The recent outbreak of (as it turns out largely harmless) swine flu has made me think about another American oddity: sausages.
Sausages are made of pork, right? They may contain a majority of other ingredients, including - though not limited to - gristle, bone, blood, salt and lashings of E250 and are therefore generally speaking the nutritional equivalent of TV's contribution to physical fitness. But for the most part it would be fair to say they are pork-based, agreed?
Not in my back yard.
Unless I have moved unbeknownst into a strictly Hasidic state or all the pork sausage-selling shops hide behind strategically placed flagpoles whenever I pass by, none of the supermarkets round here - from my suspiciously Amish-influenced local store to Meijer, Kroger and even Costco - sell pork sausages. They are all made of beef or even chicken.
Take the common-or-garden frankfurter, for example. As the German version of Wikipedia clearly states, this should consist of pure pork. In the States, by contrast, where frankfurters - or as they are known here, "franks" - are used for that other paragon of haute cuisine, the hot dog, they are produced from (and here I quote from the English Wikipedia entry for frankfurters) mechanically recovered meat or meat slurry. Sounds tasty, doesn't it? And in case you, like me, are wondering what meat slurry actually is, it's "a liquefied meat product ... not designed for general consumption". The most common type of meat slurry comes from poultry.
So to bowdlerise a famous American ad slogan from a couple of years back: where's the pork?
Take the common-or-garden frankfurter, for example. As the German version of Wikipedia clearly states, this should consist of pure pork. In the States, by contrast, where frankfurters - or as they are known here, "franks" - are used for that other paragon of haute cuisine, the hot dog, they are produced from (and here I quote from the English Wikipedia entry for frankfurters) mechanically recovered meat or meat slurry. Sounds tasty, doesn't it? And in case you, like me, are wondering what meat slurry actually is, it's "a liquefied meat product ... not designed for general consumption". The most common type of meat slurry comes from poultry.
So to bowdlerise a famous American ad slogan from a couple of years back: where's the pork?
1 comment:
That is really disgusting!!!!!!! Are the US import restrictions so strict that you cannot even get imported German sausages in tins????? Like gherkins in glasses??? Schoene Cocktailwuerstchen????
Das geht zu weit!! Obama must step in, I say and rescue the American Hausfrauen from becoming duped by meat producers. Stay clear of such prodcuts!!!! Make your won sausages from minced pork plus herbs and spices, add cornflour, grill and hey presto. Guten Appetit.
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