Fuet made without any preservatives, dyes, taste enhancers, who could explain how they achieved that?

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gastronomas
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Fuet made without any preservatives, dyes, taste enhancers, who could explain how they achieved that?

Post by gastronomas » Tue Jan 14, 2020 21:17

Hello guys,

El pozo fuetec sausage:

https://www.elpozo.com/en/products/fuetec/

https://www.spanische-bodega.de/spanisc ... i-150g.php

Ingredients: Iberico pork, Iberian pork bacon, LACTOSE, table salt, corn glucose syrup, corn dextrose, spices, natural pork intestine.
160g pork is used for 100g end product.

Nutritional values ​​(per 100 g):
Calories: 430.5 Kcal / 1,815.0 kJ
Fat: 35.5 g of
which saturated acids: 12.4 g of
carbohydrates: 4.0 g of
which sugar: 3.0 g of
protein: 25.5 g
Salt: 4.0 g

Product made without any preservatives (E250, E252), has very good, bright red color, mild good taste.No coloring and etc. Who could explain how they achieved that?

Thank you
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redzed
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Re: Fuet made without any preservatives, dyes, taste enhancers, who could explain how they achieved that?

Post by redzed » Fri Jan 17, 2020 19:47

Difficult to say without seeing the process. However, there probably is some fermentation involved with that amount of sugars and enzymatic activity from naturally occurring Staphylococcus bacteria. The ingredients state "spices" which could include paprika which adds red colour. Traditional fuet does not contain paprika but many mass producers do use it.
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Re: Fuet made without any preservatives, dyes, taste enhancers, who could explain how they achieved that?

Post by Butterbean » Sat Jan 18, 2020 01:21

Don't believe table salt in Spain is the same as it is in North America. Table salt there, I believe, is typically sea salt. It was in the news a while back as having micro-plastics in it. Plastics aside, you can read where it contains 80 other nutrients of which some are surely nitrates. If I were going to risk making something without the use of nitrates I'd definitely use a raw unrefined sea salt and preferably one with having a labelled analysis as some do.
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Re: Fuet made without any preservatives, dyes, taste enhancers, who could explain how they achieved that?

Post by IFB » Wed Apr 08, 2020 15:50

Curing meats without nitrates is quite common in Italy. I've communicated with a number of artisan salumi makers from there - some are huge proponents of using curing salts and some are against it. But both camps pretty much agree that you can only produce high quality nitrate-free product if you control the process from the start. I.e. the pig is of high quality, mature, properly fed, comes from a disease-free farm, proper sanitation when handling meat, etc. They also agree that their customers generally prefer products with better color, flavor and keeping properties, which happen to have nitrates.

My conclusion is - unless you grow own pigs, it's wise to use nitrates. I realize that they may not be entirely healthy, but consumed in moderation and coupled with a lot of antioxidants in your diet - fruits and veggies - there is no reason not to enjoy good salami.

BTW, I just made some Fuet recently. It was very, very good.
https://tasteofartisan.com/fuet/
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Re: Fuet made without any preservatives, dyes, taste enhancers, who could explain how they achieved that?

Post by reddal » Sat May 16, 2020 08:27

The 'spices' could include celery salt - which is a common way 'nitrate free' producers get nitrate into the product without admitting it.

Personally I predict the whole trend towards nitrate free charcuterie will end abruptly after there is a serious outbreak of botulism and a bunch of people die. After that happens regulators will probably insist the proper amount of nitrate/nitrite is used. Its a shame the world can't be rational about it and act before that.

Its a bit like whats happened to the anti-vaccine movement in the current pandemic. Beforehand loads of people were whining that vaccines were dangerous and terrible etc. Now they have all pretty much shut up - because when the hard truth of reality bites arguments based on irrational thinking are less tolerated.
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Re: Fuet made without any preservatives, dyes, taste enhancers, who could explain how they achieved that?

Post by Butterbean » Tue May 19, 2020 19:17

reddal wrote:
Sat May 16, 2020 08:27
The 'spices' could include celery salt - which is a common way 'nitrate free' producers get nitrate into the product without admitting it.

Personally I predict the whole trend towards nitrate free charcuterie will end abruptly after there is a serious outbreak of botulism and a bunch of people die. After that happens regulators will probably insist the proper amount of nitrate/nitrite is used. Its a shame the world can't be rational about it and act before that.

Its a bit like whats happened to the anti-vaccine movement in the current pandemic. Beforehand loads of people were whining that vaccines were dangerous and terrible etc. Now they have all pretty much shut up - because when the hard truth of reality bites arguments based on irrational thinking are less tolerated.
I agree. This reminds me of someone I used to follow on another board who made their living teaching charcuterie and other country skills and was a big advocate of free-range and nitrate free stuff. Once they were asked a question by someone who attended one of their classes about a ham that just didn't seem to cure right and the student said they had followed the recipe exactly except they didn't use sea salt but used canning salt instead. I almost pissed myself reading how the teacher back peddled and all but admitted what they had done was unsafe without expressly admitting that was the case which would have undermined their whole marketing strategy.

I don't understand why people are so scared of science when science is simply understanding how nature works and nothing could be more natural than having the knowledge of how the nitrogen cycle works and using it for our benefit.

'
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