Low-fat and Herb-loaded Sausage

Enlarge Image Image Gallery These sizzling Turkey and Pear Sausages are packed with flavor and light on fat.

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Recipes

• Colonial American Sausage 
• Turkey and Pear Sausage 
• Endless Summer Sausage 
• Cajun Garden Boudin 
• Elegant Seafood Sausage 
• Italian Sausage with Fennel and Garlic 

In the Deep South, sausage is a part of life. Louisiana cooks make andouille of cubed meat and fiery cayenne, slowly smoked over sassafras or pecan wood and basted with syrup. Boudin is a Cajun sausage, now gaining popularity, made with rice, pork, thyme, and parsley; we include a vegetarian version below. Mexico’s influence brings us spicy chorizo in its various guises, and throughout the South and Southwest, venison sausage, slowly smoked to keep the lean meat moist, is a favorite.

To most Americans, “sausage” means patties or links of ground pork, but sausage making has always been a variable culinary art form, adapting to whatever meats and seasonings were available at sausage-making time, traditionally in autumn. Today, we enjoy not only pork and beef sausages,but also poultry, seafood, and even ­vegetarian versions. We don’t have to bother with time-consuming curing methods such as drying, smoking, and ­salting, which helped preserve meat ­before the advent of refrigerators and freezers. We can eat sausages freshly made or freeze them for later.

How does sausage fit into a modern, low-fat diet? We take a balanced approach to meals and eat almost anything in moderation—including our favorite sausages. If you’re watching your calorie and fat intake, a sensible idea is to use a bit of robust-flavored sausage to season otherwise bland dishes; it adds a lot of flavor but only a few grams of fat.

If your love of sausage gives you a guilty conscience, you’ll find that our Turkey and Pear Sausage is relatively low in fat; coriander seed, basil, and tarragon contribute flavor, and the fruit keeps it moist. Creative tinkering with classic recipes makes it possible to devise delicious yet healthful sausages.

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