Sausages are made from beef, veal, pork, lamb, poultry and wild game, or from any combination of these meats. Sausage making has become a unique blend of old procedures and new scientific, highly-mechanized processes. Traditionally, sausage was formed into a symmetrical shape, but it now can be found in a variety of shapes and sizes to meet consumers' needs. Many sausage products are vacuum packed, freshness dated and 100% edible.

Making sausage only requires a grinder, a good meat thermometer and some general household items to make excellent sausage. If you do not have a grinder, you can purchase ground meat from the store. Many products do not need to be smoked, but liquid smoke can be added to give the smoky flavor desired, or you may add a small portion of a cooked, smoked product like bacon to produce the smoky flavor. All fresh sausage can be mixed and kept in bulk form in spite of the recipe calling for the mixture to be stuffed. Typically fresh breakfast sausage is kept unstuffed and formed into logs or made into patties for conveniance.

Sausages can be classified in a variety of ways, but probably the most useful is by how they are processed (see below). Processing methods give sausages easily recognizable characteristics.

Fresh sausage
Examples include breakfast sausage, bratwurst, and italian. Fresh sausage should be refrigerated and cooked thoroughly before eating. Consume within 3 days or vacuum seal and freeze for long term storage.

Uncooked smoked sausage(cold smoked)
Examples include landjager, mettwurst, and keilbasa. Cold smoked products often include nitrates to prevent spoilage during the cold smoking process. Cold smoking is meant to preserve the sausage so it can be stored without refridgeration. However best practice is to refridgerate or freeze this type of sausage as well. All cold smoked sausage should be cooked thoroughly before eating. The cold smoking process requires temperatures at or below 90F which does not cook the sausage.

Cooked smoked sausage(hot smoked)
Examples include frankfurter(hot dogs), bologna, cotto salami, kielbasa. Kielbasa is also listed here because it can be warm smoked which is a combination of cold and hot smoking resulting in a cooked kielbasa. In this process the kielbasa is smoked at temps around 135F for 1-2 hours. The temperatures are then slowly and gradually raised over the next few hours bringing the internal temperature of the kielbasa to 155F. Cooked smoked sausage should also be refrigerated and consumed within 7 days for best taste.

Dry sausage
Examples include Genoa salami, pepperoni, dried salami, and spanish chorizo. Dried sausage does not contain enough moisture for undesirable bacteria or mold to grow. Typically this type of sausage does not require refrigeration. As always best practice dictates refridgeration if there is any doubt to the quality of the product. Dried sausage does not require cooking before eating. Semi-dry saysage such as cervelot or thuringer is similar to the other dried sausages except for the necessity of refridgeration to prevent spoilage.