Oh, Heck.

[Cunobelin]

Once you've seen a commercial sausage made you will never eat one again.

"Every part of the pig except the squeak", eh?!

I used to teach Anatomy, Physiology and Imaging techniques to student radiographers and technologists

One of my subjects was the Endocrine, in particular the Thyroid.

I used to introduce bizarre examples as it helps the students to remember.

One of these was "Hamburger Thyrotoxicosis"

Basically there was a technique (now banned) called "gullet stripping / trimming" where the last few remnants of meat were mechanically removed from the neck of the cow.


Unfortunately this introduced so much thyroid tissue into the diet that it was sufficient to cause thyroid disease in those eating the ground beef products (hamburgers)

It also affected some pet foods as well




I hasten to add that this was in the US and restricted to beef products

[661-Pete]

I have eaten veggie sausages, quite a bit as a kid too, and my memory of them is dry or very greasy. Very high in fat I believe. Perhaps they're better but if you fry them the ones I've eaten seemed to soak up the oil. If you grill they ended up dry.

Are there any good ones I should look out for? I'm not adverse to vegetarian meals and if we had some quick to make ones it'll help us cut out a bit of meat in our diet. I'm sick of courgettes, mushrooms and tomato sauce. It's not really a balanced meal IMHO, I'm always hungry the next day.

They probably don't want to be treated the same way as meat sausages.

We usually buy Cauldron brand veggie sausages, and put them into what we call a 'sausage bean-pot'. It's a sort of cassoulet without the meat, if you'll allow the term. Based on a stew of onions, tomatoes, haricot beans, red peppers, garlic and paprika, with the sausages (whole or halved) thrown in towards the end. Very tasty and very filling, served with potatoes or pasta. You won't be hungry after "sich a dinner"!

Having given up meat for many years, it's a long time since I tasted real cassoulet, and I can't really recall to mind how greasy it was - never my favourite! It is, however, a favourite in 'our' region of France, and the supermarkets have shelves piled high with the stuff ready-made in jars and tins. Are the French losing the art of cuisine?