Necessity is the mother of invention, and the sausage is no exception to this. In the interests of efficient and economical processing of animal carcases it was inevitable. The vast majority of any animal is edible although some parts are certainly more accessible and more appetising than others and the nature of these part detemined how they were handled or processed. The most perishable parts, the offal, were eaten immediately as were some of the the prime cuts, whilst what could not be eaten immediately was salted to peserve it for staorage and consumption at a later date. The smaller cuts and scraps were finely chopped, salted and stuffed into the cleaned intestines of the animal for preservation and more convenient storage even the blood was cooked until it congealed and perhaps mixed with cereal and again stored in cleaned intestines ensuring that almost nothing of a valuable commodity was wasted.
The word sausage comes to us through the Old French word saussice from the original Latin salsus meaning salty. Historical evidence of the sausage dates back to the early 6th century BC when the was mention of a lamb and goat meat Chinese sausage lachang and this was followed soon after by a reference to a blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey. Further evidence of sausage making and sausage eating, during the late 5th and early 4th centuries, in ancient Greece is provided by the playwright Epicharmus in his comedy The Sausage. From this time onwards sausages are referenced more amd more frequently on a global basis.
Sausages developed further into different styles probably due to the climate or availability of certain spices in the locales in which they were produced; the styles included fresh, cured, cooked, smoked, dried and some were even preserved in wine or vinegar. This specialisation in style has made regional variants very distinctive.
In modern times the humble sausage goes from strength to strength, so much so that many are now considered gourmet items. Although natural casings made from cleaned intestines are still common, there are now a number of alternatives such as collagen, cellulose and even plastic casings which allow for conformity in the current industrial process.
