10種擁有美妙歷史的現代食物(3):香腸

Top 10 Modern Foods With (Mostly) Delicious Histories

3. Sausages

3.香腸

The exact origin of the sausage is unclear, with reports ranging around 50,000BC. There is an agreement, however, that the sausages, frankfurters, and hot dogs that people eat on a daily basis originated from a desire to preserve meat.

香腸的準確起源並不清楚，大約在公元前50000年就已經有了相關記載。不過存在着一個共識，那就是人們每天吃的香腸、法蘭克福香腸和熱狗都是源於人們保存肉類的願望。

Ever wonder why sausages are wrapped in some form of casing? The reason is that, before refrigeration, butchers would want to preserve meat during transit. They took the meat, organs, and blood of a slaughtered animal, sprinkled it with salt to preserve it, then wrapped the gristly results in the animal's intestine or stomach to stop it going off before it could be eaten.

想知道香腸爲什麼要用各種腸衣包裹？原因就是在冷藏之前，屠夫想要在運輸途中保存肉類。他們將動物屠殺，在所得的肉、五臟和血上撒鹽以便保存，然後將這些柔軟的東西包進動物的腸或胃裏，防止吃之前腐壞。

This is why some sausages contain a large amount of blood in their recipes; the origin of this practice was to help use up any blood that was left over after slaughtering an animal.

這就是爲什麼有些香腸的製作食譜中包含有大量的血，這種做法是爲了用盡屠殺動物後所留下的所有血。

We have no real use for salting today, given how good fridges can be with preserving meat. The tradition of meat in casing, however, still goes strong to this day.

在今天，我們已經無需再鹽醃肉類，因爲有冰箱可以保存肉類。但是，將肉灌進腸衣的傳統至今仍然盛行。