Sausages
Sausages - a much loved food that's popular the world over - are great for cheap eats at home whether it's just family or friends have dropped by. They are also cheap and easy to prepare. Great to keep a few in the freezer for a quick barbecue or grill served with sweet potato mash or polenta, caramelised onions and a salad or tucked into a crispy roll with home-made chutney and rocket or to add to pasta, pilaf or risotto.
Shop Smart
These days there's a huge range to choose from. Do you want plain or flavoured? Beef, pork, lamb, chicken or turkey? Thick or thin? Organic? Kangaroo or venison? Spicy or specialty like bratwurst, fresh chorizo and weisswurst? Vegetarian or gluten-free?
What's in them? In Australia and New Zealand, our food standards require that ‘sausages must contain at least 50% fat-free meat flesh'. (The standard also sets out the maximum amount of fat they can contain: ‘50% of the fat-free meat flesh'. This basically means that a sausage could be about 25% fat so it pays to check the label to find out how much fat they do contain (especially full fat sausages) or ask your butcher. It can vary considerably.
If you are buying packaged sausages, check the ingredient label and nutrition information panel for fat and salt. For best value for money (unless you are buying vegetarian sausages), look for sausages with the most meat content (some have as much as 80%) and lower fat and make sure you undersand what the other ingredients in the listing are (such as wheat cereal or oats for bulk, soy protein for texture, offal, herbs and spices and other flavourings like onion). You can also have your choice of casings: natural made from intestines or artificial collagen casings. And don't forget to check the use-by date. Some brands have the Heart Foundation tick so look out for these.
If you buy sausages from the butcher, you can usually find out exactly what's in them. If you want very lean or gluten-free or reduced salt sausages, it's probably best to go straight to your butcher and as a bonus you can buy the exact number you need to feed the family and friends.
Sausages should be kept in the fridge for no more than 2 days or frozen for 1-2 months.
Cook Smart
First of all, you don't need to prick sausages before cooking - you want the juices to stay inside the sausage so that it is tasty and succulent to tuck into.
Whatever way you choose to cook them - on a barbecue, pan-frying or grilling - turn them with tongs not a fork and cook slowly over a medium-low-ish heat turning occasionally to brown all over until done. It can take a good 15-20 minutes, but done this way they won't split or burst. To check if cooked through, slice one in half lengthwise. If the sausages are very lean you may need to spray them with cooking spray or use 1-2 teaspoons of oil when pan frying. If you bake them, you may need to baste with a marinade or pan juices as they tend to dry out cooked this way.
Eat Smart
You can buy full fat (average fat content 22% according to Allan Borushek's Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter), reduced fat (15%) and low fat (8%) sausages these days. Kangaroo sausages are the leanest of all typically with around 2% fat. Australia's Kanga Bangas from Macro Meats have the Heart Foundation Tick. If you make delicious money saving meals with sausages regularly, then it's probably a good idea to opt for lower fat, meatier sausages. Tip: Words like ‘organic' or ‘gourmet' don't necessarily mean that the sausages are lower in fat.
Keep in mind that the average fat loss with cooking sausages (grilled, pan fried or barbecued) is around 20-25% of the total fat of the raw sausage. The leaner the sausage is to start with, the less fat you lose cooking it.
Whether you enjoy them grilled, baked, barbecued, pan fried or in a casserole, sausages (especially the meatier, lower fat ones) served with lots of vegetables and salad can make a healthy balanced meal. Two sausages per person is plenty (or three if they are small ones like the cevaps.)
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