Summer Sausage substitute

Best substitute

Hard salami or Genoa salami

Use the same amount as the summer sausage you are replacing

Best for charcuterie boards

Taste and texture differ

The most available swap and a good one. Both are cured, fermented, sliceable sausages that need no cooking. Salami is drier and firmer, so it has more chew and less give, and it leads with garlic, black pepper and often wine rather than the mustard-seed and smoke notes of summer sausage. It is also usually less sour, so a cheese board made with it reads richer and less bright.

Other summer sausage substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Lebanon bologna
Close match
Use the same amount
The closest match on flavor that exists, if you can find it.
What changes
A Pennsylvania Dutch fermented and cold-smoked all-beef sausage that is genuinely tangy, sometimes more so than summer sausage, with a coarse texture and a heavy smoke. Sweet Lebanon bologna adds brown sugar and lands closer to a mild summer sausage; the regular kind is sharper.
Best for
charcuterie boards, sandwiches with sharp cheese and mustard, cubed for snacking, anywhere the tang matters
Mostly sold in the Mid-Atlantic and by mail order. It slices softer than summer sausage, so keep it cold and use a sharp knife. Its smoke is stronger, which is welcome with cheddar and slightly loud in a mild dish.
3Cervelat, Thuringer or Landjaeger
Close match
Use the same amount
Same family, and in the American market cervelat and Thuringer are often just other names for summer sausage.
What changes
Cervelat is milder and finer-textured. Thuringer usually carries more coriander and a sharper tang. Landjaeger is a small dried semi-dry snack stick, firmer and much more concentrated, closer to jerky in density than to a slicing sausage.
Best for
charcuterie boards, camping and hiking, snacking, gift baskets
If the label says semi-dry or fermented, you have the right thing and no adjustment is needed. Landjaeger is dense enough that you should slice on a steep bias or cut it into small coins rather than trying for wide rounds.
4Soppressata
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
An Italian dry-cured sausage, coarser and more rustic than salami, with real fermented depth.
What changes
It is drier and considerably more peppery, sometimes with chile heat, and the fat is more visible and softer. On a board it is a genuine upgrade in complexity, but nobody would mistake it for summer sausage.
Best for
charcuterie boards, antipasto platters, sandwiches, with strong cheeses
Because it is fully dried it is much more concentrated by weight, so allow perhaps two thirds as much per person. Let slices sit 10 minutes at room temperature or the fat stays waxy.
5Pepperoni
Different taste
Use the same amount
Widely available and does the sliceable, no-cook job.
What changes
It is much spicier from paprika and cayenne, considerably greasier at room temperature, and has its own fermented tang, though a different one. On crackers with cheese it works. In a recipe where summer sausage was the mild savory element, pepperoni takes the dish over.
Best for
crackers and cheese, quick snack trays, cubed into pasta salads, when it is what the store has
Stick pepperoni sliced thick is much closer to summer sausage than the thin pizza-topping slices. Blot the slices, pepperoni releases a lot of orange fat as it warms up.
6Kielbasa or ring bologna (only if you are cooking)
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
The honest limitation of this list: cooked smoked sausages give you the shape, the smoke and the salt, but none of the sour fermented tang, and they are soft and moist rather than firm and dry.
What changes
Cold on a board, kielbasa tastes flabby where summer sausage tastes bright. Sliced into a soup, beans or a skillet, the difference matters much less.
Best for
soups and bean dishes, skillet meals, cooked casseroles, grilling
If you need it cold, add tang from outside the sausage: mustard, cornichons or a splash of vinegar in the accompanying dressing. Ring bologna is milder still. Neither is shelf stable, so both need refrigeration.

What is Summer Sausage?

Summer Sausage is Summer sausage is a semi-dry fermented and lightly smoked sausage of beef and pork, firm enough to slice and eat cold without cooking, and sold regionally as cervelat or Thuringer.

Cooking tips

What makes summer sausage distinctive is the tang, and the tang comes from fermentation, the same lactic acid process that sours yogurt. That is why plain smoked sausage never tastes right in its place. Any good substitute is either also fermented, like salami or Lebanon bologna, or needs acidity added alongside it in the form of mustard, pickles or vinegar.
Slice it cold and thin. Straight from the fridge it cuts into clean rounds; at room temperature the fat softens and it tears. Once sliced, let the rounds sit out 10 minutes before serving, because cold fat tastes waxy and muted.
It is already fully cured and needs no cooking, and the name comes from being stable enough to keep without refrigeration in warm weather. That said, once you cut into a commercial sausage, refrigerate it and use it within about three weeks.
The casing is usually not meant to be eaten. Fibrous and plastic casings should be peeled off as you go rather than all at once, since the casing protects the cut face from drying. Some artisan versions use natural casings that are edible, and a chalky white bloom on the outside of a dry-cured sausage is a harmless beneficial mould.
In a cooked dish, expect it to behave nothing like fresh sausage. Cubed summer sausage will not brown, crumble or render much fat into a pan, because the fat is already set within a cured protein matrix. Use it as a salty smoky addition stirred in late, not as a base you fry first.
If you are making cured or fermented sausage at home rather than buying it, do not improvise on salt, curing salts, starter culture or fermentation temperature. Those quantities exist for safety, not flavor. Follow a tested recipe exactly and use the guidance from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Frequently asked questions

Does summer sausage need to be cooked?

No. It is fermented, cured and smoked, which makes it ready to eat straight from the package. That is the whole point of the style and the reason it turns up in gift baskets and camping supplies. You can warm or grill it if you want, and slices will brown a little, but it gains nothing in safety terms.

Can I use salami instead of summer sausage?

Yes, at 1:1, and it is the most practical swap. Expect a firmer, drier slice with more garlic and pepper and less of the sour tang that defines summer sausage. On a board nobody will complain. If you want to close the gap, serve it with a sharp mustard or a few cornichons, which supplies the acidity salami is missing.

Can I just leave it out?

On a charcuterie board, yes, easily, as long as something else brings the salty cured element, whether that is salami, prosciutto or even a good aged cheddar. In a recipe such as a pasta salad or a cheesy dip it is providing salt and savory depth rather than structure, so leaving it out will make the dish taste flat rather than break it. Compensate with a little extra salt and something smoky like a pinch of smoked paprika.

Is summer sausage the same as cervelat or Thuringer?

In the American market they are largely overlapping names for the same category of semi-dry fermented sausage, and manufacturers use them fairly loosely. In Europe cervelat and Thuringer are distinct traditional styles with their own recipes. If a label says semi-dry, fermented or summer sausage style, you can treat it as interchangeable.

Why is it called summer sausage?

Because it was made to keep through the warm months without refrigeration. Fermentation drops the pH, curing salt and smoke add further protection, and drying removes enough water that the sausage stays stable at room temperature. Modern commercially made summer sausage often has a higher moisture content and the label will tell you to keep it refrigerated after opening, so follow the package rather than the name.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Summer Sausage substitute

Other summer sausage substitutes

2Lebanon bologna

3Cervelat, Thuringer or Landjaeger

4Soppressata

5Pepperoni

6Kielbasa or ring bologna (only if you are cooking)