Charcuterie Science + A Dear Friend
Hello friends. I hope the Labor Day weekend was a fantasticode 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 apologizefor not being as active on here. I used to crave this space as a creativeoutlet, a practice arena for science communication, and a virtual park hangoutwith readers and other bloggers alike. Plus, I do really love the practicalkitchen 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 geekedout with Pat often on food quirks and scientific facts. He was always aninspiration to me and pushed me to be more scientifically rigorous. He is alsoan amazing teacher which is why he began the Toolkit. We toyed around for yearswith the idea of beginning a food blog together about Charcuterie Science. Itwould go perfectly with his Cheese Science Toolkit topics, and at the time Iwas creating several posts about wine pairing a month. We liked to think of thecombination 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 nextmonth 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 readon about the fermentation selection for salami, peruse some cheese posts, and eatwell 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, fermentedsalami.
Raw fermented salami is a meat product that is not cooked. Ratheradditives like salt, organic acids, and fermentation via bacteria, mold, andyeast, render the product stable against spoilage and safe to eat withoutcooking. It is one of the oldest types of meat products because it was discoveredlong 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 acidifyingagent. Yeasts and molds will not be much help in this department. Reducing thepH of the meat is very important for maintaining food safety. Generally, thefinal maximum equilibrium pH of 5.2 should be achieved as quickly as possiblewhile maintaining quality product. There are fast, medium, and slow startercultures.
A fast starter culture is used often in commercial salamiproducts. It drops the pH to 5.2 or below within 24-48 hours. While this is thesafest product type, the flavor and taste suffer most. A medium-fast starterculture achieves similar results in 48-96 hours. The fast and medium-faststarter cultures inhibit salmonella within a couple days which is ideal. Thefinal classification is slow-fermented. These tend to be used in more artisanproduction as the bacteria does not acidify the meat as much. They are often usedas protective cultures instead, and they are primarily used for developingflavor and color.
Other important characteristics for the bacterial strainselection are related to how they grow and what fermentation byproducts areproduced. Often the balance of several bacterial strains will ensure theperfect balance. For example, bacteria near the surface versus in the interiorof the salami will need to be aerobic or anaerobic, respectively. Both arenecessary to ensure that the entire salami is equally fermented.
The most important class of bacteria used is lactic acidbacteria, i.e. Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. It is an effectiveacidifier and has several temperatures at which various genera and speciesoperate at making it ideal for flexible processing. It has the followingeffects: reduces the pH which increases safety of the product, enhances characteristicflavor due to acid taste and volatile compounds that are produced, forcescoagulation of meat proteins due to reduced pH around the isoelectric point,and produces desirable texture and red color of cured meats due to a reactionbetween a byproduct of fermentation, nitric oxide, and myoglobin in the meat,giving nitrosomyoglobin.
Micrococcacaeae isalso an important starter culture sometimes added to lactic acid bacteriabecause it produces an enzyme called nitrate reductase which changes nitrate(formed during fermentation) into nitrite. This causes that lovely coloration yousee in cured meats. It also stabilizes color and flavor by neutralizinghydrogen peroxide—a byproduct from heterofermentive lactic acid fermentation.It is also important for an enhanced flavor because it has lipolytic activityfreeing up fatty acids for characteristic aroma generation. Hello symbioticmatch made in heaven.
YEASTS
Yeasts are often added with a starter culture for flavor asthey have some proteolytic and lipolytic activity. They selectively grow nearthe surface of the meats because they are aerobic microorganisms. Yeasts alsoconsume lactic acid and increase the pH slightly which changes the flavorindirectly. Debaryomyces is the mostcommon yeast used in commercial salami fermentation.
MOLDS
Molds are also aerobic. They are inoculated on the surfaceof mold-fermented products and have effects on appearance, through thattelltale thick layer on the exterior of the final product, overall safety, andflavor through lipolytic and proteolytic activity. Mold competitively outgrowsmolds 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 moldadded for several reasons. It is a mold that does not produce mycotoxins, nordoes it produce the enzyme cellulase which eats through the casings on thesausage.
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
https://www.facebook.com/donate/436433401042438/
