Wherever in you find yourself in the world, you're never too far from a sausage – many countries have their own signature styles, offering a slew of traditional dishes made with the meaty ingredients. Fresh, cured or fermented, grilled, fried, braised or barbecued, we've rounded up the best sausages from around the globe – from familiar favourites to lesser-known styles that every food lover should try.

Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the world's best sausages, counting down to the most universally beloved of all.

We've based our ranking on the enduring popularity of each sausage in its place of origin and beyond, and on the opinions of our well-travelled (and well-fed) team. The list is unavoidably subjective. 

Andouille is a large smoked sausage from France, made with pork chitterlings (intestines), tripe, onions and wine. Its origins can be traced back to the Middle Ages – and these days, it's popular in Brittany and Normandy, where it's usually steamed, then served cold and sliced. With a strong, almost pungent aroma, it's something of an acquired taste. Andouille sausage shouldn't be confused with the smaller, unsmoked andouillette, which is made from the large intestine and stomach of a pig; the most famous variety is the andouillette de Troyes from the Champagne-Ardenne region, which is often served hot from the grill.

Unusually, this Welsh sausage contains no meat. Named after the Welsh county of Glamorgan, it's made from cheese (usually Caerphilly, a crumbly white cheese from the Welsh town of the same name), breadcrumbs and leeks or onions. Glamorgan sausages date back to the mid-19th century, but they became especially popular during World War II, when rationing meant meat was scarce. The sausages have a mild, cheesy flavour and a soft texture inside, which contrasts perfectly with their crisp breadcrumb coating. They're typically served as a starter with pickles, or as a main course with mashed potatoes.

Hailing from the Swiss canton of Graubünden, this salami-style sausage is made from a mixture of beef and pork. Its rectangular shape gives it a unique appearance, achieved by pressing the meat in a wooden mould before it’s hung up to dry for several weeks. Typically sliced and eaten with bread and cheese, salsiz is perfect as part of a charcuterie board or packed lunch. Some traditional Swiss dishes make use of it too, including capuns dumplings.

You're most likely to find this bright red smoked sausage at a traditional British fish and chip shop. Saveloy sausages were traditionally made with pork brains, but modern versions feature finely ground and emulsified pork, flavoured with herbs and spices like mace, paprika, cayenne, white pepper and sage. A beef collagen casing provides a snappy bite, contrasting with the smooth, highly flavoured filling. Saveloys are boiled or battered, deep fried and typically served with chips.

Originating in the central Swedish city of Falun in the 16th century, Falukorv is a large, mildly spiced sausage. Made with grated smoked pork (plus beef or veal), it's smoked once more before being cooked in a red plastic casing. The flavour is sometimes described as somewhere between a hot dog and SPAM. This inexpensive sausage is often eaten in Swedish homes – either pan fried, sliced and served with creamed macaroni, or baked in the oven and devoured with mashed potatoes.

Made with mutton spiced with garlic and chilli, Pleşcoi sausages are delightfully savoury and spicy. They’re named after the village of Pleşcoi, their traditional home, and they may be grilled in large spirals or cooked over an open fire. The fiery seasoning was introduced by Serbian and Bulgarian people who settled in the area. Produced in small quantities, Pleşcoi sausages have protected geographical indication (PGI) status in the EU, though most producers don’t have a licence to make and sell them outside of Romania.

This spicy, dry-cured ground beef sausage is a national dish of Turkey. The sausage, whose name is sometimes spelled sucuk, is seasoned with a mix of spices that can include cayenne pepper, garlic, cumin and sumac. Firm in texture and with a high fat content, the sausage is often pan fried and served as part of a kahvaltı (Turkish breakfast) with cheese, olives, bread and honey. Variations on sujuk, made with beef or lamb, can be found in Balkan, Middle Eastern and Central Asian cuisines. 

Related to Spanish chorizo, the hot and spicy Goa sausage, from the west coast of India, gets its distinctively tangy flavour from the addition of toddy, a coconut vinegar. Also known as choris, Goa sausages are made by combining fatty pork chunks with chilli, spices and vinegar, then stuffing the mixture into pig, goat or cow intestines. The sausages, which can be long or made into stubby ‘rosary’ sausages (so called because they look like rosary beads), are smoked, sun dried and served in a chilli fry with onions and potatoes. 

A variety of meats might be used in this Portuguese sausage, from pork or chicken to rabbit, or even quail. However, one ingredient that always features is bread, which is mixed into the meat for texture. The sausage style was developed by Portugal’s Jewish population in the late 15th century, and it's often associated with the city of Mirandela. It’s regularly flavoured with garlic, as well as sweet or hot paprika, and it's smoked before being served up with sides such as chips or fried eggs. It's used in some traditional Portuguese dishes, too.

This cured and dried pork sausage, typically eaten as a starter or in a sandwich, is flavoured with ground anise seeds, lending it a distinctive sweet herbal aroma and flavour. It's made from ground pork shoulder, but beef can also feature in the mix (for added depth of flavour), along with garlic, wine or vinegar, and spices including allspice, nutmeg and paprika. Variations of longaniza can be found in many cuisines, including those of Chile, Mexico, Peru, Spain and Uruguay.

