Summer sausage is any sausage

Sausage

A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...

 that can be kept without refrigeration

Refrigeration

Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...

. Summer sausage is usually a mixture of pork and other meat such as beef or venison

Venison

Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer but also other animals such as antelope, wild boar, etc.-Etymology:The word derives from the Latin vēnor...

. Summer sausage can be dried or smoked, and while curing ingredients vary significantly, curing salt

Curing salt

Prague powder #1 or pink salt contains 93.75% table salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite. Prague powder #2 contains sodium nitrate in addition to sodium nitrite. Both kinds are used in the preserving and curing of meats, and in sausage making...

 is almost always used. Seasonings may include mustard seeds, black pepper, garlic salt, or sugar.

Summer sausage, like many sausages, uses leftover scrap meat and organ meat that would otherwise be wasted. However some brands of summer sausage do not use scrap meats.

Traditionally, summer sausage is a fermented sausage with a low pH to slow bacterial growth

Bacteria

Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

 and give a longer shelf life, causing a tangy taste. The distinctive taste can be copied using citric acid

Citric acid

Citric acid is a weak organic acid. It is a natural preservative/conservative and is also used to add an acidic, or sour, taste to foods and soft drinks...

 as a shortcut to keeping cultures to ferment the following batch.

In Spain, summer sausage is known as "salchichón", and is a sausage cured for three months elaborated with Iberico pork, chopped in thin bits of lean meat and fat, seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, oregano and garlic and then inserted in thick natural pork intestines.

A summer sausage popular in North Dakota

North Dakota

North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....

occasionally adds cheese. This type is smoked and is best kept and eaten cold, though it can be cooked.