Contents
250 kcal for boiled, 450-560 for smoked
Kolbasa is the Russian word for sliced sausage, and its calories depend on how much fat and water it contains:
- boiled (doktorskaya, "milk" sausage): 250-260 kcal per 100 g;
- lyubitelskaya, with pieces of fatback: about 300;
- semi-smoked (Krakowska, Poltavska): 380-470;
- cervelat: about 460;
- dry-cured and salami: 470-560.
A 3-4 mm round of doktorskaya, the classic Russian boiled sausage, weighs 20-25 g and has 50-65 kcal. A slice of cervelat weighs only 5 g, about 23 kcal.
Table: calories in sausage by type
Figures per 100 g come from the Skurikhin food tables and labels of mass-market brands. Recipes differ between producers, so always check the pack.
| Sausage | kcal per 100 g | Protein, g | Fat, g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lean boiled ham | 120-180 | 14-18 | 6-12 |
| Boiled chicken sausage | 200-230 | 11-13 | 16-19 |
| Doktorskaya | 257 | 12.8 | 22.2 |
| Milk sausage | 252 | 11.7 | 22.8 |
| Lyubitelskaya | 301 | 12.2 | 28 |
| Liver sausage | 300-330 | 12-15 | 27-29 |
| Semi-smoked | 380-470 | 15-16 | 34-44 |
| Cervelat, cooked and smoked | 460 | 24 | 40 |
| Dry-cured | 470-500 | 24-25 | 41-45 |
| Salami | 500-560 | 20-22 | 45-52 |
About 80% of the calories in boiled sausage and more than 85% in smoked come from fat. Boiled sausage has 11-13 g of protein per 100 g, half as much as a piece of chicken or beef.
How many calories in a slice of sausage
Sausage is usually eaten by the slice, and the slice weight depends a lot on the type. Doktorskaya, the Soviet-era boiled sausage, is cut in thick, wide rounds, while cervelat and dry-cured sausage are sliced almost thin enough to see through:
| Sausage | Slice | Weight | kcal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doktorskaya | 3-4 mm round | 20-25 g | 51-64 |
| Doktorskaya | thick, 1 cm | 60 g | 154 |
| Lyubitelskaya | 3-4 mm round | 20-25 g | 60-75 |
| Semi-smoked | 3 mm round | 8-10 g | 35-45 |
| Cervelat | thin slice | 5-7 g | 23-32 |
| Dry-cured | thin slice | 4-5 g | 19-25 |
| Salami | pre-sliced | 3-4 g | 16-22 |
So "smoked is more caloric" holds per 100 g but not per sandwich, since three thin slices of cervelat, 15 g in all, come to 69 kcal, about the same as one round of doktorskaya. For pre-sliced sausage you can work out the slice weight by dividing the pack weight by the number of slices, and if you cut it yourself, weigh five rounds once. The thickness of the cut changes the calories more than the type of sausage does.
Sausage in sandwiches and salads
Sausage rarely ends up on the plate on its own; more often it's in a sandwich, Olivier salad, okroshka or solyanka, and this is how much it contributes:
| Dish | Sausage | kcal from sausage |
|---|---|---|
| Sandwich with doktorskaya | 25 g | 64 |
| Sandwich with cervelat | 15 g | 69 |
| Olivier salad, 150 g serving | about 25 g boiled | 64 |
| Okroshka, a bowl | 40-50 g boiled | 100-130 |
| Solyanka, a bowl | 40-60 g smoked meats | 150-250 |
| Pizza with sausage, a slice | 15-20 g salami | 75-110 |
A whole sausage sandwich also means bread and often butter. How the layers add up is covered in How many calories in an open sandwich, and a ready version is in the catalog: a sausage sandwich of 65 g has 192 kcal. In solyanka the smoked meats are a noticeable share of the bowl, and okroshka made with boiled sausage comes out more caloric than with boiled beef or chicken.
Sausage and weight loss
Nobody's banning sausage, but it has two weak spots. There's little protein for the calories: 100 kcal of doktorskaya gives about 5 g of protein against 21 g in 100 kcal of chicken breast, so if sausage stands in for meat, you'll be short of protein and hungry often. And there's a lot of salt, 2-2.5 g per 100 g in boiled sausage and 3.5-4.5 g in dry-cured, while the WHO advises no more than 5 g of salt a day in total and as little processed meat as possible. A sensible compromise is to keep sausage for a sandwich a couple of times a week and use roast chicken, turkey or lean ham on weekdays, which taste much the same in a sandwich at almost half the calories.
How to log sausage
The usual mistake is logging "a sandwich" and forgetting the three rounds of sausage on it. In MyFoodMate AI you can photograph the slices or the sandwiches, and the app recognises the type of sausage and estimates the grams, or if you know the exact weight, just write "doktorskaya 50 g".
Frequently asked questions
A slice of baton with a 25 g round of doktorskaya and a 15 g slice of cheese comes to about 185 kcal, or about 220 with butter underneath. The lightest options are lean boiled ham at 120-180 kcal per 100 g and boiled chicken sausage at 200-230, though it's still worth checking the label, as "chicken" sausage is sometimes fattier than doktorskaya. As for how much sausage a day is fine, the WHO's answer is as little as possible, and if sausage is part of your diet, 30-50 g a couple of times a week is a reasonable compromise on both calories and salt.
We check blog materials against current WHO recommendations.
