Exotic Meat Market offers ANTELOPE Salami made from American
ANTELOPE Meat. No Beef or Pork Added to make our ANTELOPE Salami. CAMEL FAT ADDED FOR FLAVOR.
What is Salami? Salami is a type of cured sausage
consisting of fermented and air-dried meat, typically beef or pork.
Historically, salami was popular among southern and central European peasants
because it stores at room temperature for up to 40 days once cut, supplementing
a potentially meager or inconsistent supply of fresh meat. Countries and
regions across Europe make their own traditional varieties of salami.
The word salami in English comes from the plural form of
the Italian salame. It is a singular or plural word in English for cured meats
of a European (particularly Italian) style. In Romanian, Bulgarian, and
Turkish, the word is salam; in Hungarian, it is szalámi; while Spanish, French,
German, and Dutch, have the same word as English. The name may be derived from
the Latin words "salsiccia" and "salumen". The word
originates from the word sale (salt) with a termination (ame) that in Italian
indicates a collective noun. Thus, it originally meant "all kinds of
salted (meats)". The Italian tradition of cured meats includes several
styles, and the word salame soon specifically meant only the most popular
kind—a salted and spiced meat, ground and extruded into an elongated, thin
casing (usually cleaned animal intestine), then left to undergo natural
fermentation for days, months, or even years.
The concept of fermentation—allowing beneficial or benign
organisms to grow in food to prevent destructive or toxic ones from
growing—especially with meat, has been around for thousands of years. This is
evident in the presence of various types of sausages found globally. As well,
environmental conditions dictate what food processes are used, as seen in the
Mediterranean and southern Europe where "meat products are dried to lower
water activity (Aw) values, taking advantage of the long dry and sunny days,
while in northern Europe, fermented sausages require smoking for further
preservation. In Europe, the main countries that produce salami are France,
Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Spain, which make "several of hundred million
kg per year.
Worldwide, there are many different versions of sausage,
each with its own cultural and flavor profiles. Additionally, each sausage has
its own type of seasonings and amount of salt, making each flavor and texture
unique. This wide array of fermented sausages, especially in terms of salami,
shows its ubiquitous but exclusive nature. For example, due to immigration to
North America, European settlers brought many traditions, including fermented
meats such as bologna or pepperoni. Similar types of sausages are found in the
Middle East, where various meats like beef, lamb, and mutton are used; or in
China, where "lap cheong" (translated as "waxed intestines")
are usually pork. Likewise, in eastern Europe, Hungarian salami is quite
popular. Hungarian salami is "intensively smoked, and then its surface is
inoculated with mold starters or spontaneous mold growth.
Traditional salami, with its typical marbled appearance, is
made from beef or pork (sometimes specifically veal). Beef is usual in halal
and kosher salami, which never include pork for religious reasons. Makers also
use other meats, including venison and poultry (mostly turkey). Goose salami is
traditional in parts of Northern Italy. Salami has also been made from horse
meat. In the Provence region of France, donkey meat is used for salami as well,
the product being sold in street markets. Typical additional ingredients
include:
Garlic
Minced fat
Salt
Spices, usually white pepper
Various herbs
Vinegar
Wine
The maker usually ferments the raw meat mixture for a day,
then stuffs it into either an edible natural or inedible cellulose casing, and
hangs it up to cure. Some recipes apply heat to about 40 °C (104 °F) to accelerate
fermentation and drying. Higher temperatures (about 60 °C (140 °F)) stop the
fermentation when the salami reaches the desired pH, but the product is not
fully cooked (75 °C (167 °F) or higher). Makers often treat the casings with an
edible mold (Penicillium) culture. The mold imparts flavor, helps the drying
process, and helps prevent spoilage during curing.
