Sausages have been made for thousands of years. Every civilization has some history of sausage making including the Africans, Americans (North and South of both the indigenous and immigrant species), Arabians, Asians, Chinese, Egyptians, Europeans, Greeks, Indians, Mesopotamians, Mongolians, Polynesians, Romans, Russians, Scandinavians, the list is endless. Members of every ethnic group that has ever lived on Earth have all tried sausage making and to credit any single person with having invented any particular sausage would be doing an injustice to the long since dead person that actually did. Suffice it to say that sausages were almost certainly being made before recorded history. Sausages were probably the Neanderthal version of present day fast food. Judging by the standards of some fast foods I would imagine that the quality was better! In any event it is likely that sausages have been made ever since our ancestors became the leading carnivores on the plains of this planet. I have made sausage as an amateur and professional for over 10 years but I do not claim to have written any of the recipes in this book. In fact I have collected them from every Tom, Dick and Harry I know, and a lot of people I don't, as well as from publications and the Internet. Some of them are exactly as given to me, others have been changed so much from the original version that they would not be recognized by their original authors, some I gleaned from national meat boards and some from companies promoting sales of sausage ingredients, casings or equipment. However, all the recipes have been tried and tested and as far as I am aware, none of my friends or customers have ever suffered any ill effects from consuming any sausage; the recipe for which is included in this collection. During the course of my research I often found that there are several different names for what in effect is one single sausage recipe. Even recipes credited to well known chefs are more often than not a variation on a theme. The recipes included in this book vary from the simple to the fairly complicated but all can be used to prepare really delightful sausages in your own kitchen. To all those people who have taken the time to record recipes which have been handed down from generation to generation and have gone to the trouble of publishing them in one form or another and to those who have collected recipes, recorded their ideas on sausage making and likewise published these in the press, on the internet and in recipe books, I would like to say a very big thank you for making this knowledge available to sausage fans all over the world.
Chris Bruce was born in England and educated in South Africa. After a long career in the construction industry in South Africa, Namibia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Oman and the United Arab Emirates and a spell setting up and operating a fresh and processed sausage factory in Bangkok, Chris finally retired to Hua Hin in Thailand. Not being Thai, unable to speak the language, no longer a part of the construction "EXPAT NETWORK", it was not long before he became somewhat bored with life. One way to alleviate the boredom was to write. Chris decided to use his knowledge of the sausage industry to write a book of sausage making methods and recipes. This was followed by a book of liqueur making methods and recipes. Chris realizing that people do not have much time to read a little humor encouraged friends from around the world to send him jokes and anecdotes by email. This led to eight humorous books with jokes and anecdotes under the banner of the TAKE ME TO THE TOILET series. These were followed by Sausage: 91 Ideas for Making a Meal of It and Meat Loaves and Hamburger Patties. His latest book, Autobiography of an Unknown Man, is the story of his life from his birth in war torn England, his emigration to Namibia and his childhood there, school and university in South Africa, his successes and failures in the construction industry including building throughout the South African/Angolan Border War, his broken marriages and his moves to the Far East and Middle East before retiring. All Chris' books are available in print and eBook formats on all major internet bookstores.
