Sausage is the meat product obtained by seasoning the meat and fat mixture ground in a meat grinder with many spices, salt and sugar, then taking it into cases and keeping it waiting for certain periods. Many sausages encounter additives during the production process, but these additives are protective and increase both the quality of the sausage and its shelf life. Sucuk is accepted as a food invented by the Turks.
After slaughter, the meat enters a process called "rigor mortis" for a while. In this process, which means "hardness of death", the meat is in a contracted state. For sausage making, the meat is expected to complete this stage and become soft. In sausage making, very young or very old meats are avoided and middle-aged meats are preferred.
The nerves on the meat are meticulously removed before sausage production. In addition, sausage is not produced from a single meat type, but is prepared with a mixture of many meat types. The reason for this is both to increase the taste (taste) quality of the sausage and to balance its hardness.
Meat and meat products have an unquestionably important place in human nutrition. Meats are the first foods that come to mind for quality animal protein. For years, human beings have been fed with the meat of sacrificed animals. When it was not possible to consume the meat of slaughtered animals without spoiling, they discovered some meat preservation techniques. Among these, salting, drying, smoking and fermentation are the most commonly used methods.
Sucuk is classified as “fermented meat products” from these methods. In the Turkish type of sausage we know, the meat is fermented with spices and garlic. By starting the drying process under suitable conditions, 3 different sausages are produced as “fully dry”, “semi-dry” and “slightly dry”.
“Full dry” sausage contains 30% - 35% water, “semi-dry” sausage contains 40%-50%, and slightly dry sausage contains more than 50%. In other words, sausage becomes a product with a different taste and longer shelf life with the chemical reactions that occur in the mixture of meat, oil and spices.
Traditional "Turkish Sausage" is described as follows in the Turkish Food Codex communiqué on meat products:
Bovine and ovine meats are minced in a meat grinder or cuter, mixed with salt and spices, then filled in natural or suitable artificial casings, and the humidity rate is reduced to 40% and below by applying fermentation and drying process under certain conditions, and the cross-sectional surface has a mosaic appearance and no heat treatment has been applied. fermented meat product. Traditional Turkish sausage is in the dry sausage group. The table below shows how high calorie sausage is.
