Who Doesn't Love Sausages?

Who doesn’t love sausages? Long, short, round, flat; garlicky, spicy, mealy or smooth; in a bun or without; dry or damp; natural or artificial-skinned — or no skin at all. Pink, brown, black, gray; made with pork, beef, lamb, rice, lard, blood; breakfast, lunch, or dinner; and salamis soft or hard. Not to mention hot dogs, which command a separate category in the food pyramid. A sausage can be so many different things!

The sausage may have been invented by Sumerians, who lived in what is now Southern Iraq over 5,000 years ago, as a means of preserving meat. Meat scraps, fat, and salt were stuffed inside scoured animal intestines, then set out in a cool place to dry. These sausages were mainly made with mutton or pork, and only enjoyed by the wealthy, since common folk mainly ate grain porridges.

Now anyone can enjoy sausages, sometimes at remarkably low prices. Here are 10 of my current faves.

Let’s not forget that Katz’s began life in 1888 as a “Fabrik Wurst” as it says on the side of the building: a sausage factory. You are encouraged to “Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army,” but the koblewurst is even better, an all-beef sausage with a natural skin that gives it a snap, and enough garlic that it will soon come sweating out your pores. It’s one of the city’s great unsung sausages, and remains little known, $11.95. 205 Houston Street, Lower East Side

Of high fat and made from heirloom Berkshire pigs, these links retain their moisture and have an intensely porky flavor with a hint of five spice. Cross-cut and grilled over a jellied gas flame, they taste like hot dogs would have tasted if they’d originated in Japan, $10. 137 East 13th Street, Union Square

And read on for eight more: