Pork Sausage

Scrap meat has been preserved with salt, flavored with spices and herbs, and used for sausage since ancient Roman times. Each region in Italy has its own distinctive mix of flavors and meats in sausage.

Pork sausage is made of ground pork mixed with seasonings and fat. The ratio of fat to lean meat should range from 30 to 40 percent fat, to 60 to 70 percent lean meat so that the sausage will be moist. The pork shoulder contains about 30 percent mostly internal fat (within the marbling), making it an ideal cut for sausage-making. It may be practical to make sausage from trimmings from other pork cuts, in which case additional pork fat is added to achieve the proper ratio.