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30 percent, the sausage becomes tough and rubbery. Food scientists have been working with
some success on low-fat, or at least lower-fat, sausages using ingredients that give the mouthfeel
of juiciness, a major function of fats in sausage. They have managed to reduce the fat content to
1
0 percent and maintain the texture while retaining surprisingly good flavor.
Meat curing
Meat curing is an ancient cherished art and tradition. Meat curers learned early on that the
potassium compounds (which occur as impurities in natural salt), produce characteristic taste and
color, and even act as preservers. Refrigerators in every household halted the need for preserving
meat this way, but curing remains popular—the potassium compounds preserve both color and
flavor wonderfully well.
There are two basic techniques for curing—wet and dry. Both are ancient techniques,
and both are still in use today. In dry curing, the sausage maker rubs the dry ingredients all over
the surface of the meat. Their flavors slowly penetrate and diffuse, aided by the moisture of the
meat itself. At refrigeration temperature, this type of curing takes approximately 24 hours for
every pound (half a kilo) of meat. Then they wash off the curing substance and store the meat
under refrigeration for 20 to 40 days to allow the curing salts to seep thoroughly and uniformly
throughout.
The next step is the slow drying process under controlled temperature (57°to 68°F or 14°
to 20°C) and high humidity, which lasts anywhere from 6 to 12 months. During this period
complex series of biochemical reactions develop that culminates in a characteristic flavor
specific for the type of cured meat. Examples are German Westphalian, Italian Parma or
prosciutto, Spanish Serrano or American Virginia or Smithfield hams. The process is slow and
storage space is costly, so end products are much pricier than uncured or quick-cured meats.
Smoking hams or other meat is also an ancient method of preservation. Humans learned
and enjoyed the result of the smoking process since they conquered fire. Smoking with hot
smoke preserves meat as the heat destroys microorganisms. However, cold smoking, another
commonly used method, also preserves meat if certain wood is used in the process. Some wood
contains chemicals call wood tars that destroy bacteria and fungi. During the smoking process
the wood tars condense on the meat surface and sterilize it. Smoked meat with wood tars are safe
from spoilage even if stored at room temperature.
TASTINGS How Egyptians preserved mummies
Egyptian preserved their mummies for thousands of years the same way as
smoking preserves hams, using wood tars. Instead of smoking the bodies, they
rubbed them with wood tars but it is not yet clear how they managed to obtain
these chemicals.
For sausages, the curing process is much simpler. The sausage maker mixes both the
curing substance and the sausage ingredients, then stuffs the mix into casings. The uncured
sausages go directly into a room-temperature drying chamber to ripen for two days.
Microorganisms from the air can develop flavor in a short time because the ground-up meat
offers them a large surface area to work on. A storage period of ripening follows that lasts from
20 to 90 days at somewhat cooler temperatures. This reduces moisture, eliminates any
pathogenic organisms and allows the protein to coagulate, that, in turn, gives the product its
play © erdosh 51
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