’t Done here for a variety of reasons, including the fact Australia is notoriously inflammable - despite our love of a good barbeque, there’s a lot of regulations around where you can have them. Also, the action is inside the grounds - even if you’re not watching the game, there’s still plenty of people to talk to and so on in there. The carpark is where you put your car, not hang around having a yarn with your mates.
Additionally, it’d be more trouble than it’s worth, when for less than a fiver, you can have a cooked sausage, bread, onions and a can of soft drink - with the money going to help the club out.
There’s also not necessarily anywhere to hold a tailgate party even if one and one’s chums were so inclined. Brisbane’s major sportsball stadium, Lang Park (AKA SunCorp Stadium), has no general carparking. Unless you’re disabled, if you want to go to something there, you’re getting the train or the bus or getting someone to drop you off. Even the next biggest stadium, The Gabba, has very little carparking.
If you scroll down on this page, you will find something called “Wee Willie Winkies”, which were always my sausage of choice for sausage sizzles. Others would try and use the sausages at the top of the page, but they would often break in two and fall off the stick.
http://www.hallsofscotland.co.uk/#about
In any case, raw sausages which required cooking.
OK, I found this. Lots of pictures of a sausage sizzle. I don’t think we in the States have an equivalent cheap raw sausage.
Australia will be facing a federal election some time soon, which means that most schools will be polling places. The schools will nearly all have sausage sizzles run by the parents group and, for lovers of traditional baking, usually a cake stall. Its a big fund-raising day for many of them - voting is compulsory [well, turning up and having your name marked off is] and on a Saturday.
A friend working for a candidate watched him buy and eat a sausage at each polling place in the electorate - maybe a dozen across the afternoon, plus lamingtons and fizzy drink. They all came up violently in the carpark of the last school, but that very act allegedly won him enough additional admirers to win the seat.
You could learn a lot from how Australia runs a democracy.
I’m learning more by the hour. Here is a blind taste test of Australian sausages, and the ones that were compared to the cheap sausages found at a charity sizzle or outside a hardware store were house brand sausages from Aldi’s at $2.78/lb US. It sounds like a cheap hot dog before the manufacturer cooks it. I don’t know if any are sold that way here.
When I am in foodie nitpick mode, argumentum ad populum does not sway me.
Problem with selling street food in the UK is that your servers need food hygiene training, and the stall holder needs to be registered with the Local Environmental Health office. Kind of puts off the casual do-gooding Brownie.
looks pretty similar to the fresh bratwurst you can get in a large pack at Costco.
and I know it’s Buzzfeed, but goddamn does that headline piss me off.
I checked out some of the links (heh) to Australian sausage descriptions…seems like they use a lot of filler. Do they tend to explode during cooking unless watched carefully? “Bangers?”
Not for $2.69/lb US. The Australian variety is obviously a cheaper recipe with more fillers like US hot dogs.