Salami varieties include:
Cacciatore (cacciatora, cacciatorini) "hunter"
salami, Italy
Chorizo, also spicy Iberian variant
Ciauscolo, typical of Marche
Fegatelli
Felino, province of Parma
Finocchiona, typical of southern Tuscany
Genovese
German salami
Hard
Kulen spicy salami characteristic for Slavonia, Vojvodina,
and parts of Baranya
Lardo
Napoletano, Napoli
Milanese, Milano
'Nduja
Pepperoni
Saucisson sec (French "dry sausage")
Soppressata, typical of Calabria
Spegepølse (Danish, means salted and dried sausage)
Vysočina
Winter salami (Hungarian téliszalámi)
Many Old World salami are named after their region or
country of origin—such as Arles, Genoa, Hungarian, and Milano salami. Many are
flavored with garlic. Some types—including some varieties from Spain
(salchichón), Hungary (pick salami), and Italy (such as Neapolitan varieties
that led to American pepperoni) include paprika or chili powder. Varieties also
differ by coarseness or fineness of the chopped meat and size and style of the
casing.
Though completely uncooked, salami is not raw, but cured.
Salame cotto—typical of the Piedmont region in Italy—is cooked or smoked before
or after curing to impart a specific flavor but not for any benefit of cooking.
Before cooking, a cotto salame is considered raw and not ready to eat. Three
major stages are involved in the production of salami: preparation of raw
materials, fermentation and ripening and drying. Any minor differences in the
formulation of the meat or production techniques could give rise to the various
kinds of salami across different countries.
Before fermentation, raw meat (usually pork or beef
depending on the type of salami that is produced) is milled and mixed with
other ingredients such as salt, sugar, spices, and yeast, and, if the
particular salami variety requires it, bacterial starter culture. They are then
inlaid into their casings with the desired size. To achieve the flavor and
texture that salami possesses, fermentation, which can also be referred to as a
slow acidification process promoting a series of chemical reactions in the
meat, has to take place. Direct acidification of meat was found to be
inappropriate for salami production since it causes protein denaturation and an
uneven coagulation thereby causing an undesirable texture in the salami. For a
more modern controlled fermentation, makers hang the salami in warm humid
conditions for one to three days to encourage the fermenting bacteria to grow,
then hang it in a cool, humid environment to slowly dry. In a traditional
process, the maker skips the fermentation step and immediately hangs the salami
in a cool, humid curing environment. Added sugars (usually dextrose) provide a
food source for the curing bacteria.
The bacteria produce lactic acid as a waste product, which
lowers the pH and coagulates the proteins, reducing the meat's water-holding
capacity. The bacteria-produced acid makes the meat an inhospitable environment
for pathogenic bacteria and imparts a tangy flavor that distinguishes salami
from machine-dried pork. Salami flavor relies as much on how these bacteria are
cultivated as it does on the quality and variety of the other ingredients.
Originally, makers introduced wine into the mix, favoring the growth of other
beneficial bacteria. Now, they use starter cultures.
The climate of the curing environment and casing size and
style determine the drying and curing process. According to the variety of
salami, different fermentation methods involving different acids are explored
in order to create various colors and flavors. Starter cultures such as lactic
acid bacteria (LAB) and coagulase-negative cocci (CNC) are most commonly used
in salami production. More species of LAB and CNC were discovered during the
last decades and they were found to have different fermentation temperatures
with variable rates of acidification. Even though these bacteria can help
maintain a longer shelf life for meat products and even retard the growth of
pathogens, there are a few studies that argue some starter cultures may be
related to the production of enterotoxins or biogenic amines that can be
harmful to the human body. Therefore, starter cultures have to be carefully
selected by producers and properly used in fermentation.
After fermentation, the sausage must be dried. This change
the casings from water-permeable to reasonably airtight. A white covering of
either mold or flour helps prevent photo-oxidation of the meat and rancidity in
the fat. Ripening and drying happens after fermentation. This stage causes the
main physical and microbial changes through the large amount of water loss. About
half of the water is evaporated and further water loss must be prevented by
packaging. Nonuniform drying processes could cause the formation of a hard
shell on the surface of salami. This is like other food products such as fruits
that undergo dehydration to prevent water removal from inside which would increase
the risk of diseases or spoilage-causing microbial growth. In modern
manufacturing temperature and relative humidity are strictly controlled
according to the size of salami. Nitrates or nitrites are added to provide the
cured meat color and inhibit growth of harmful bacteria from the genus
Clostridium. Salt, acidity, nitrate/nitrite levels, and dryness of the fully
cured salami combine to make the uncooked meat safe to consume. High quality,
fresh ingredients are important to helping prevent deadly microorganisms and
toxins from developing.
