Salami
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Salami aka.jpg Salame ("Salami" is the plural form) is a cured sausage of Italian origin. The name comes from the Italian salare meaning to salt.
Originally made from a mixture of chopped pork, wine and salt which was cured (air-dried and fermented) in a natural casing. Salami come in many varieties made in several countries. Nearly all are seasoned with a combination of herbs and spices in addition to salt. Salame, prepared from raw meat, is safe to eat because salame is cured. Other types of salami are smoked or cooked before curing; "cotto salami" refers to salami which are cooked. Some varieties are made of all beef, others all pork, while many mix beef and pork. Many (but not all) Italian salami contain garlic, while few German varieties do. Some, like a few salami from Spain, most Hungarian types, as well as many southern Italian styles (such as Pepperoni, derived from salsiccia Napoletana piccante) include paprika or chili. Varieties are differentiated by the coarseness or fineness of the chopped meat as well as the size of the casing used. A traditional Salame is covered with a thin layer of an edible mold (Penicillium) which is cultivated to impart flavor as well as prevent spoilage in the curing process. Most Italian salami have had this mold or the casing removed before brought to the American market.
Many Old World salami are named after the city or region of their origin. Some examples are Arles, Genoa, Hungarian and Milano salame. The most expensive and considered to be the best salame in Italy, Fellino, brings a great amount of money to the local industry of the province of Parma and Emilia-Romagna in general. There is in fact a small statue in the town of Fellino dedicated to the pig. According to what was written in the inscription of the statue, the people of these areas brought out the best quality of the pig to create the grandest of all pork-derived products in Italy if not in the whole known world, the Salame di Fellino and Prosciutto di Parma.
Any variety called "Italian Salame" is made in the United States but with the traditional care brought from Italy. This distinction qualifies that the salame has been air cured as opposed to machine dried.
The process of curing does not just involve drying. The process also involves fermenting with lactic acid bacteria. This bacteria is beneficial and safe for human ingestion. The latic acid produced by this bacteria makes the meat an inhospitable environment for other, dangerous bacteria and imparts the tangy flavor that separates salami from machine-dried pork. Originally, this bacteria was introduced into the meat mixture with wine (which contains a host of beneficial bacteria.) Now starter cultures are used.
Oscar Mayer salame, made in the United States, lists as its first ingredient "mechanically separated chicken;" other major ingredients are beef hearts, pork, water and corn syrup.
A typical "Italian Salame" made in the United States would contain something more along the lines of; pork, beef, nonfat dry milk (food for lactic acid bacteria,) dextrose (food for LAB,) salt, spices, wine (for traditional flavor,) Lactic Acid Starter Culture (bacteria,) Ascorbic Acid, Garlic, Sodium Nitrite (prevents spoilage,) Sodium Nitrate (food for LAB and prevents spoilage.)
See also
fr:Salami es:Salame it:Salume nl:Salami ja:サラミ pl:Salami simple:Salami sv:Salami