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Traditionally, sausages were ground pork that the preparer forced into a casing made from the lining of animal intestines. Today, many other ingredients are used to make sausage, including game, beef, veal, poultry, fish, shellfish, and even vegetables. The three main types of sausage are as follows:

• Fresh sausage

• Smoked or cooked sausage

• Dried or hard sausage

Make fresh sausage with raw ingredients that have not been cured or smoked. Cook fresh sausage before serving. Fresh sausage includes breakfast sausage links and Italian sausage. Polish kielbasa, Mexican chorizo, and French andouille are other examples of fresh sausage.

Make smoked and cooked sausage with raw meat products treated with preservatives. German knackwurst, frankfurter, and bratwurst are examples of smoked and cooked sausage.

Make dried or hard sausage with cured meat and then air-dry it under sanitary, controlled conditions. Italian salami and pepperoni are examples of dried or hard sausage.

Forcemeat is a mixture of lean ground meat and fat that is emulsified, or forced together, in a food grinder and then pushed through a sieve to create a very smooth paste. How did forcemeat get its name? The word forcemeat is from the French word farce (FAHRS), which means stuffing.

Forcemeat is the main ingredient used to make pâté (pah-TAY), a rich loaf made of meat, game, poultry, seafood, and/or vegetables baked in a mold. Create straight forcemeat by very finely grinding the meat, seasoning it with herbs and spices, and then cooking it in an earthenware mold called a terrine (tehr-REEN). Cook the terrine in a hot-water bath to an internal temperature of 145°F to 155°F.

In a country-style forcemeat, or pâté de campagne (pah-TAY de kom-PAN-yuh), a cured meat is usually the main ingredient. The texture is slightly coarser than in straight forcemeat, which allows the flavor of the meat to dominate. Sometimes the forcemeat is wrapped in a pâté dough that may contain herbs, spices, or lemon zest. A pâté dough is much stronger than pie dough because it must stand up to the liquid released during cooking. This dish is referred to as a pâté en croûte (pah-TAY on kroot).

Inventive chefs have created new recipes, such as spring vegetable terrine, which no longer require meat, but because they are cooked in the same mold, they are still called a terrine. A forcemeat made of veal, poultry, or fish is called a mousseline (moose-uhLEEN). A mousseline is delicately flavored and lightened with cream and egg whites. Shape the mousseline into small, dumpling-shaped ovals and poach it in a rich stock or court bouillon to make quenelles (kuh-nel).