Sausages have been around for a very long time but the sausage types with which we are so familiar today have been developed and refined by craftsmen over the past 3000 years or more. These same craftsmen have passed on the art of making a good sausage from one generation to the next for thousands of years. The word sausage comes from the Latin word salsus which means salt or salted. The Romans were making sausage using salt as a preservative over 2000 years ago. At that time salt was in great demand and the modern English word "salary" is also derived from the Latin term for wages which translated into "salt money." We know that the ancient Egyptians were skilled sausage makers long before the Romans and since then a tradition of sausage making has been fostered by skilled butchers whose knowledge of meat, meat preservation, meat processing methods and the use of herbs and spices has been developed into what has, essentially, become an art form practiced by professionals and amateurs alike throughout the world.