Get your mind out of the gutter - I’m just looking to expand my culinary tastes. I’ve always been disgusted by cheap hot dogs / franks and avoided eating ALL sausages as a result, but surely I’m being unfair.
What types of sausages do you like and recommend?
Can you really get good quality meat in a sausage, or are they made of butcher scraps, snouts, organs, etc?
Most sausages from the deli, in my experience, are made from whole muscle meat. Even something like Vienna Beef hot dogs (the standard Chicago hot dog) is nothing but whole muscle beef brisket. Pork shoulder is the usual cut for pork sausages. There may be some scraps, but organs and the such aren’t typical, although you will find them in certain styles of sausages (which I think are delicious, too.)
As for what kind of sausages to recommend? All of them. I haven’t met a sausage I didn’t like (although I tend to dislike some of the commercial styles of Polish and similar sausages that are, in my opinion, way water-logged and too juicy.)
bratwurst are made with combinations of meat, traditionally beef pork and veal, but you can find them with chicken, turkey. it is a moist and often spicy sausage.
Bratwurst are all over the place. There are all-pork styles, and there are pork and veal styles, plain veal styles, and some that include beef. (I personally prefer the all-pork.) Typical spicing includes any of: white pepper, mace or nutmeg, marjoram, caraway seed, onion, garlic, lemon zest, etc. it tends to be a “fragrant” type of sausage with what I like to think of generally as “sweet” spices. Depends, as there are very many styles of bratwurst, and it’s a fairly generic term. They typically are white sausages, though, and as such do not usually contain stuff like paprika or hot peppers in them.
How did you know? :eek:
Missed ETA: Although, like I said, it’s a pretty broad term, and there are bratwursts out there with paprika and stuff that are otherwise red (see the Swabian rote bratwurst, for instance.) From a US perspective, bratwurst always means (IME) the white styles.
There are good hot dogs, and bad hot dogs. When I was a kid, I couldn’t stand Farmer John’s hot dogs. My favourite ones were the ‘Private Select’ brand (store brand) Old Fashioned Frankfurters at Ralph’s when I lived in L.A. They had a mild ‘kick’ to them, and they had casings that snapped when you bit them.
I like bangers. They’re a mild English sausage that is traditionally served with mashed potatoes (‘bangers & mash’), brown gravy, and peas.
Do you like ‘hot links’? There are ‘supermarket brands’ that are OK, but I get mine from a sausage maker. Andouille (‘an-doo-ee’) is good, and I use them in recipes or just eat them onna roll. Hot links are popular in New Orleans, but I always see them as ‘hot links’ instead of a specific type like Andouille. Merguez is a North African lamb sausage that should be very spicy. The guy I get mine from only puts in half the cayenne to suit local tastes. Before he told me he halved the heat, I told him that they needed to be twice as spicy.
Boudin blanc is a Louisiana sausage made with liver and rice. Some people who have the ones from the sausage maker say they’re spicy, but I can’t detect it. Good on a roll, and also in Cajun or Creole recipes.
Sweet Italian sausages are nice, and taste of fennel. As a teen, I ate Bella Donna brand; which I thought was amusing. (I don’t think they’re around anymore.) Hot Italian sausages are good on a roll.
This is where I buy my sausages. Click ‘Shop’ for a drop-dpwn menu of different types.
Thanks, your recommendations are sounding great. I’ve got to try a bratwurst soon.
You know, I’ve heard enough jokes along the lines of “you’ve never eat a sausage if you knew what went in them” that I just assumed they were all made of crap and never thought twice about it. Now that I’m set straight it just might open up a whole new world for me!
ETA - Thanks Johnny L.A. for yours too… as for hot links, I’ve had spicy Portuguese Linguica and it’s quite good.
A local turkey farm makes all meat turkey sausages, including a decent chorizo.
Sausage is such a broad category you should be able to fine something you like.
Do you want pork/beef/veal/chicken? A blend?
What are you looking for in heat level? Blow the back of your head off habanero level of heat or is black pepper considered too much?
What about other spices? Fennel seed OK? Onion, garlic, etc?
Hey, this is a new sandbox for me so I still need to figure out for myself what is good. Tell me what kind you like.
Is Whole Foods or something a good place to start?
Do you like your sausage cold, or hot?
Find a traditional local German restaurant. They will have a variety that will be a good start. Italian delicatessens are also good for this sort of thing.
Got to love a snag. Saturday morning sausage in white bread with tomato sauce at Bunnings. Yum.
Sausages have seriously improved in Australia in recent years, the variety of actual edible versions is quite good. Back in the old days, my Dad used to refer to them as “mystery bags” cos you never knew WTF was in them (apart from the unspoken assumption that it wasn’t meat)
Staple food on any Aussie BBQ or fundraiser. All hail the humble snag.
I like Aidell’s Chicken-Apple sausages. They’re only slightly better for you than pork sausages, but I somehow don’t mind buying them to cook at home. Eating out, there’s hardly any sausage I won’t try.
Here, the various store brand sausages are delicious and better than the pre-packaged types. But really, all sausages are good, and personally I don’t care what goes into them, as long as they taste good. Organ meat is fine by me, especially in haggis. That’s what sausages are about; they’re supposed to be about grinding up various leftover scraps. That doesn’t bother me in the least.
It’s a given. 
Sausages from a local sausage maker are likely to be better than national brand sausages from a supermarket. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a sausage maker in your area. Full-service butchers often make their own sausages.
No one has mentioned bockwurst yet. This is a mild, smooth-textured sausage. The bockwurst sold in the U.S. are often more like weisswurst (a white sausage that’s flavored with nutmeg and other “sweet” spices). This is best prepared simply - I like it steamed or boiled with nothing but mustard.
Raw sausage that’s sold without being stuffed into casings is called “bulk sausage.” One common type, called breakfast sausage, is seasoned with sage. It’s tasty and easy to prepare (just form into patties and cook in a skillet).
By the way, salami, mortadella, sopressata and the like are also sausages.
Let me roll out my "when I were a lad"experiences.
My first job out of school at 16 was working in a local butchers and bakers. It was a proper “nose-to-tail” place with nothing wasted.
I used to make the sausages and knew exactly what went in them. Offcuts. When tidying up the various joints of beef and pork the trimmings and excess fat went into a dish that went on to make sausages. It certainly wasn’t crap, they were just bits of meat that were not aesthetically pleasing.
When making the sausages I’d sort through the meat, remove any gristle, get the fat/meat ration correct and then add seasonings and (for some varieties) rusk. The meat was then hand mixed and double-minced (single minced for Cumberland sausage) and placed into ready-soaked natural skins and “twiddled” into individual links (which I haven’t done for over 25 years and have probably forgotten how to do)
The point of this detail is hammer home that if you want good quality sausage, choose a good local butcher that makes their own.
Mmm…sausage. Lots of great suggestions here.
When it comes to cooking them, I never do them in a pan (on the stove top) any more, i always put them in the oven, turning once. I find pan cooked sausages end up tough, but oven cooked sausages are lovely and moist.