The History of the Sausage
NO ONE knows exactly when sausages were first made and eaten. It is most likely that sausage beginnings came when man first domesticated animals in the hills of Iran and Iraq. Sausage is an elastic word that embraces a multitude of products. The Oxford Dictionary definition is: "Pork or other meat minced, seasoned and stuffed into natural casings and when full, into lengths of a few inches."
Root of the word is salsus, what the Romans called their sausages. First literary reference to a sausage is in the Odyssey by Homer who sang about the hunger of Odysseus and his motley crew for the solid sausage; possibly while smoking hashish in the land of the Lotus Eaters and certainly not when they were about to be made into sausages themselves by the Cyclops. Homer recited this in 850 BC, but other historical records show that 5,000 BC the Sumerians in Babylon made and ate sausages. They were also the first to develop the art of brewing ale. Good people! Could this be the longest lasting food and drink marriage in history?
Ethical sausage makers are craftsmen and prefer to use specially selected meat cuts, natural casings and herbs and spices for flavouring while some big companies, in a greedy bid to increase profits, use chemical preservatives and other artificial ingredients, not to mention nasty cuts of meat and offal. But people have eaten sausages for millennia and are likely to continue.

The History of O'Hagan's Sausage Shops

Britain was chosen for the world's first specialist fresh sausage shop which was opened in Greenwich in 1988 by Bill O'Hagan, whose sausages are served here. He is current holder of Britain's "Best Sausage Maker" award. Changing tastes and market needs throughout the world mean that many new varieties are being formulated while the drive back to natural ingredients is being led by the discerning public and master sausage makers, like the O'Hagan family and their staff. O'Hagan, a former journalist who worked for The Daily & Sunday Telegraph news desk for 15 years, won Britain's "Best Sausage Maker" award five years ago. He was also the first to use real ale in British-style sausages. He revolutionised the sausage industry when he opened the world's first specialist fresh sausage shop in Greenwich, London, in 1988. Others started to copy and now even the supermarkets have ranges of sausages based on his original recipes. Bill has sold over one hundred different varieties at his shops, many of which are based on traditional regional recipes while others were designed to cater for modern day tastes. He claims to have over 2,000 recipes. Since opening the first shop at Greenwich several of his staff have left to start their own sausage ventures while others have thought the idea so good they have copied the original concept. There are now about 40 specialist fresh sausage shops in Britain. Bill says: "We have great pride in the fact that we opened the original shop in Greenwich and are flattered that others have tried to follow. We innovated while others imitated. "Our obsession with making top quality sausages without the use of mechanically recovered meat, colourings, preservatives or any other artificial additives remains." Bill was prompted to start the shop after arriving in England from South Africa 30 years ago. He found the taste of the mass-produced supermarket sausages so bland that he started making sausages from old recipes he had from when, as a schoolboy of 11-years-old, he worked for a Yorkshire butcher in Natal, South Africa. "We do not cut corners to make a quick profit nor do we make claims about our sausages that are untrue. Our commitment to our customers is paramount." Because of recent health warnings he recently rewrote all the recipes to reduce the fat and salt contents of the products and has now re-formulated all of those that used to contain bread rusk. They now contain only natural rolled oats. Wild herbs found on the South Downs are being targeted by Bill in his new quest to find those that were used by the Romans who first introduced sausages to England. "Herbs like tansy, pennyroyal, woodruff, alecost and many others were used in days gone by, not just because of the flavours they imparted on the meat, but because many were natural preservatives as well," he said. After officially becoming Britain's "Best Sausage Maker" Bill said: "I will be allowing others to make our sausages under licence in other parts of the country so that the public there can also enjoy the experience of eating real sausages made in so many exciting and exotic flavours.” Note to Editors: O'Hagan won the British Sausage Appreciation Society's top award, "Best Sausage Maker," at a BAFTA ceremony in Piccadilly, London, in March 1996. The presentation of the "Oscar-style" trophy was made by TV star, Ulrika Jonsson, while the nomination for the Award was made by The British Meat and Livestock Commission