Charcuterie Science + A Dear Friend

Hello friends. I hope the Labor Day weekend was a fantastic ode to the end of summer for all of you. I think you all deserve it.

I wanted to pop in here with a few notes. First, I apologize for not being as active on here. I used to crave this space as a creative outlet, a practice arena for science communication, and a virtual park hangout with readers and other bloggers alike. Plus, I do really love the practical kitchen science.

As I become more fulfilled at work, however, I don’t need to post as often here, and I still recipe test for other writers, so I get to scratch that baking itch. In some ways that feels like a cop out to anyone who actually reads this blog (whoever you are, you continue to amaze me!). In other ways, my silence on this blog is a really great indicator for myself professionally. I am helping to build something in my everyday efforts that I really believe in. This brings me to my second point. Building a successful and inspirational company takes a ton of work, so I don’t have as much time to dabble here either. Last week my company publicly announced what we were working on, so I encourage you to go check it out if you’re at all interested. I plan on doing a post in the near future speaking more about what we do at Voyage Foods and why it’s so meaningful.

My third note, and by far the most important one, is to speak about a friend here. I recently lost someone quite dear to me. His name is Pat, and you’ve actually been introduced to him previously. Pat was the fantastic, brilliant, hilarious scientist behind The Cheese Science Toolkit. His guidance was featured in the below recipes all about the magic and functionality of cheese. (Click on the link at the bottom of each photo to go to the recipe) And you might remember him from the Saveur Food Blog Awards which he won in the special interest category several years ago.

He passed recently, and it’s been quite hard on me. I geeked out with Pat often on food quirks and scientific facts. He was always an inspiration to me and pushed me to be more scientifically rigorous. He is also an amazing teacher which is why he began the Toolkit. We toyed around for years with the idea of beginning a food blog together about Charcuterie Science. It would go perfectly with his Cheese Science Toolkit topics, and at the time I was creating several posts about wine pairing a month. We liked to think of the combination as the perfect party board.

We never did create the blog. We reserved the URL, social media handles, and chatted about how much of the site would be dedicated to recipes and food photography versus educational topics and practical tours of manufacturing sites. I created a couple of initial posts and toured New England Charcuterie for some photo content.

We continued to renew the website and talk about how next month we’d have time, but you all know that story. I regret not trying harder, but I can add one of the posts here in tribute to Pat. So I hope you all read on about the fermentation selection for salami, peruse some cheese posts, and eat well tonight.

Raw Fermented Salami—Selecting the Starter Culture

Summer sausage, pepperoni, chorizo, and Hungarian salami. What do these four meat products have in common? Just a few examples of raw, fermented salami.

Raw fermented salami is a meat product that is not cooked. Rather additives like salt, organic acids, and fermentation via bacteria, mold, and yeast, render the product stable against spoilage and safe to eat without cooking. It is one of the oldest types of meat products because it was discovered long ago that this combination could preserve food.

Often selecting the microbes is an art just as much as it’s a science. The microbial culture achieves a “controlled spoilage,” and depending on the microorganism selection, it will lend different characteristics.

BACTERIA

Regarding the choice of bacteria, it is the main acidifying agent. Yeasts and molds will not be much help in this department. Reducing the pH of the meat is very important for maintaining food safety. Generally, the final maximum equilibrium pH of 5.2 should be achieved as quickly as possible while maintaining quality product. There are fast, medium, and slow starter cultures.

A fast starter culture is used often in commercial salami products. It drops the pH to 5.2 or below within 24-48 hours. While this is the safest product type, the flavor and taste suffer most. A medium-fast starter culture achieves similar results in 48-96 hours. The fast and medium-fast starter cultures inhibit salmonella within a couple days which is ideal. The final classification is slow-fermented. These tend to be used in more artisan production as the bacteria does not acidify the meat as much. They are often used as protective cultures instead, and they are primarily used for developing flavor and color.

Other important characteristics for the bacterial strain selection are related to how they grow and what fermentation byproducts are produced. Often the balance of several bacterial strains will ensure the perfect balance. For example, bacteria near the surface versus in the interior of the salami will need to be aerobic or anaerobic, respectively. Both are necessary to ensure that the entire salami is equally fermented.

The most important class of bacteria used is lactic acid bacteria, i.e. Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. It is an effective acidifier and has several temperatures at which various genera and species operate at making it ideal for flexible processing. It has the following effects: reduces the pH which increases safety of the product, enhances characteristic flavor due to acid taste and volatile compounds that are produced, forces coagulation of meat proteins due to reduced pH around the isoelectric point, and produces desirable texture and red color of cured meats due to a reaction between a byproduct of fermentation, nitric oxide, and myoglobin in the meat, giving nitrosomyoglobin.

Micrococcacaeae is also an important starter culture sometimes added to lactic acid bacteria because it produces an enzyme called nitrate reductase which changes nitrate (formed during fermentation) into nitrite. This causes that lovely coloration you see in cured meats. It also stabilizes color and flavor by neutralizing hydrogen peroxide—a byproduct from heterofermentive lactic acid fermentation. It is also important for an enhanced flavor because it has lipolytic activity freeing up fatty acids for characteristic aroma generation. Hello symbiotic match made in heaven.

YEASTS

Yeasts are often added with a starter culture for flavor as they have some proteolytic and lipolytic activity. They selectively grow near the surface of the meats because they are aerobic microorganisms. Yeasts also consume lactic acid and increase the pH slightly which changes the flavor indirectly. Debaryomyces is the most common yeast used in commercial salami fermentation.

MOLDS

Molds are also aerobic. They are inoculated on the surface of mold-fermented products and have effects on appearance, through that telltale thick layer on the exterior of the final product, overall safety, and flavor through lipolytic and proteolytic activity. Mold competitively outgrows molds that yield dangerous mycotoxins, and it protects against case hardening, rancidity, and oxygen/light penetration into the meat’s interior. Penicillium is the most common mold added for several reasons. It is a mold that does not produce mycotoxins, nor does it produce the enzyme cellulase which eats through the casings on the sausage.   

One more note: Pat suffered from depression and took his life last week. I will forever regret not calling him when I last spoke with him a couple of weeks ago instead of texting about a random topic. I also lost a member of my extended family a couple of weeks ago that took his own life as well. I encourage all of you to check in with loved ones to see if anyone needs a helping hand or an open heart. It is never more paramount to me than right now how much impact we all have on each other’s lives. Please donate to Pat’s fundraiser dedicated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness if you would like to have an even larger impact. xo

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