Sausage science question...

[johnpalmer]

Okay, when last kightp was up here, she discovered a lost tube of sausage in the back of my refrigerator, long past its "sell by" date, and puffy. We threw it away, being careful not to let the plastic tube they encase sausage in break.

Today, I saw a package of sausage that is about a month *before* its "sell by" date... and it was puffy too. Not as bad as the last one, but puffy.

Being the brave stupid person I am, I opened it, smelled it, and got a faint whiff of sulfur. Mostly, it smelled like sausage, but there was that tiny bit of rotten egg smell. I threw it away.

Of course, now it occurs to me that I've never smelled sausage carefully when opening it. Hell, for all I know, every time you open sausage, if you put your nose close to it and snort, you'll get a tiny whiff of sulfur mixed in with the rest of the scents. And, for all I know, sausage isn't supposed to be packed solid, and it's normal for there to be some air in the tube.

Does anyone know anything more productive than "the less the public knows about how sausages and the law are made, the better they will sleep at night"?

Comments

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

uhhh. . . that tube isn't plastic.

[wolfette]

some are "natural", some are artifical. Artifical skins aren't unlike plastic.

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

well OK. But you can eat them, which makes them "not plastic" in my admittedly reductionist book.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

You're thinking of link sausage, not the tubes of bulk sausage sold in grocery stores.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Right. We're talking Jimmy Dean pork sausage in a plastic tube, not Real Sausage in casings.

And if they're all swole up, they skeer me.

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

D'oh.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Maybe yes, maybe no. I _thought_ John was referring to bulk sausage rather than link sausage, in which case the casing would be removed before cooking.