Originating in the north of the country, this spicy pork sausage is now popular all over Thailand. Fatty minced pork is boldly flavoured with red Thai curry paste and other seasonings, which may include makrut lime and coriander, before being stuffed into natural casings. Sai ua is served grilled with sticky rice, either as part of a larger meal, or as a snack or starter.

Often called the national sausage of Switzerland, cervelat is a fine-textured mix of beef, pork and bacon, and it can be flavoured with onion, garlic, nutmeg and coriander. Sold lightly smoked and boiled, cervelat can be served cold, chopped into a Wurst-Käse salat (sausage salad) with Gruyère or, more often, cut crosswise at each end and cooked on a stick over an open fire, as pictured.

Morteau is a French smoked sausage from the Franche-Comté region. Named after the city of Morteau, the sausage is traditionally made with the shoulder and belly of the porc de Franche-Comté breed of pig. The meat is smoked for 48 hours over conifer and juniper wood in pyramid-shaped chimneys called tuyés. Fatty, firm textured and strongly flavoured, Morteau is served alongside potatoes or pulses in several classic French dishes – including cassoulet (a slow-cooked bean casserole), choucroute garnie (a type of sauerkraut from the Alsace region) and petit salé aux lentilles (a stew made with puy lentils).

Named after the Hungarian city of Debrecen, this Austrian favourite is flavoured with sweet paprika. The pork sausage, which is given an orange-red colour by its seasoning, can be found at würstelstand (sausage stand) locations around Austria, and it's typically eaten with bread and mustard or ketchup. It’s also a popular ingredient in goulash, a Hungarian stew that goes heavy on the paprika. You can find versions of it throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, including in Italy, Poland and Czechia.

This simple sausage, made with raw pork and spices, is thought to be based on the ancient Roman botulu sausage, and it's a staple of Catalan cooking. In its simplest form, it’s flavoured only with salt and pepper; however, variations on the botifarra (also known as butifarra) include the botifarra d’ou (with egg), the botifarra d’arròs (with rice) and the botifarra bisbe (with blood and tripe).

This pale poached sausage can be made with finely minced veal, chicken or pork, and it's traditionally eaten hot, with apples. Boudin blanc de Rethel, from the Ardennes region of northern France, was awarded protected status in 2001. Made from 75% lean pork and 25% fat, its ingredients include egg yolks, milk, shallots, white pepper and nutmeg – and stiffly beaten egg whites give it a particularly light texture.

Popular across Southern Africa, boerewors (farmer’s sausage) is made from coarsely minced beef, pork, lamb or goat, flavoured with a spice mix that can include coriander seeds, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. The sausage is sometimes also made with the meat of springbok or oryx antelopes. It's traditionally cooked on a braai (a South African barbecue) and served with pap, a maize meal porridge.

Hailing from the south of France, this coarsely minced sausage is made with fatty pork shoulder and belly. It's flavoured simply with black pepper and nutmeg, and it's a key ingredient in cassoulet, a slow-cooked bean casserole. Like British Cumberland sausage, Toulouse sausage is sold in coiled lengths, and it can be grilled, fried or baked. It also lends mild spice and texture to other, less famous French soups and stews, including garbure, which is made with confit duck, ham hock, white beans and vegetables. 

Chipolatas – small, thin sausages made with coarsely ground pork – are synonymous with traditional British Christmas dinners; they’re wrapped in bacon to make pigs in blankets. However, they get their name from cipolla, the Italian word for onion, despite a distinct lack of onion in their recipe (the term was originally used to describe a stew of onions and small sausages). Meanwhile, in French cuisine, the term 'à la chipolata' refers to a dish served with a mixture of chestnuts, pearl onions, carrots, mushrooms, bacon and fried chipolatas in a Madeira sauce.

This large pork sausage, associated with the Italian regions of Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Piedmont, gets its richness from equal quantities of finely ground rind and fat, and lean meat. The filling is flavoured with a mix of spices and herbs including coriander, allspice, ginger, cinnamon and pepper. The sausage, which requires long, slow cooking, is most famously served as part of bollito misto: a dish of boiled meats that traditionally includes beef, veal, chicken, tongue and calf’s head.

This distinctively long and thin smoked pork sausage, folded in the middle, has been made in Poland since the Middle Ages. Chilli and black pepper lend kabanos sausages a piquant flavour, and they can be soft or hard, depending on how long they've been smoked – and hot or mild, depending on the level of spice added. The sausage is most commonly served sliced as a snack, but it can also be used as a pizza topping or added to salads or pasta sauces.

British black pudding is made by stuffing a mixture of fresh (or dried) pigs' blood, back fat, onions, oatmeal and seasonings into casings, then simmering in water until cooked. It's mostly associated with the Midlands and the North of England; one of the most famous regional variations is the horseshoe-shaped Bury black pudding, which dates back to the early 19th century. With a rich, earthy flavour and a crumbly texture, black pudding is often served as part of a full English breakfast. It's a close relation of the French boudin noir and the Spanish morcilla. 

