Cooked and Smoked Sausages

Cooked and smoked sausages account for approximately 85% of all sausages produced today. Cooked and Smoked Sausages are made from meats that are ground, seasoned, stuffed into casings, and fully cooked (to a minimum internal temperature of 155° F) and smoked during processing. Cooked sausages are usually cured with nitrite.

This category of sausages contains many process variations that result in the wide range of cooked and smoked sausages that can be seen in the retail trade. Although most are cooked and smoked, some are cooked without smoke, and there are many other process modifications.

Cooked sausages, like frankfurters or bologna, are made from fresh or frozen meats that are cured during processing, fully cooked and/or smoked, then packaged as ready-to eat products.

Typically, cooked and smoked sausages develop some additional flavors through the addition of nitrates and during the cooking and smoking processes. Examples of cooked and smoked sausages are wieners, bologna, Berliner, cotto-salami, frankfurters, and red hots.

These sausages can be eaten without heating, but many are heated before serving to enhance their flavor.

Frankfurters are examples of cooked and smoked sausages. They are produced from fresh meat that is fully cooked, and have flavors that are imparted through the addition of curing ingredients, and via various cooking and smoking processes. Although they are fully cooked, they are not shelf-stable, and must be refrigerated until the time of consumption.
Cooked and Smoked Sausages

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Production of sausage

Sausage is derived in the latin word ‘Salsus’ meaning salted or preserved by salting or ‘Salsicia’ meaning something salted. Sausage is a convenient food available in a great number of varieties and flavors. Sausages are an excellent source of high quality protein, containing all the essential amino acids in appropriate amounts necessary for growth, maintenance and repair of body tissue.

Ingredients. Fresh and high-quality meat such as lamb, beef, pork, mutton and poultry also cuts from head and leftover cuts may be used. Often game meats can be used to make sausage. Other ingredients such as salt (addition to taste, extract some proteins from meat, enhances flavor, reduce microbiological spoilage and increases water holding), water ice (assist the process of mixing and help salt to solubilize meat proteins), curing agents (necessary to inhibit production and growth of the deadly toxin, provide pink color and enhance flavor), spices (add flavor to the product) and binder (promote fat and moisture retention) and extender (reduce formulation costs).

Raw material intake is a critical control point in sausage production since it acts as a barrier or filtration stage preventing goods of inferior quality entering the process.

The lean meat should be well trimmed to a level of less than 10 percent of non-trimmable fat and connective tissue, the trimmed lean meat thus being practically free from sinews and gristle and entirely free from ligament, bone and cartilage particles. Proper dressing and rapid refrigeration will limit bacterial growth and reduce the chance of getting a foodborne illness.

Grinding. The key to doing a good job grinding is to use sharp blades and plates that match. The sausage may be ground twice, especially if two meats, such as a fat meat and a lean meat, are being used. The fist-size chunks of lean meats are first ground by running them through a 3-6 mm grinder plate while fat trimmings or fatty tissues are reduced through a 6-9 mm grinder plate. Grinding improves the uniformity of the product by distributing the ingredients and making the particles the same size.

Mincing. After grinding, the meat is minced in to a very fine particle size for easy protein extraction. Proteins have the function of binding the water surrounding fat droplets and keeping them dispersed.

Filling. Natural casing (made from the intestines of slaughter animals) as well as casings made from modified collagen or cellulose are most frequently used. Fresh sausages may also be stuffed into a small diameter artificial casing, or may be extruded into a short, large diameter plastic casing called a “chub” pack, usually containing 1 to 2 pounds of meat. Fibrous casings are more suitable for summer sausage and similar products because of their greater strength and the variety of sizes available. They are permeable to smoke and moisture and can easily be removed from the finished product.

Casings. Casings, also known as skins, used in sausage manufacturing to achieve their primary significance in portioning. They are broadly divided into two types, namely natural and artificial. Intestines of pigs or sheep are used in making natural casings.

Artificial casings are now made with collagen, cellulose and plastic materials to suit a wide range of applications. Through a series of mechanical and chemical actions, collagen is extracted from the connective tissue of animals and used for manufacturing casings.

Cooking. There are many methods of cooking: by immersing in the cooking vat, hot showering that is conducted in a smokehouse equipped with shower nozzles, hot showering in separate hot water spray cabinets to which sausages are moved immediately after smoking, cooking by dry heat by raising the smokehouse temperature and giving only a final brief hot water shower, cooking in tight boxes into which live steam is injected, etc.

Sausage is smoked and heated in order to pasteurize it and extend its shelf life, as well as to impart a smoky flavor and improve its appearance. Smoking and heating also fixes the color and causes protein to move to the surface of the sausage so it will hold its shape when the casing is removed.

Cooling and packaging. The sausage should showered or soaked in water till reach an internal temperature of 38-40°F, then remove the casing and cooled to 4°F for packaging. The product may be wrapped in a gas impermeable plastic, and placed into refrigerated storage or display. The specific packaging will vary according to the needs of the end user, however, the processor must follow hygienic standards when packaging any sausage product to avoid contaminating the product.
Production of sausage

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Classification of sausage

Sausage is the oldest form of processed meat products known through historical evidence. It is considered one of the most appetizing, nutritious, enjoyable, and convenient meat products. For thousands of years, people have prepared meat products similar to today's sausage. Homer spoke glowingly of sausage in the Odyssey, saying it was a favorite food of the Greeks. Roman festive occasions were considered incomplete without it.

The classification method for Sausage is according to the methods of processing or manufacture. There are four broad categories of sausages: fresh sausages, cooked sausages, semi dry or dry sausages, and specialty meats (luncheon meats).

Uncooked fresh sausages are made from fresh meats which are, as a rule, neither cured, smoked, fermented nor cooked. This type must be refrigerated and thoroughly cooked before eating. Examples of fresh sausages are fresh pork sausage, Italian sausage and some types of bratwurst and bockwurst.

Cooked sausages are ready-to-serve products, basically made from previously cooked fresh or exceptionally cured raw materials, subjected to final cooking after stuffing, with or without additional smoking. Generally, cooked sausages are perishable and will last approximately seven to 14 days under refrigerated conditions. These sausages must be refrigerated all the time, up until time of consumption. They will keep for at least 2 weeks in unopened vacuum sealed packages and for 1 week in non-vacuum packages or after you open vacuum-sealed packages. Examples of cooked sausages include hotdogs and luncheon meats such as bologna, cotto salami, polish sausage, and braunschweiger.

Semi-dry and dry sausages are cured and may or may not be smoked. Examples of semi-dry and dry sausages include summer sausage, Italian salami, pepperoni, Lebanon bologna, cervelat and some thuringers.

Specialty meats are cured, fully cooked, and occasionally smoked. They are usually cooked in loaf pans or casings. It is a diverse category that may contain cured, uncured, smoked and non-smoked meats that do not readily fit into other category. They are seasoned and often formed into loaves. E.g. Olive loaf, head cheese, jellied corned beef, scrapple souse, sausage rolls
Classification of sausage

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