little? The meat retains a lot of water from the brine bath. It gains weight that is all gain in water.

As soon as the bacon is hot enough on the griddle for the water to vaporize, the steam escapes

from under a layer of fat. As the thousands of tiny bubbles of steam pop, you hear the distinctive

bacon sizzle and smell a mouthwatering aroma. Once the bacon loses all the moisture and much

of the fat, it shrinks to a fraction of its original size. It also becomes stiff because there is no

more moisture to make it supple. Better-quality bacon with less water gives gentle, more friendly

sizzle.

There is also dry-cured bacon, an expensive first cousin of our common bacon. You

won’t find it in supermarkets, and certainly not at supermarket prices. Because of its low

moisture content, a truly dry-cured bacon is so stable that it doesn't even need refrigeration. Look

for them in gourmet meat markets.

Fermented sausage

Some sausages, like dry salami and pepperoni, are actually fermented by Lactobacillus, a

close relative of the bacteria that ferment yogurt and sour cream. This fermentation raises acidity

of the meat by producing lactic acid (just like in yogurt and sour cream). The environment

eventually becomes too acidic for harmful microorganisms. To prevent the meat to turn rancid,

the processor adds antioxidants. Combining this fermentation with partial dehydration, the

sausage becomes stable at room temperature, like the dry salamis and sausages you see hanging

from hooks in the meat department. Fermented sausages and meats are not smoked.

Are cured meats safe?

People have been eating fermented, cured and smoked meat products for thousands of

years without the danger of getting sick. So we haven’t given a thought to their safety until the

December 1994 outbreak of poisoning from salami in the states of Washington and California.

This incident was a complete surprise even to microbiologists and food scientists.

Microorganisms don't normally grow in the acid environment of salami, but unfortunately, a new

strain of a common bacteria, Escherichia coli, is able to survive in a high-acid environment. Heat

kills the bacteria, but we eat these dry-cured products raw. Heat triggers chemical changes that

adversely affect their flavor. Meat processors and food scientists are now attempting to come up

with a way of eliminating this new strain of bacteria without cooking the meat.

TASTINGS Moldy salami?

Fermentation usually takes place inside the meat, but there are some raw sausages

and salamis that are mold-fermented from the outside. The molds grow on the

surface and give a distinctive flavor and appearance, like the mold in blue cheeses

and brie, that penetrate and impregnate throughout. Until relatively recently, these

mold-covered products were illegal in the U.S., until the U.S. Department of

Agriculture relaxed these regulations and declared them safe.

Restructured meat

Finally, I want to introduce to you a type of meat that is a newcomer, the highly

processed restructured meats. The most familiar of these are ham and turkey breast lunch meats.

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