What exactly is fresh about fresh smoked sausage?
The Keuringsdienst van Waarde is once again tackling a pressing issue, especially at this time of year: what exactly is fresh smoked sausage? Because a smoked sausage has a very long shelf life, more or less, just like the so-called fresh smoked sausage. Only that fresh sausage is just a little more expensive… What’s the difference?
They call the smoked sausage ‘the embodiment of “just act normal, that’s crazy enough”’. Nicely put, but why has that fresh smoked sausage suddenly appeared on the shelves? Is it simply the same smoked sausage as the one in the foil packaging, but in a different bag?
On the kale
Sausages are smoked to make them last longer. They consist of ground pieces of pork, stuffed into a casing (or another skin) with flavour enhancer, salt and pepper, and then… smoked. For five to six hours, the artisan butcher explains. It is fresh because it is cold-smoked, says the butcher. In the past, such a smoked sausage would then be cooked by placing it on the kale or stamppot, cooking along with the vegetables.
For weeks
That is not the same as the fresh smoked sausage from the supermarket. The butcher’s smoked sausages last only a few days, while those in the supermarket are shelf-stable for weeks. And they have often already been cooked as well, so just how fresh that whole story really is… They ask a sausage expert. According to him, the word ‘fresh’ does not say much. ‘I prefer to talk about raw smoked sausage, because you can stick the word fresh on just about anything.’
Foil pack
You know those smoked sausages that do not need to be kept in the refrigerator, the ones in those vacuum bags? They last for months. That is because other ingredients are added, such as ascorbate, rosemary extract, potassium extract… the expert can reel off an entire list of substances.
And strangely enough, the Keuringsdienst discovers over the phone that those substances are also found in the fresh smoked sausages from the supermarket. Seven of the eight supermarket ingredients are included to keep the sausage fresh. So yes, that is why the expert is not such a fan of the word ‘fresh’. ‘But from a marketing perspective, it is fantastic,’ he says.
Source: Keuringsdienst van Waarde, image: KRO-NCRV
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