Sausage

What differentiates traditional Cumberland sausages from other sausages is their distinctively long and coiled shape. This English delicacy is pink in color, made from seasoned pork, and has a coarse texture. It consists of several basic ingredients: ground pork meat, rusk, water or ice, and seasonings and spices such as pepper, salt, thyme, nutmeg, and cayenne peper. Cumberland sausage must be made in the county of Cumbria using traditional methods. For a nice hearty supper, try this succulent sausage roasted with Cumberland sauce, potato mash, and fresh watercress on the side.

Traditional Cumberland sausage

Although the name might suggest otherwise, vegetable roll is a beef product that is shaped like a large sausage. It is lightly seasoned with fresh herbs and spring onions. Fried or sliced and grilled, vegetable roll is a staple of Ulster Fry, but it can also be served on its own, paired with mashed potatoes and beans for dinner. This savory treat has been made since 1954 by Hull's company, but it is said that vegetable roll dates back well before that time. Many believe that it became popular in the years after the war, when rationing beef could be forgotten and meat was plentiful once again.

Vegetable Roll

Germany

Weckewerk is a traditional sausage, particularly popular in Northern Hesse. The main ingredients are pork, bread, and seasonings, which are cooked together into a thick, savory mixture. The dish was historically a way to use up leftover pork and stale bread, making it an economical and resourceful meal. It is typically flavored with spices such as marjoram, onions, pepper, and nutmeg. Weckewerk is usually served hot, often with potatoes or on bread, and is known for its rich, hearty flavor.

Weckewerk

Among the broad group of Polish sausages, the smoked wiejska kielbasa stands out as the most traditional and popular variety of them all. The sausage is usually prepared with fat trimmings and a combination of ground pork and veal, and then it is generously seasoned with garlic and marjoram. Wiejska is one of the most versatile Polish sausages that can be enjoyed on its own, preferably thinly sliced, but it can also withstand frying, cooking, or grilling. This flavorful sausage is commonly added into soups, stews, and casserole dishes.

Wiejska

Austria

Considered a variation on the traditional frankfurter w&uuml;rstchen (frankfurter sausage), wiener w&uuml;rstchen is the name of an Austrian sausage that is typically prepared with a mixture of pork and beef. The combination is finely chopped and seasoned with spices such as white pepper, coriander, mace, paprika, salt, and ginger before it is placed into a thin sheep intestine, smoked, and parboiled. It was back in 1805, in Vienna, when Johann Georg Lahner, a butcher from Gasseldorf but trained in Frankfurt, created a new variety of sausage by adding beef to the original frankfurter, which was made exclusively from pork. Initially, his creation carried the name Lahners w&uuml;rstel, but it soon came to be known as frankfurter w&uuml;rstel - a name that has stuck until today in Austria. In Germany, the sausage came to be known as wiener w&uuml;rstchen (meaning Viennese sausage in German), referring to the place where the production of these sausages initially began. Another reason why the Germans had to call these sausages wiener w&uuml;rstchen instead of frankfurter sausages, as was the case in Vienna, was because of the protected status that frankfurter w&uuml;rstchen have been enjoying in the country since 1860. These sausages are usually enjoyed in pairs, either warm or cold, and they are typically simply heated in boiling water, roasted, or grilled.

Wiener Würstchen

Italy

Even though zampone Modena is nowadays produced within the entire Emilia-Romagna region, according to legend, this cured pork sausage first appeared in the winter of 1511 in Mirandola, when the city was under siege by the troops of Pope Julius II. To save the little they had from the wartime pillage and plunder, the people of Mirandola hastily decided to slaughter their pigs, finely ground the meat, season it, and stuff it back into hollowed out pig's trotters. Zampone Modena is typically combined with pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and infused with red wine, which gives this fresh sausage its strong, aromatic flavor. Both Zampone and the closely related cotechino Modena are traditionally available around Christmastime and New Year&rsquo;s, boiled and served in fairly thick slices sided with lentils, beans, mashed potatoes, or spinach with butter and parmesan cheese.