It’s Sausage month, so here are ten things you might not know about sausages:
They’ve been around a long time. Sausages were produced at least 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), and remnants of sausages have been found in Egyptian tombs.
They were popular in ancient Rome and were mentioned in stories and plays of the time. The earliest known mention of sausages is in a play by Aristophanes from the 5th century BC. The Sicilian playwright Epimarchus is said to have written a play called The Sausage, even earlier than that, but it was sadly lost. In The Odyssey, Homer compares Odysseus to a fat sausage.
The English word sausage comes from the Latin salsus, meaning “salted.” This is because sausages were an early way to preserve surplus food. The adjective “sausagey” was coined by DH Lawrence in 1921. Of course, the British sometimes refer to sausages as “bangers”. This dates back to WWII, when meat rationing meant there was more Water in sausages, leading to them exploding with a bang when cooked.
Sausage skins would be made from animal intestines. Some still are, but some manufacturers use edible collagen instead.
The longest sausage was created in Romania in 2014. It was 38.99 miles long.
Christianity initially posed a threat to the popularity of the sausage. Partly because many contained blood, which early Christians were forbidden to eat, and because they were associated with pagan and phallic festivals like Lupercalia. In the 4th century, the Catholic Church banned the eating of sausages for the latter reason. However, a black market sprang up so sausages didn’t go away.
There’s a sausage academy in Neumarkt, Germany, where students can earn a certificate in sausage studies. The curriculum includes the ideal lagers, mustards, and music to accompany different varieties of sausage.
The Cumberland sausage is traditionally made from a particular breed of Pig, the Cumberland, but that breed of pig has been extinct since the 1960s. Scientists tried in vain to recreate the Cumberland pig, and in 2008 a sow was born which had a 99.6% DNA match with the Cumberland. However, the sow turned out to be infertile, so the quest presumably continues.
It’s been estimated that about 5 million British people consume sausages every day, especially on Saturdays. The British Sausage Appreciation Society has more than 5,000 members.
German chancellor Otto von Bismarck once said: “To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.”
Character birthday
Vladimir Heinstock, leader of the violent revolution in Galorvia in which the monarchy was overthrown and the King and Queen slaughtered. He became the dictator of the country for around 20 years, forbidding contact with the outside world. Until the princesses Jade and Gloria returned after years of exile in England, and defeated him.
He appears in From A Jack To A King.
From A Jack To A King
A royal palace is burning. The King and Queen are dead. The only hopes for an ancient dynasty flee to England for their lives.
A boy runs from his mother and the people he believes want to mutilate him, and vanishes, seemingly forever.
Gary Winchcombe, the experimental "super-cop" pursues a notorious gang of bank robbers, and starts to discover that his friends and neighbours have secrets he never could have imagined.
Tod Reynard wants to turn his life around. When he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Jade, he knows she might just be the one to help him change his life for the better. He cannot possibly know just how much.
When Jade's twin sister Gloria is kidnapped, old rivalries must be put aside and new associations formed in order to save Gloria's life and restore the rightful order of things.
No comments:
Post a Comment