Landjäger is a semidried sausage traditionally made in Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Alsace. It is popular as a snack food during activities such as hiking. It also has a history as soldier's food because it keeps without refrigeration and comes in single-meal portions. As a meal, landjäger sausage can be boiled and served with potatoes and fresh greens.

Different types of Landjäger

Name

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According to the Swiss German Dictionary, the name Landjäger was possibly derived from the dialect expression lang tige(n) 'smoked for a long time, air-cured for a long time.'[1] The humorous reinterpretation in the sense of 'mounted police' may be inspired by comparing the stiffness of sausages with the perceived military rigidity of a police officer.[2][3] The Alsatian and French names for smoked air-cured sausage, Gendarm and gendarme, are apparently translations of the folk-etymologized German name. "Jäger" should be remembered as a direct, simplified translation from German, meaning "hunter." This could explain the sausage's renewed popularity in the more northern and German-settled parts of the United States. Dedicated hunters consider landjägers as food for hunters taking game to carry on the traditions associated with a lifestyle from previous generations of hunters. A very similar semi-dried sausage known as salamino cacciatore (translation: "hunter's sausage") is traditionally produced in Central and Northern Italy.

Ingredients

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Landjäger sausages are made of roughly equal portions of beef and pork with lard, sugar, red wine, and spices, such as caraway, black pepper, coriander seed, and garlic.[4][5] They are each 15–20 cm (6–8 in) in length, made into links of two. Before smoking and drying, they are pressed into a mold, which gives them their characteristic rectangular cross-section of about 2+12 cm × 1 cm (1 in × 12 in). Typically, a pair of Landjäger weighs about 100 g and contains about 516 kcal. In Austria, Landjäger is sometimes made using horse meat.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "What is Landjaeger?". hemplers. 2021. Retrieved Dec 30, 2022.
  2. ^ "Landjäger". Schweizerisches Idiotikon. p. 21.
  3. ^ "Tige(n)fleisch". Schweizerisches Idiotikon. p. 1121.
  4. ^ "Landjäger / Gendarmes". Culinary Heritage of Switzerland. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  5. ^ L, Daniel (May 5, 2021). "Make your own Landjäger – Perfect Brotzeitsnack". wurstcircle. Retrieved Dec 30, 2022.
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