Sausages- Mystery unravelled

Sausages have always been a mystery to me - I have never ceased to wonder how a pig can becomea perfectly shaped tube . I used to think that sausages were part of a pig like pork (guess it has to do much with my being a veggi and hence the ignorance !). This mystery was finally solved when (as usual )I sat down to watch BBC Food channel.

The programme on at that time ,once again (see reference to Crocodile steaks ) was Off the Menu . The chef mixed together minced pork, cream , beaten eggs , salt, pepper and chopped parsely -the result being a thick stuffing. What came next was the key to the mystery !. He took out what looked like a thin string from a bowl of water and voila ! The string turned out to be a micro shaped tube which he opened out by attaching it to the pipe and filling it with water. He then emptied the water so that the tube was fully blown out. He then attached it to the snout of a a machine . His assistant then fed the pork stuffing into the machine so that the it came out of the snout and went straight into the tube. After filling the tube (now it definitely resembled a sausage ) , he twisted it at different points and sliced the big tube into small sausages . The sausages were then shallow fried and served with mashed potatoes and caramelized sauce !

Amazing , what all goes into making sausages- and I thought it came straight from the origin of ham and pork ! Moral of the story - always be well informed or face ridicule !