Salami is homogeneous in appearance and highly ductile. Its
quality is dependent on the quality of the raw materials and the level of
technology used in its production. The aroma and taste of salami are developed
by enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions. The characteristic fermented meat flavor
is believed to be developed by a combination of endogenous enzymatic activities
and the lactic acid produced by the starter culture. Lactic acid bacteria
develop the tangy flavor of salami through the fermentation of carbohydrates
and produces an appealing red color to the meat after fermentation, while
coagulase-negative cocci can catabolize amino acid and fatty acid to produce
volatile compounds. The flavor itself consists of odor properties, which comes
from volatile substances, and taste and tactile properties, which comes from
non-volatile substances that are a result of enhancers and synergists.
When smoke is applied to salami, it also affects the taste,
smell, appearance, and texture. Some of these changes are due to the formation
of phenolic compounds, which slow fat oxidation. The pyrolysis of cellulose and
hemicelluloses in the salami casing produces carbonyls, which develop the color
of the meat.
More than 400 volatile compounds have been identified in
different types of dry-fermented sausages. For example, the organic compounds
identified in Hungarian salami produced the dominant flavors of smokiness,
sweetness, pungency, sourness, and cloves; secondary flavors included cooked
meat, cheese, popcorn, cooked potato, mushroom, seasoning, phenols, roasting,
sulfur, and sweatiness. Some minor flavors included malt, garlic, fruit, pine,
grass, citrus, honey, caramel, and vanilla. The overall smoky note is the
result of numerous phenols. Whether these odorants are formed in the salami or
simply transferred from the raw materials during manufacturing is unknown;
systematic studies have yet to compare the odorants present in the raw
materials to those in the final product.
Salami will remain stable for long periods of time, as it
has a low water activity and contains preservatives, colorings, flavorings,
antioxidants and acidifying cultures. Semi-ripened salami will maintain its flavor
for long periods of time under retail display conditions, but it will
eventually deteriorate due to the development of incipient rancidity. The shelf
life of salami is mainly determined by sensory deterioration, which is the
result of various oxidation phenomena; pathogenic or spoilage bacteria do not
readily proliferate in dry-cured sausage. The main cause of flavor
deterioration in dry-cured sausage is rancidity, though the possible formation
of other off-flavors, such as moldy, acid, putrid or pungent traits, may
contribute to the decreased eating quality.
The use of coriander essential oil in salami has been shown
to increase the higher synthetic antioxidant effect of butylated
hydroxytoluene, which delays lipid oxidation and the rancid aroma and taste
that come with it. Additionally, salami with coriander essential oil shows
improvements in the sensory attributes of taste, odor, texture, brightness, and
red color intensity.
Salami is a raw fermented sausage consisting of raw
comminuted pork and/or beef meat, fat, and additives, such as curing salt,
spices, sugar, and a starter culture.[20] There are multiple different types of
Salami meat in various markets around the world. In northern and central
Europe, smoked salamis are preferred, and ripening is controlled by the
addition of lactic acid-producing starter cultures, whereas in southern Europe,
salami is slowly air-dried and mostly mold-ripened.[20] Therefore, different
preservation and drying methods are used around the world to prepare salami.
Hungarian-type salami is a specialty in salami production,
because it is first slightly smoked and mold-ripened afterward. The salami that
is of Hungarian origin, the so-called "Hungarian Winter salami", is
made of raw pork, bacon, salt, spices, sugars, and sodium nitrite. Szegedi
téliszalámi (winter salami) is made of Mangalitsa pork breed, with horse large
intestine used as its casing to preserve and serve it. This type acquires a
grey mold cover on it and has a firm texture and excellent keeping quality
after a 30% weight loss reached in 3 to 4 months. Hungarian salami is one of
the world's two trade names for salami, Milano salami being the other. These
fermented sausages combine smoke and mold application in one. The traditional
technology used to produce them is based on the Italian pre-drying technique
developed during the nineteenth century, but they are smoked and their pH does
not drop below 5.5, so the final flavor of the product is not acidic.
