Green onion, soy sauce, ginger and rice wine jazz up a Chinese-inspired sausage. Over the years, Louie Lanza, of Josie's in New York, has weaned his customers to more organic and dairy-free products. Though patrons still enjoy the taste of fat, most of his customers are health-conscious and prefer lighter foods. He uses apple puree for moisture and intensifies the flavor by using smoked chicken or turkey and lean pork. He combines coarse ground meat with fine in his weekly 25-pound batch.
Additional flavor comes from olive oil, used to saute the onion, and sherry wine.
Lanza's experiments include seafood sausage stuffed with rice and Creole mustard, and Thai-flavored sausage using chicken, ginger and coriander. Mary Kimbrough, director of nutrition services at Zale Lipshy University Hospital at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, promotes moderation in all foods, including sausage. Texans associate sausage with breakfast. In an overall diet scheme sausage can be included. The hospital serves a 2-ounce portion with starches and vegetables.