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Bizarre Things You Didn't Know About Sausage
Apr 1, 2025
Weird History Food is going to sit down and have a plate of Sausage Facts with you. The humble sausage, or “banger” as the British have fondly named it, is eaten and enjoyed by millions worldwide. Sometimes people do more with sausages than just eat them, though—to the point where it becomes bizarre and entertaining.
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The humble sausage, or banger as the British have fondly named it, is eaten and enjoyed by millions worldwide
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But sometimes people do more with sausages than just eat them. Maybe some days you want to look at one in a museum, or use it to challenge your greatest foe to a duel
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Sound far-fetched? Well, today we're going to take a look at some meaty things you didn't know about sausage
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Okay, time to grind out some weird history. We're talking about a calculated risk
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We've never shut down the entire system before. It may not come back on at all. Sometimes you try something really stupid in a desperate situation, and it works
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It worked. For example, when he was about to be smoked in a duel like so much sausage
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a man named Rudolf Virchow used sausage in a threatening manner, and it may actually have saved his life
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You got to be killed! Yeah, we're going to need to explain that one
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So here goes. Otto van Bismarck was a Prussian statesman who dominated European affairs from about 1860 to 1890
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But in 1865, Virchow, a pesky scientist and opposition politician, had challenged Bismarck's authority by protesting against his excessive military budget
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And Virchow was a careful and formidable man. When he investigated a typhus outbreak, he conducted a statistical ysis of who became ill and where they lived
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He also collected details on their education, income, housing conditions, and a host of other factors
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including, did they visit Typhus R Us lately? After much serious ysis, Virchow concluded that the spread of typhus was caused by overcrowding
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Overcrowding is a symptom of poverty, which Virchow sensibly attributed to limited education opportunities
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And in the end, he laid the ultimate blame on a failure of democracy in a Germany led by Otto van Bismarck
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Not being the kind of guy who took criticism particularly well, Bismarck challenged Virchow to a duel
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This was bad for Virchow because Bismarck was a crack shot, and Virchow's knowledge of pistols was shaky at best
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Oh, great! Real bullets! Like, I saw a picture of a gun one time, levels of knowledge
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I'll do this. That being said, he was still a pretty smart guy, and he had access to sausages
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Details are sketchy, but several biographies relate that Virchow, being the challenged party
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was entitled to choose the weapons for the duel, and that he prepared two sausages to be used for
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the event. One sausage was normal and the other, while appearing identical, was loaded with deadly
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trichinella larva. Bismarck was to choose a sausage and eat it, and Virchow would eat the
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remaining sausage With his cunning sausage strategy Virchow had raised his survival chances to an even 50 Bismarck perhaps reluctantly withdrew his challenge Maybe he was more of a brat guy
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Some people love to eat slowly and savor their meal like a fine wine
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while others like to inhale their food as quickly as possible, like a garbage disposal with a bunch of errands to run
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The latter is usually seen as a social faux pas, but if you're seeking fame and fortune
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you might at least want to consider learning to stuff your face with sausage. We are referring, of course, to the world record for the most sausages eaten in one minute
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The current record holder is Leah Schottkever of Birmingham and the United Kingdom
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who ate an impressive 10 sausages in 60 seconds in June of 2020
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That's a complete sausage every six seconds. All subsequent attempts to beat this record have failed miserably
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Hey, no one said being a famous athlete was easy. It takes hard work, determination, and lots and lots of sausages
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In 2000, working on behalf of Asda stores, J&J Tranfield of Sheffield in the United Kingdom set the record for making the world's longest sausage
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The work took three days to complete and the final product was 36.75 miles long
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Which is to say that in a normal walking pace, it would take you 20 hours to walk from one end of it to the other
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Man, we're going to need like miles of sauerkraut. The Sheffield sausage held the record for several years, but the record now belongs to a Romanian sausage that measured 38.99 miles long in 2014
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The Guinness Book of World Records, for what it's worth, distinguishes between the world's largest sausage based on weight and based on length
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And there are also other variations such as the longest smoked sausage, the longest sausage chain, and the longest vegetarian sausage, also known as the huge waste of time
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The very latest and must-see museums can be found in Berlin, where typical takeout food
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is Currywurst, a pork sausage served with spicy curried ketchup. This popular sausage has a fascinating history, and since 2009, tourists have been able to
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learn every delicious fact at the Currywurst Museum. The Sausage Museum is fully interactive and assails all the senses
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There's a spice chamber, sniffing stations, and a sausage sofa in the middle of a sauce
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dream where one may indulge in gigantic fries and of course samples of curry burst so kind of like
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willy wonka's sausage factory maybe that's what happens to the oompa loompas when they get too old
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to work there are exhibits detailing all sorts of things about curry burst including where the
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sausage is sold from street vendors to the counters of clubs and bars and you can learn
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about the origin of spices matched to particular types of sausage as well as eating habits
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biodegradable disposable tableware and how film and television has portrayed this legendary berlin specialty Who knew one tube of meat carried so much esteem Whether you are a sausage novice or
