Salami/Summer Sausage Questions

[Mr Walleye]

I've been doing some reading on both salami and summer sausage because I want to make some in the next few weeks. I just thought I would throw some of the information out here to see what your thoughts are.

From what I can gather to make a fermented type sausage you need to use a starter culture of some kind. I know in the book "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing", he uses Fermento. Unfortunately that is a product that is not available locally so I decided to do some research on it. From what I've read some people use a number of things such as encapsulated citric acid, butter milk solids and butter milk in order to get that "tang" flavor. What I managed to find locally is a product from JB Sausage. It's called Salami Starter. It's ingredients are dextrose, corn syrup solids and glucono delta lactone. Now from my understanding  the glucono delta lactone or GDL consumes the dextrose which produces the lactic acid which produces the "tang" in the sausage.

Here is a couple of quotes taken from  this site http://schmidling.com/saus.htm
"Cured sausages can further be divided into semi-dry and dried sausages. Semi-dry sausages, such as summer sausage and hot dogs are cooked, either in hot water or a smokehouse and will keep under refrigeration for months. Dry sausages are not cooked but are dried to about 75% of their stuffed weight over a period of several months and will keep for years at room temperature. Both types can be fermented by the addition of a lactic acid producing bacteria culture that provides a wonderful tang to the sausage in addition to the enhancement of long keeping qualities."

"In use, the culture is mixed with a little water and sugar and then mixed in (along with the spices) with the meat mixture. After stuffing, the sausage is held at around 90F overnight for the fermentation to take place. This can be done in a smoker, oven with the light on or just take a little longer at room temperature. The sausage is then smoked, cooked or dried according to the recipe. There simply is no excuse for not fermenting if the type of sausage calls for it and that is just about all sausage except fresh."

This page, off the same site, has his recipe for both salami and summer sausage. Virtually the recipes are the same except for the type of cure and the procedure. I found it interesting how in order to make the fermentation take place he hangs it in his smoker over night at 90 degrees. http://schmidling.com/summer.htm

Have any of you used a starter culture to obtain the "tang" flavor?

Have any of you used the 90 degree over night procedure to allow the fermentation to take place?

I really don't want to do a dry salami just because of the amount of time it takes so I'm thinking of a semi-dry sausage that is as close as possible to a dry salami without the hassle. What's your thoughts?

Sorry for the long post....

Mike

PS
Here is another site I found and thought some might be interested in it with an online book called "Small-scale sausage production" from the "FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS" web site.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6556e/X6556E00.htm

[acords]

Never used a starter culture, I use

encapsulated citric acid

, but have had good success with it!

[Mr Walleye]

Thanks Accords

I would still like to here from anybody that has used a starter culture to obtain the "tang" flavor and/or used the 90 degree over night procedure to allow the fermentation to take place?

Mike

[Consiglieri]

When you say salami, is there a particular style of salami you're aiming for?  Or the generic kind you get when ordering a sandwich?

I'll see what I can dig up from some of the old timers.

[Mr Walleye]

Consiglieri

I really like dry salami but I don't want to go through the 30 to 90 day drying procedure. When I was doing this research I can across the site in my first post ( http://schmidling.com/summer.htm ) that indicates you can get the "tangy" flavor by adding the starter culture to it then hang it in the smoker over night at 90 degrees to allow it to ferment. According to the site you can adjust the amount of time that you keep it at 90 degrees which in turn changes the amount of "tang". Then you gradually increase the temp and add smoke like you normally would bring the temp up to 152 degrees. It would appear to me that this procedure might also dry the sausage somewhat, similar to dried salami. I guess you would call it semi-dried?

I was hoping to hear from somebody who has possibly tried this method or something similar.

Mike

[Habanero Smoker]

I've never attempted to make a sausage that has a culture, but I'm interested in hearing your results. I think Stickbowcrafter has. Salami is far down on the list of sausages I want to make.

Here's another site you may want to look at. This guy makes salami using a Bradley.

http://home.pacbell.net/lpoli/page0002.htm

[Mr Walleye]

Thanks Habs. Once I get around to doing some I will definitely post my results. In the meantime I will just keep researching the subject.

Mike

[3rensho]

I have a salami hanging in the cellar at present.  I used a commercial culture on this one.  It's only been hanging 11 days since the incubation and is still pretty squishy.  I used one of Len Poli's recipes and have been using his site for years as a recipe source as well as general information.  Good stuff there.  When salami is done will post results.

[Habanero Smoker]

Mike & 3resho;

Thanks in advance. Eventually I will try my hand at dry curing again.

[Stickbowcrafter]

Alright! I knew Mike was bitten hard by the sausage making bug  ;D. One thing for sure I've learned over the years about making sausage is no matter how much I do it, there will always be more info about it that I don't know to fill a library. You can see from your first post just how confusing it can become. I have experimented a little but pretty much stick to tried and true recipes. I think that is why my sausages have turned out so well over the years, if I do say so myself.  ;)

With that being said, I have some limited experience with starter cultures. I used Fermento in some Thuringer sausage I made. Man, that was some of the tastiest sausage I have ever done. Here's a link to that recipe with pictures:

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=6093.0

I've used Fermento in a lot of the smoked pepperoni recipes I've done as well. I've also used Bactoferm in some of the Tuscan Salami that I have done. Basically these starter cultures feed on the sugars in your recipe and produce lactic acid as a result. Lactic acid is what gives some sausages their pleasing tartness. Plus the lactic acid keeps harmful bacteria at bay, which is extremely important when dry curing sausage.

