SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #124

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Baaastard at aol.com wrote:

> 4.  Fermento.  This one takes a little more explanation.  It is a lactic acid
> producing bacterial culture.  Live germs in a freeze dried powder.  Again, as
> an additive it is non-period.  However, considering period sanitation
> practices, it is extremely likely that these opportunistic germs were hanging
> around the sausage shop.  After infecting a few batches, it wouldn't take
> long for the sausage maker to realize they weren't all bad.  They add a
> pleasant tangy flavor to the sausages they are used in.  By lowering the ph
> of the sausage they also help to preserve it against other microbes.  The way
> it was explained to me, before modern sanitation techniques, the sausage
> maker would use some of the last batch to infect the next one.  Sort of like
> working with sourdough, a piece of the last one is the starter for the new
> batch.  How far back in time this practice was done I do not know.

Considering that this is an artificial recreation of a process that
would be occurring naturally, but with less precision, and therefore
less uniform success, I'd say it's almost certain lactobaccili would
have been found in dry-cured sausages from period. The only real
question is whether any attempt was made to introduce the baccilus
deliberately in the sausage-making process. My inclination is to think
not. On the other hand, they may have been present in a wooden mixing
bowl (generally how the friendly little buggers get into cheese), or
somehow worked their way through the semi-permeable sausage casing.

As for the Big Picture question of how close period sausages came to a
product like what was made with the modern Landjaeger recipe, you would
either have to find a period recipe for a German air-dried sausage, or
look at  some pre-industrial sausage recipes that make do without
Fermento and Prague powder. Both these products are comparatively
typical of American industrial sausage recipes, and you _may_  find that
a modern German Landjaeger recipe does without them. This may help you a
bit, even if it doesn't give you a clear-cut, black-and-white answer.

Adamantius

Adamantius