Sausage is seasoned ground meat — most often pork, but also beef, lamb, poultry or game — blended with fat, salt and spices and stuffed into a casing. Fresh sausages such as bratwurst, breakfast links and fennel-flecked Italian sausage are grilled, fried or simmered before eating; cured and dried sausages such as salami and chorizo are fermented and aged until firm enough to slice and eat raw. Juicy, salty and deeply savoury, it is one of the oldest and most widespread of all prepared meats.