Yes, I have used the smoker to hold the sausages at different temperatures for fermentation. Works great when you have a digital temp switch or PID.

Mike, I'd agree with your initial assessment. Stick with smoked and semi-dry sausages for a while. I've been messing around with dry curing off and on and have yet to perfect it. I'm hoping to have my life simplified enough this year to get my basement finished and possibly build a little dry curing room under the stairs. I've found some inexpensive wine cooler units that will work perfect for keeping ideal conditions in the curing room.

-Brian

[Mr Walleye]

Thanks Brian!

You're right "I was bit hard"!  ::)
I guess I will just have to "Do It"!  :D

Mike

[Bad Flynch]

I have an old summer sausage recipe that is a perfect example for this problem. The recipe calls for adding all of the spices, cure, and binder to coarsely ground meat and then allowing it to ferment for 5 or 6 days at 40-46 degrees F. The method produces a much nicer, gentler tang than the new methods.

The above procedure will work, especially if everything goes just right, but it is far from certain. The man who gave the the recipe stated that it was not always a sure thing. Part of the problem is that you rely on the naturally occurring bacteria and the supply of naturally occurring sugar (glucose) in the meat to produce the lactic acid. However, if the temperature is wrong, or the naturally occurring sugars are low, or the bacterial count for the important bacteria is low, then the process will fail. Failure is also possible if the bad spoilage bacteria beat the good fermenting bacteria in their race for the meat.

One can add a real bacterial culture, and that is what industry is moving towards. That would ensure an adequate bacterial seed culture size. It will also speed the cure up because of the larger bacterial count.

One can add sugars to feed the naturally occurring bacteria. This is like Fermento and some other sugar-based products like you mention. The process works just fine.

Some mass producers may use both of the above, but at home we probably could not control it.

Lastly, one can add the requisite acid to produce the tangy flavor. It is really easy to add these naturally occurring sour chemicals. Typically, the acids added are citric acid, lactic acid, and phosphoric acids. Each acid is sour, because that is a natural property of acids, but the flavor profile for each is different, so you might want to experiment and see what you like with your recipe. In addition, phosphoric acid can help meat retain moisture and commercial manufacturers are fond of the increased weight. If you have a dry product, you might want to select another acid.

[Mr Walleye]

Bad Flynch

Thanks for that. So from what I understand by using a starter culture you are kind of increasing the odds, dramically, in your favor because you are increasing the good bacteria that you want.

Here is a quote from my first post:
"What I managed to find locally is a product from JB Sausage. It's called Salami Starter. It's ingredients are dextrose, corn syrup solids and glucono delta lactone. Now from my understanding  the glucono delta lactone or GDL consumes the dextrose which produces the lactic acid which produces the "tang" in the sausage."

I'm assuming by adding GDL along with dextrose it's increasing not just the odds of correct fermentation but also speeding up the process because of the larger amount of the bacterial count? I guess another question is, is Glucono Delta Lactone a bacterial starter culture? From what I can understand it is.

One more question... What do you think about the over night, at 90 degrees, fermentation step in this link ( http://schmidling.com/summer.htm )

Sorry for all the questions

Mike

[Bad Flynch]

 copied the following, verbatim, from Wikipedia:

Glucono delta-lactone (GDL) is a naturally-occurring food additive used as a sequestrant, an acidifier, or a curing, pickling, or leavening agent. It is a cyclic ester of D-gluconic acid. Pure GDL is a white odorless crystalline powder.

GDL is commonly found in honey, fruit juices, and wine. Being acidic, it adds a tangy taste to foods, though it has roughly a third of the sourness of citric acid. It is metabolized to glucose; one gram of GDL is equivalent to one gram of sugar.

Glucono-delta-lactone, upon addition to water readily forms an equilibrium mixture of the lactone GDL and gluconic acid. The rate of hydrolysis of GDL is increased by heat and high pH.[3]

>I'm assuming by adding GDL along with dextrose it's increasing not just the odds of correct fermentation but also speeding up the process because of the larger amount of the bacterial count<

Well, even if the bacterial count is low to start with, feeding them well with sugars will allow them to grow and multiply at a prestigious rate.

>What do you think about the over night, at 90 degrees, <

Well, I don't do that. The recipe that I got, I have been eating since the early 1950s and I really do not want it changed. However, when dealing with bacteria, temperature optimization is the key. So.... use the optimal temperature for the method and with the method that they supply.

www.sausagemaker.com has all the Fermento that one would want to buy.

[Mr Walleye]

Thanks again Bad Flynch

The biggest problem with regards to Fermento is the fact I live in Canada. There are a lot of products that can't/won't be shipped here and I haven't found a supplier for it here.

I would be very interested in your recipe if you would care to share it. If not I can respect that as well.

I'm just trying to learn all I can.

Mike