It occurs to me I didn't specify why sausages were a good investment.
For 1 raw meat, two entrails, and four thistles, you'll get 4 sausages. The roadblock is usually foraging thistle. The good news is that it grows in swamp and black forest biomes pretty regularly and it's amazingly obvious (it actually glows a soft blue-green color; must be radioactive).
If you've made your way into the swamps, keep an eye out for turnip flowers. Turnips can be made into turnip stew (1 raw meat, 3 turnips for one bowl), another solid foodstuff. Carrot soup isn't bad but you have to keep foraging the red mushrooms (which can be a bit of a chore).
Anyways, I've been climbing mountains. Drakes and wolves aren't too bad, but man, stone golems are brutal. Amusingly, they WILL attack other enemies (much the same way skeletons and greydwarfs get into fights). Good times.