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a big-time sausage expert, the museum is definitely worth a look. No word on whether
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the sausages come to life at night like in that Ben Stiller movie. Who doesn't love a good barbecue? It's a great way to entertain friends
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share a meal, and drink entirely too much beer in a single hour. And uninvited guests are often welcome
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even when that guest is a bird looking for a free handout. In Australia, that bird is often a meat-eating kookaburra
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This weird creature looks something like an oversized kingfisher, but is probably best known for its call, which sounds like human laughter
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It presumably knows this and is doing it on purpose. In 2010, an injured kookaburra was taken to Taronga Zoo in Sydney
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Although it was initially assumed that the bird had a broken wing, further investigation
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revealed that the kooky weighed a hefty 19 ounces, or 40% heavier than normal
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In other words, it had simply become too chunky to fly after loading up on too many free sausage
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barbecue handouts, and had to be rescued from some dogs because it couldn't get away from them
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Zoo officials described the problem as people killing creatures with kindness. This particular bird was put on a sausage-free diet to shed the excess weight so it could
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eventually learn to fly again. But we can only assume it missed lazing around at barbecues and
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cramming its beak full of sausage. After all, once you've developed a taste for Jimmy Dean
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what are you supposed to do? Go back to birdseed? Nope, I'd rather get eaten by dogs than do that
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Did you ever read Harry Potter and find yourself wishing that Hogwarts was a trade school for
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sausage-ears? Well, that's bizarrely specific, but you dreamers are in luck. Germany opened a
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Sausage Academy in 2010, where students may earn a certificate in their favorite meaty treat
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The sausage school was based in Newmarked and offered the opportunity for people to become
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sausage experts. Knowledgeable about the ideal, lagers, mustards, and music to best accompany
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different varieties of sausage. Yes, music. You have to sing to your brats if you want them to
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reach their full potential, like a houseplant, if houseplants were a pizza topping. Dedicated
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students could even take a master's course in Germany's holy grail of sausage
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the Bavarian White. Please folks, try to contain yourselves. It's unclear whether regular free
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samples to students were a major reason for enrolling, but over time the school welcomed
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thousands of students who each earned certificates. Who knew an education could be so spicy
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Conquering addiction is one of the most difficult things a person can do. It takes a tremendous amount of insight and willpower to confront an addiction and make changes to turn your life around and the lure of vices can run deep vices like eating sausage believe it or not
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that's not a joke in 2011 a man named david harding came out as being hopelessly addicted to sausages
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and while it's admittedly hard to read that sentence without giggling harding's sausage
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dependence was a serious problem just like any food addiction he claimed he often required urgent
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counseling to save him from the dire consequences of sausage abuse. Like many addicts, Harding kept
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a stockpile of his forbidden fix stashed in his freezer. The precaution mostly kept his withdrawal
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symptoms at bay, but when his stock ran low, he flew into panic mode. And according to Harding
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he genuinely couldn't bear the thought of living without sausages. Determined to slay his demons
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Harding spent thousands of dollars to treat his addiction. His psychiatrist was of the opinion
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that the addiction wasn't physical, but that didn't change the fact that the man couldn't
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seem to stop eating sausages. Brother, we've all been there. When it comes to products that probably don't need to be gendered, foodstuffs probably top the list
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After all, Coca-Cola doesn't make different varieties of Coke for men and women
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unless you count Tab. A McDonald's gives the same kind of hamburger to everyone regardless
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of who orders it, so surely there's no need for his and her sausages, right
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Well, the German Edeka supermarket chain didn't agree, and back in 2013, it started selling male and female sausages to its customers
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If you're wondering what the advantage of selling gender-specific sausage might be, the only clear answer seems to be bilking people out of money
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For example, the Frauen, or female, sausages were half the size of the Mena, or male, counterparts
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but also more expensive. Meanwhile, the Mena sausages were made with lower quality meat
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In other words, it was equally insulting to everyone. Now it's time to address the weirdest looking sausage on the planet
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The haired sausage. Yes, we know. Keep the jokes to yourself. First made in Russia, the odd and relatively hard to look at new dish
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became popular after Russian bloggers began to spread the word about the first soup meat online
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Who invented the hairy sausage is unknown, but we do know how it's made
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And you'll be delighted to learn it's not made with actual hair. It's concocted by sticking lengths of hard spaghetti into a sausage, making it look somewhat
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like a hedgehog. This marvelous gastronomic masterpiece is then boiled in water and voila, you've got
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yourself a hot, hairy sausage to eat. The hairy sausage has generated a good deal of excitement online and it's surely only
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a matter of time before all of us find this shaggy delicacy on our respective plates
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Wait, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Eh, maybe it can be both
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