This spiced, cured, smoked and air-dried sausage is easily recognisable, thanks to its bright red hue, fine texture and smoky flavour. Although it borrows its name from peperoni, the Italian word for bell peppers, it's thought to be an Italian American creation, dating back to the early 20th century. Flavourings can include paprika, chilli and fennel. Pepperoni is most often served as a pizza topping, of course, but it can also be added to salads, sandwiches and pasta dishes, lending a piquant, peppery flavour. The biggest selling pepperoni brand in the US is Hormel, which makes its sausages from pork and beef flavoured with paprika and garlic.

A popular street food order at Austria’s many sausage stands, Käsekrainer is a lightly smoked, parboiled pork sausage containing pieces of cheese, created in the 1970s by a pair of enterprising butchers. It can be roasted, grilled, fried or boiled – when cooked, the cheese melts, resulting in a delicious ooze. It's traditionally served with mustard and horseradish, but it’s also popular in hot dog form, served in a hollowed-out bun with ketchup.

This large, soft textured, steamed – and very pink – pork sausage originated in 14th-century Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It's threaded with strips of salted pork fat, which produce a mosaic effect when the sausage is sliced. Mortadella can also contain peppercorns, pistachios or olives. It's typically served as finger food, but it's also an ingredient in tortellini alla Bolognese. Bologna sausage, or baloney, is the US equivalent of mortadella, though it doesn't contain visible pieces of fat due to US government regulations.

This traditional British pork sausage was created in the historic county of Cumberland, northwest England, around 500 years ago. Its spiral shape makes it instantly recognisable, and its coarse texture is equally distinctive, flavoured with white pepper, salt and small amounts of cayenne and nutmeg. Whether grilled, baked or pan fried, the sausage is traditionally served with mashed potatoes and apple sauce. Ninth generation butcher's shop RB Woodall in Waberthwaite, Cumbria claims to be ‘The Home of Cumberland Sausage’, with a recipe that's said to date back centuries.

This spicy lamb or beef sausage is a mainstay of the cuisine of the Maghreb region of northwest Africa. It's especially popular in Morocco and Tunisia, where it's often served sizzling from the grill as a street food. The merguez sausage gets its complex, deep flavours and characteristic red colour from a mix of harissa and cumin (other flavourings might include garlic and fennel seeds). It's usually grilled and is sometimes served with couscous.

Lap cheong is a dried pork sausage from southern China that’s preserved with sugar and wine. Resembling a thin salami, it's dark red with flecks of fat, and its flavour leans more towards sweet than spicy. A versatile ingredient, it appears in many stir-fries and rice and chicken dishes. If ‘Chinese sausage’ is listed in a recipe, it's likely to refer to lap cheong; however, it could also mean a different cured sausage such as yun chang, which is made with duck liver.

The word salami doesn't refer to a single type of sausage; rather, it's a whole family of dried Italian slicing sausages. Usually unsmoked, salami can be made from pork, beef or vitellone (young beef, similar to veal), and they're pink in appearance, flecked with white fat. Regional variations include the mild Milanese, flavoured with garlic, and the spicy Sardinian sardo, made with red pepper. Salami are typically eaten with bread, cheese and pickles. 

First made in Nuremberg in the early 1300s, bratwurst is a German grilling or frying sausage made from pork, beef or veal. Varieties range from the long, thick and coarse Fränkische bratwurst, flavoured with marjoram, to the Swabian region's short, stubby and spicy rote würst, made with ground beef and pork belly (with flavourings including white pepper, garlic, mace, coriander and ginger). Bratwursts are served simply with bread or potatoes and, often, sauerkraut.

Originating from Calabria in southern Italy, this spiced, soft and spreadable fermented sausage is made by grinding pigs' offal with fatty cuts of pork, fiery Calabrian chilli and salt. Originally a peasant dish, the hot and slightly sour sausage, which is sometimes also smoked, is often eaten spread on bread. Since the mid-2010s, 'nduja has become a favourite ingredient of chefs and home cooks worldwide; these days, it might appear on pizzas or in pasta sauces, and it can even be used to flavour chicken wings. 

Smoked paprika lends this Spanish pork sausage its ruddy hue and beguilingly spicy flavour. Chorizo can be hot (picante) or sweet (dulce), and it can either come as a dried and cured sausage ring, ready for slicing and eating, or as smaller fresh sausage links, ready to cook. Fresh chorizo can be cooked in cider or red wine and served as a tapa, while the dried and cured sausage can be served in numerous ways – including in a classic Spanish potato tortilla.

As its name suggests, the Frankfurter was invented in in the central German city of Frankfurt, all the way back in the mid-17th century. The cold smoked sausage gets its soft texture from a blend of lean pork and bacon fat, seasoned with coriander, garlic and onion, while its pink colour comes from saltpetre (potassium nitrate). In Germany, the sausage is typically eaten with bread and mustard or potato salad, but it's become world famous as the sausage that goes in a hot dog.

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Last updated by Laura Ellis.