Preservation of meat

Preserving meat without cooling or freezing can be quite challenging and dangerous if done wrong. In this blog post I will explain how I made Hungarian Salami (sausage) without cooling. The only thing you need is patience.

Hungarian salami Photo: Marcel Mende

As Fidel Toldrá summarises „the empirical observation that salting would preserve meat without refrigeration was made several thousands of years ago.“ (Toldrá, 2017, p. 265). So, it is just a matter of doing things like back in the days (way back actually).

The recipe I am following is inspired by the traditional salami produced in Hungary since 1869 by the Jewish Mark Pick for a long-lasting type of salami (Things in Hungary, n.d.).

I found a German recipe that goes into great detail with the meat needed, things to pay attention to and more tips (Frech, 2021).

Disclaimer: I made these sausages together with Anna on the 22^nd of October to reduce the cost and efforts.

Ingredients and appliances

For the intensive flavoured sausage, you need the following kitchen appliances:

• a cutting board and knife
• a meat grinder and sausage filler
• a few clean bowls
• a scale

The ingredients you need: (the original recipe used double the amount)

• 325g lean meat of your choice (we used pre-grinded pork)
• 175g fat/ speck
• 13g salt
• one long sausage casing

Spices:

• 2,5g ground black pepper
• 5g sweet paprika
• 1,5g hot paprika (instead we used ground cayenne pepper)
• 1,5g sugar
• 2g fresh garlic (we used 5g (1 glove) instead)

Preparation

After gathering the meat and fat, I weighed both and cut the fat in small stripes. Both went into the freezer for approximately 45 minutes. According to the recipe that is essential to get the typical salami fat globules.

Cut meat Photo: F. Brietzke

Next, I weighed the spices and salt – they are in separate bowls – and mixed the spices (not salt!) with the frozen-on meat and fat. 

Spices Photo: F. Brietzke

Anna prepared the meat grinder while I took out the sausage casings from the freezer and washing them thoroughly with cold water and let them sit.

We grinded the meat and fat together a few times, until the mass was incorporated, and no big clumps were left. Subsequently, we mixed the mass with the salt in the bowl until it was combined; first with the mixer but switched to hand mixing for best results.

Grinding and mixing in the salt
Photo: F. Brietzke

Next up, we changed the outlet from grinder to sausage filler and prepared the sausage casings – squeezing out the excess water and pulling on the filler attachment. Don’t forget to make a knot at the end and if necessary, a little hole with a needle.

Sausage casing on the filler
Photo: F. Brietzke

Then we filled the casing until nothing came out. We realised that a lot of mass is left in the machine, so we finished filling the casing by hand. Finally, we made a knot at the end and twisted it in half, so we have two sausages.

Filling the sausage by hand Photo: J. Netenbergs

Drying

To finish the process, the sausages need to hang up in a well-ventilated place without touching each other or other meat products. Now patience is required because you leave the sausages to dry for a minimum of 14 days and up to 100 days – depending on the preferred taste. According to the recipe you can even hang them up to 1 year – but it will get dry at some point.

The preliminary finished sausages Photo: A. K. Ortmann

We will update soon (the 5^th of November marks the 14 days and the 25^th of November marks 5 weeks – the day we have to submit our product box).

This process leads to a semidry fermented sausage (Toldrá, 2017, p. 266).

Diagram Photo: F. Toldrá

Observations and conclusion

The recipe recommends smoking the salami as the final stage after drying for a smoky flavour, but it is not required for a shelf stable salami. Additionally, you could add “Edelschimmel” (edible mould) that would preserve the salami more.

We noticed that the mass was quite sticky towards the end of processing, probably because it became warmer. Anna told me, that traditionally in Hungary they produce the sausages in the winter outside in the cold.

After filling the sausages, we had a little amount leftover and fried it in neutral oil to taste test. We were positively surprised by the intensive flavour and aroma and would not have changed anything. It did taste a little bit too salty, but because of the drying that is necessary. Even though we know that we should have done the taste testing before filling the casing.  

Finally, the recipe advises to let the sausages cool at 13 degrees and 80% humidity constantly – we hope that the conditions upstairs in the roof truss are adequate.

This approach can go wrong as (unwanted) mould and other bacteria can occur which leads to an inedible and dangerous product. I found in a paper that scientists are researching alternative and natural preservatives for pork meat. They found that “chia-derived peptides can be a safer alternative to synthetic preservatives in the food industry” (León Madrazo & Segura Campos, 2023, p. 4194). Of course, this is not implementable for us in the study or home kitchens, but still important for the meat industry to fight the short shelf life of meat products without synthetical preservatives. 

Update

After 5 weeks (on 25th of November) of drying in the attic I took down the Salami and was quite surprised that it shrinked and shriveled a bit. I did not have a taste yet, but Kari and Erik reported that "All in all, this appears very good (but too early to taste)". So we can all have a taste on Saturday!

 

Salami after 5 weeks of Drying
Photo: F. Brietzke

Sources

Best things in Hungary. (n.d.). Pick salami – the best salami in the world. https://www.best-things-in-hungary.com/pick-salami.html

Frech. (2021). Salami selber machen. https://www.wurst-rezept.de/wurstrezepte/salami-selber-machen/#Welche_Wurstform_ist_beim_Salami_selber_machen_ideal

León Madrazo, A., & Segura Campos, M. R. (2023). Antibacterial properties of peptides from chia (Salvia hispanica L.) applied to pork meat preservation. Journal of Food Science, 88(10), 4194–4217. https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.16754

Toldrá Fidel. (2017). The Storage and Preservation of Meat: III - Meat Processing. In Lawrie’s Meat Science (8th Edition, pp. 1–1). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100694-8.00009-1