[Sca-cooks] Salami

Laureen Hart lhart at graycomputer.com
Thu Aug 7 15:01:21 PDT 2008


Adamantius answered the questions very nicely. Sorry for my lack of proper
punctuation...I was carried away with longing for salami...

The mold on the casing may have had more of a flavor or safety impact when
natural casings were used. I expect the mold could inhibit pathogens via
competition. 

We had clients who loved the mold and clients who hated the mold. We ran
test batches in a separate green room and made product without mold. We did
extensive blind taste testing and no one could taste the difference, even
people who vehemently demanded their mold and scorned a non molded salami.
The exterior smell, before the casing was removed, was clearly different and
that may be what mold aficionados missed. After initial trials we ended up
selling almost as much non-molded salami as molded. 

Our salami and pepperoni (and peppy) products where all fermented. A Lactic
acid starter culture was added and the chubs and sticks were put in a
temperature/humidity controlled room to ferment. The length of the ferment
was relative to the product and the size of the chub. We only made 2 sizes
of salami but a several different sizes of the pep products - little skinny
ones up through big pizza rounds.

After greening the products were moved to drying/aging rooms at a different
temperature. The pep products were turned around fairly quickly and the
salami was aged for a lot longer. 

The main thing I miss is the acidity. It seems like most brands are bland in
that respect - They may have the proper amount of spice, but they lack the
sourness and complexity. While we had wine in our formulation I don't know
that there was enough to add appreciable sour. A few manufacturers cheat and
add lactic acid. While this is better than no lactic, bacteria contribute
other flavor notes than straight lactic. I think that is why Sourdough bread
that is made with bacteria is better than the stuff that is helped along by
addition of straight lactic acid.

Randell Raye
Acid fan

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Message: 9
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:26:25 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] good fermented hard wine cured salami
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Cc: SCA-Cooks maillist SCA-Cooks <SCA-Cooks at Ansteorra.org>
Message-ID: <CAD17D8C-B614-4E37-B3EF-5D5A5329B63C at verizon.net>
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On Aug 6, 2008, at 11:57 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> What makes salami different from pepperoni?

The short answer: pepperoni is seasoned with some form of mild chili  
or hot paprika. In addition, while it may not be a defining  
characteristic, pepperoni is more often stuffed into a smaller- 
diameter casing than other salamis. and may therefore cure and dry  
faster.

> I've often found that the pepperoni I've had has often been more  
> greasy than the salami. Perhaps because much of the pepperoni I've  
> had has been cooked, while the salami hasn't.

That's probably one reason; another might be that the pepperoni  
manufacturers are expecting you to eat less of it at a sitting, and  
make a cheaper product.

> What do you mean by "fermented hard wine cured salami"? Is that  
> "fermented, hard wine, cured salami"? or "fermented, hard, wine- 
> cured, salami"? If the later, and I suspect that is the case, what  
> does it mean to be "wine cured"? How is this done? Is the wine mixed  
> in with the ground meat and spices? Or is the salami soaked in the  
> wine for a while?





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