Fish Sausage Recipe: How to Make Homemade Fish Sausage

Fish sausage is a type of sausage made from finely minced fish meat and seasonings stuffed into a sausage casing or shaped into a fish cake or patty. Like meat sausages, seafood sausages may include other ingredients like scallops, pork fat, and binders like bread crumbs, cornstarch, or egg whites.

You can make fish sausage from many types of fish and seasonings, and the ground fish can be coarse or fine. These are some popular varieties of fish sauces in different cuisines around the globe:

1. 1. Kamaboko: Also known as Japanese fish cake, kamaboko is sold as a casing-less pink-and-white log. It's made from surimi, a ground fish paste. Narutomaki is the version of kamaboko with a pink swirl in the center that’s often added to noodle soups.
2. 2. Soondae: Soondae is a Korean blood sausage that’s typically made with meat but can also be made with squid or Alaska pollock.
3. 3. Italian sausage: For an Italian-style fish sausage, you can coarsely grind the fish and flavor the mixture with red pepper, fennel, coriander, and paprika.
4. 4. Halkolbász: This Hungarian fish sausage is made with catfish, lard, garlic, and onion, and cumin seeds. Stuffed in pork intestines, it gets its red color from Hungarian paprika and is sometimes smoked.

Raw sausages can be boiled, fried, smoked, steamed, or even microwaved. Fish sausage can be put in a casing, formed into a patty, or sliced as a topping:

1. 1. Fish burgers or sliders: Casing-less fish sausages can be formed into patties and eaten as a burger or slider.
2. 2. Fish hot dogs: Fish sausages can be served in a toasted hot dog bun.
3. 3. Noodle soup: Japanese ramen and soba noodle soups often feature a slice or two of kamaboko.
4. 4. Jeon: This Korean dish is made by slicing fish sausage (or another type of sausage), dredging the pieces in flour, and coating them in egg before sautéing.