Adam Sroka wrote:

> Keith Thomas wrote:
>
>> I don't eat ham, sausages or any processed meat. 
>
> I wish you wouldn't lump sausage in there. There is a great variety to 
> what we call sausage, and some of it is very good. There is, 
> obviously, a difference between a slim jim and fresh sausage from a 
> butcher (Preferably one who uses only pastured, grass-fed meat and 
> doesn't use any fillers. A good butcher will be quite up front with 
> you about what they put in there.) In fact, fresh sausage contains 
> many parts of the animal that you might otherwise ignore in a very 
> palatable presentation. These are things that our paleo ancestors 
> almost certainly consumed even if they didn't present it in exactly 
> the same way.


Since you mention it, sausages are a very ancient form of preserved 
meat.  Dried sausages, for example, are similar to pemmican in 
composition.  And as Adam has indicated, they have always been used as 
an efficient way not to waste edible parts of a carcass.  What's 
ususally objectionable about sausages in supermarkets is that they are 
loaded with preservatives and crapola fillers, but you can find 
"organic" sausages that don't have these things.  And a butcher will 
probably be delighted to make you some sausages without them.

Todd Moody
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