Dry fermented sausage is an important product of the Greek
meat industry with an annual production of about 10 000 tons. Its manufacture
varies depending on the skill and experience of the meat manufacturer rather
than a process solely based on scientific and technological means of
production. This type of traditional sausage, which undergoes an adventitious
fermentation, is of superior quality compared to those inoculated with starters
and made in industrial scale. The quality of this type of traditional salami is
often more expensive due to its high quality.
Naples-type salami is also a popular Southern Italian dry
fermented sausage made of coarsely minced pork meat. In Northeast Italy,
traditional dry fermented salami sausages made of fresh pork display unique
organoleptic sensory profiles characterized by accented acidity, slight
sourness, and elastic semi hard consistency. Other popular dry salamis in Italy
are mainly made from a combination of pork and small bits of beef, seasoned
with garlic; pepperoni is also made of pork and beef, and is usually smoked;
and chorizo is highly spiced and smoked in comparison.
In central Europe, Germany, there is Westphalian salami. It
is made with fast technology from pork meat, pepper, garlic, and sometimes
mustard seeds, is a smoked, firm, sliceable product with a distinct
fermentation/sour flavor. The sausages are stuffed into large-diameter casings
and ripened by lowering the temperature room 24 °C to 12–14 °C until a water
loss of 25% is obtained. In the Netherlands, the most popular Dutch products
are finely chopped salami, Cervelat, Snijworst (with high fat content and rind
added), Boerenmetworst (which is coarsely chopped), and chorizo (which is less
spicy than the Spanish product). In Russia, typical products are Moscow-type
and Russian-type salamis made from pork and beef meat. A feature of Moscow-
type salami is the large size of fat particles (7–8mm) that give the sausage a
rough cover.
There are many aspects of salami that can be considered
both detrimental and positive to human health. Salami has been found to be a
possible allergen to some people due to the use of penicillium species mold
starter during the drying and curing portion of processing to add flavor and
stop growth of undesirable molds. These molds occur predominantly in the skin
of salami. Fermented pork back fat that is used to make salami has very high
saturated fatty acid and cholesterol content, which can increase the risk of
heart disease and pancreatitis. However, it has been shown that it is possible
to replace the pork back fat in salami with extra virgin olive oil thereby
changing the fatty acid profile of the salami. Olive oil consists of a much
larger amount of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which allows
this substitution to create a healthier product. Salami is considered slightly
acidic due to lactic acid that is present. In salami where the pork back fat
was substituted for extra virgin olive oil, it has shown to have a lower pH of
around 5.00 compared to its original levels of around 6.35 to 6.55 making the
salami more acidic. These lower pH levels are healthier for humans as higher
populations of lactic acid bacteria inhibit the spread of spoilage
microorganisms.
There have also been cases that have highlighted some of
the possible health dangers of salami. An outbreak of Escherichia coli O157
infection of a husband and wife was traced back to the consumption of dry
fermented salami made with pork meat after the couple was hospitalized for
bloody diarrhea. There was also an outbreak of E. coli O157 in 1994 with 17
cases all occurring from the consumption of pre-sliced salami that was
processed by one company. A research investigation of the factory where the
salami was processed found that all processing techniques and production
methods complied with all regulations and there was no evidence of
contamination after processing.
Preservation of any meat products is important. Some fungi
can create undesirable color and flavor to the contaminated meat and produce
toxins. There are also fungi which are not harmful to humans such as those that
are formed on the surface of dried salami which are an indication of maturation
after ripening. Thus, producers have to eliminate fungi that have potential
risks to human health. As natural preservatives are becoming more desirable
food additives than artificial preservatives in food industries, some studies
about salami have been focusing on the utilization of essential oils such as
oregano and clove oil as preservatives that can be applied to salami production
due to their anti-fungal activities.[29] Several types of oils including rosemary,
clove, oregano and sage oils were found to have different levels of inhibition
effect to various types of fungi that could possibly grow on salami. Since
several of these oils contain volatile compounds whose amount can affect the
flavor of the food, researchers often perform a sensory test to find the amount
of the oil that can best serve as an anti-fungal preservative but have the
least effect on the flavor or appearance of the salami.
