Many of these ingredients are used to impart unique characteristics to hundreds of different meat products. Each ingredient has a specific function and should be used only to the extent needed to impart the desirable charac teristics for the product. Within most of these groups, there are many compounds, each with their own specific characteristics. Spices and flavorings Spices give each sausage its unique flavor. Some spices are commonly expected in cer tain sausages, such as sage in fresh pork sausage and peppercorns in cervelat.
Many spices compliment other spices to produce a full, well-rounded flavor.
Spices come in various forms, and are ground to different degrees fineness. Coarse ground spices may be visible in the product, while the fine ground va rieties are nearly indistinguishable. Since most spices have some bacteria, these spices can be purified with ethy lene oxide to reduce their bacterial loads or be sterilized by irradiation. Spice flavor compounds can be extracted in the form of oil or oleoresin. In the extracted forms, these flavor ings are free of bacteria and soluble in water.