Meat Processing 101

Also see our newest addition: Meat Processing Illustrated

Cold Cuts - slices of assorted cold meats.

Pâté - a meat paste

Sausage - finely chopped and seasoned meat, esp. pork, usually stuffed into a prepared animal intestine (commonly called a casing) and left raw, cooked or cured.

Offered at The Sausage Shoppe are award-winning, Old-World, European-style cold cuts, pâté and sausages. Using both recipes brought from Germany in 1938 and recipes developed at the plant, we "make it in the back and sell it in the front".

The basic process for manufacturing of these items is as follows:

1. Receive meat. We do not slaughter, so the term for what we do is "further processing".
2. Trim meat and divide according to the leanness required for the recipe.
3. Mix meat with seasonings.
4. Grind meat.
5. Stuff meat into casings.
6. Link sausages. Fresh pure pork sausages are ready to sell after this stage.
7. Cook products. Pâté and some of the bratwurst are ready to sell after this stage.
8. Smoke cold cuts and sausages. 98% of our hand-crafted products are ready to be eaten at this point.

This is an oversimplified version of the process, which varies slightly depending on the product being manufactured.

Seeing the process is often the best way to understand it, so we invite you to our facility for a tour and a first-hand glimpse of sausage making. Please call ahead. See our Information page for further assistance.