“If you want anything done right, you go to the Germans.” A common phase heard in today’s world yet a statement worth challenging through the eyes of history. As we know it, Germany is recognized for their cultural traditions of beer, festivals, ancient agriculture, unique cuisine, meat preservation, and sausages; a convenient and cheap food introduced in America by German immigrants near the mid-1800’s.
One of the most popular sausages is the dried summer sausage made of pork trimmings, originally made in Europe, and uncooked; pork was most commonly used in Germany due to its high content of fat that assured food security during famines. Before refrigeration, various preservation methods were conducted to keep the sausage from spoiling during warm weather. Unlike fresh sausage, summer sausage requires a curing process “at specific temperatures and humidity” with mold taking action at its completion (147, The Packers’ Encyclopedia). Eventually, this cold sliced meat would be favored by Americans for all special occasions, but that was not always the case. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, sausage-making became only one of the excuses for anti-German violence. By 1879, American imports of pork and pork products were rejected by Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Turkey, and Greece due to the “concerns about high levels of trichinosis and the risk to human health.” (1018, Waddington). Despite all sausages being viewed as a danger, German sausages and butchers were highly accused of widely spreading diseases for using “diseased meat” or meat off of dead livestock. Though, political opinions against Germany were said to have taken part of these discriminations that were ultimately affecting the image of German culture.
The first group of Germans are said to have made their arrival to America as early as 1638 due to lack of religious freedom and worsening economic and farming opportunities–becoming “the first non-English-speaking group whose population was larger than that of English-speaking immigrants.” (12, Trumbauer and Asher). The largest settlements of Germans were in New York, Maryland, Ohio, Missouri and Winsconsin. Though, the spread of German influence would occur throughout all of America. Death cases due to contaminated pork with the trichinosis disease continued to grow rapidly in America, especially within German societies that often ate uncooked meats in sausage form. In March of 1891, a case in Ida Grove, Iowa was investigated involving the favorite summer sausage. A butcher had freshly slaughtered two hogs and used “trimmings of the hams, shoulders, and tenderloins” to make a large batch of summer sausage that required only seasoning and in-cased smoking with “no further preparation by cooking.” (74, Iowa Public Health Bulletin). Multiple individuals consumed the summer sausage, later showing symptoms of trichinosis. One death was officially reported, in this case. Though, during the mid-twentieth century, deaths began to decrease as proper methods for smoking and cooking of these sausages were being written. Additionally, recipes began to include or strictly require beef instead of pork, which can be consumed rawly without true exposure to deadly diseases.
One of the many examples of written formulas is The Packers’ Encyclopedia with strategies on packing and cooking meat properly; specifically in Chapter V–Miscellaneous, the science of making sausage is broken down into various stages and circumstances. On page 157, the process for smoking summer sausage is described as requiring “the greatest possible care” with temperatures of smoking and drying rooms being an important factor in flavor, as well as cooking. In fact, summer sausages containing beef must be put through a different process of drying than that of pork; pork summer sausage “can stand more draught or air than summer sausage in beef casing…beef casings are hung nearer the center of the roof, where they will get plenty of fresh air, but no drought.” (157, The Packers/ Encyclopedia).
Today, summer sausage continues to be a tradition brought in numerous families over the generations (safely, of course). Cynthia Ann Daniels–Glaze, a third generation American with German roots, is passing down her mother’s recipe of summer sausage that has remained in her family for over sixty years! Her mother, named Margaret Honorine Hammerbacher, was born in Kansas stemming from a family of German immigrants that came to America in the mid-1800s. Amongst many of the German dishes that were welcomed in their home, summer sausage became an all-favorite snack during the holidays, especially on Thanksgiving and Christmas with an occasional Easter. The recipe is said to have been presented to Cynthia’s mother by “Aunt Rosie” whose parents were also Germans but Cynthia states that she “always knew it as mom’s.” When asked if there were ever any illnesses or negativity surrounding the summer sausage, Cynthia replied with a no, mentioning that her family had “cast-iron stomachs.” Before her interview, she discovered a summer sausage recipe inside of the Lizbeth & Daughters Country Cooking, a recipe book that was published in April of 2007 by an Amish family in Ohio, and noticed that the recipe resembled her mother’s greatly.
Compared to older recipes and formulas, the Hammerbacher summer sausage recipe is beef-based with refrigeration needed for curing and baked in an oven instead of being smoked. With the advanced technology that can be found and used today, the time required for making summer sausage has been reduced to only a day. According to Cynthia, using very lean-beef is recommended for less fat and a better cure.
So, if you’re searching for a delightful summer sausage recipe that is both simple to make and perfect for sharing with loved ones, look no further! Whether you’re hosting a family gathering or simply craving a tasty snack, Mom’s recipe for summer sausage is the perfect choice. Its simplicity, combined with the anticipation of the curing process, makes it all the more satisfying when you finally get to enjoy it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Original recipe found in Lizbet & Daughters Country Cooking; Ohio Amish Cooking (112) originally published on April 2, 2007.
The Packers’ Encyclopedia: Blue Book of the American Meat Packing and Allied Industries; a Hand-book of Modern Packing House Practice, a Statistical Manual of the Meat and Allied Industries, and a Directory of the Meat Packing, Provision, Sausage Manufacturing, Rendering and Affiliated Trades. United States, National provisioner, 1922.
Waddington, Keir. “‘We Don’t Want Any German Sausages Here!’ Food, Fear, and the German Nation in Victorian and Edwardian Britain.” Journal of British Studies 52, no. 4 (2013): 1017–42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24700890.
Trumbauer, Lisa, and Asher, Robert. German Immigrants. United States, Facts On File, Incorporated, 2009.
Iowa Public Health Bulletin. United States, Iowa State Department of Health, 1895.
digital Humanities studio 