• Sausages comprise a wide variety of seasonings and meats.Fresh and tasty sausage on a white background image by terex from Fotolia.com
  
  The history of making sausage dates back to the development of meat preservation. At its most basic level this involves curing a meat with salt or smoke. Historically, sausages contain animal parts which have not been consumed at the time of initial slaughter. Sausages also are a way of consuming the parts of the animal which are left over from processing, such as the internal organs. Cultures such as the Romans refined sausage-making by adding herbs and other seasonings.
  
  

Italian Sausage

• Mild Italian sausage consists of ground pork, garlic, pepper, fennel and salt. You may add other herbs such as basil, thyme or oregano. You make it by coarse-grinding the pork, adding the spices and herbs at the same time. A spicier Italian sausage incorporates cayenne pepper and dried pepper flakes.
  
  

Pork Sausage

• Basic pork sausage is heavily seasoned with salt, along with sage and white pepper. Variations include additional seasonings such as thyme, ginger, nutmeg and cayenne. The pork is typically 70 percent lean meat, ground and stuffed into casings made of intestinal lining or collagen casings. You can also shape the sausage into skinless breakfast patties.
  
  

English Bangers

• Bangers are mild pork sausages consisting of finely ground meat, sage, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs of an English eggless biscuit called "rusk." When grilled, the contents have a tendency to burst out of the casing, hence the popular name "banger." Although mild, bangers typically have a high salt content.
  
  

Polish Sausage

• The spices in Polish sausage are salt, pepper, mustard seed, marjoram and garlic. You add the spices are added into coarsely ground mixture of pork and beef, then re-grind it to a finer texture and stuff it into the sausage casings made of either intestine or collagen. Smoked polish sausage, or "kielbasa," is flavored with garlic, pimento and cloves.
  
  

Frankfurter Seasonings

• Consisting of pork and beef, this sausage also contains coriander, marjoram, mace, mustard seed, paprika and white pepper. The frankfurter is also known as the "wiener" and you typically eat it on a hot dog bun. You puree the seasonings and meat separately, then mix them, stuff the mixture into the casing and parboil.
  
  

Bratwurst

• A common sausage for the grill, bratwurst seasonings include sugar, white pepper, cayenne, nutmeg, thyme, ginger, rosemary and mace. You can cook bratwurst from a raw or smoked sausage. Bratwurst ground meat consists of either pork or veal stuffed into a casing.