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Sausages have been around since the days of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. In fact, the sausage was a special dish served up on feast days in Roman times.

Roman sausages were made of pork meat and seasoned with black pepper and pine nuts. The original recipe was brought back to Rome by soldiers who had been serving in the most southern region of Italy as part of the garrison stationed at Lacania,

Today, sausages are made in most countries of the world from US to Poland, and Palestine to Brazil. The names of many of these sausages come from the place name, Lacania. For instance, in Brazil, there are sausages called linguica.

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Lacania sausages were originally made by grinding pepper, cumin, rue and parsley with bay berries and garum. Garum is a fish paste similar to anchovies. Then ground meat was mixed with these herbs and the whole lot was ground again. After that pine nuts and pepper corns were added,

then the whole lot was pushing into whatever casing was available and the sausage left in smoke to cook.

These sausages kept for a very long time because they were heavily spiced and quite dry.

Sausage festivals are held in many countries of the world, especially in Germany and Holland which are known for their beer and sausages extravaganzas. There is also a Vancouver and a South Texas Sausage festival. Hungarians and Bulgarians also have their own variety of sausages to celebrate at festivals.

In Madison, Wisconsin, at their annual Brat Fest, a new record was set in 2008, when they sold a whopping 191,712 bratwurst sausages over four days. Apparently there was a huge dinner rush on the final day of the festivities and 10,000 of these sausages were sold in just one hour. An announcement was made on stage and every person was asked to buy just one more bratwurst to break the record. The appeal worked and the festival raised more than $100,000 for various charities that were selected by the volunteer servers.

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In a hot dog eating contest, a New York man ate twenty four hot dogs and buns in ten minutes to win the title. His comment when interviewed about his win was that it was the toughest thing he had ever done and that he was looking forward to eating a huge, juicy beef steak for his dinner. He claimed to have different compartments in his stomach, ‘One’s for competitions,’ he said, ‘one’s for enjoyment and one’s for pleasure.’

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So, the next time you eat a sausage, or a hot dog, remember that it has a long and distinguished ancestry and that people all over the world are enjoying this dish on a daily basis.