The Art of Making Fermented Sausages

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Maxell
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The Art of Making Fermented Sausages

Post by Maxell » Wed Oct 27, 2010 18:28

Pod ten adres proszę przesyłać zdjęcia i teksty. Zdjęcia muszą posiadać szerokość co najmniej 800 pikseli - wysokość nie jest istotna - ważne by były dobrej jakości.
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Seminole
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Fermented Sausages

Post by Seminole » Thu Oct 28, 2010 15:09

Why Have We Written "The Art of Making Fermented Sausages"

The answer is because nobody has written a book of this kind before. At least not for a hobbyist who wanted to learn more about making these products. There were some professional books written by known authorities in their particular area of expertise, but they were presented in such a hard to understand technical jargon, that they were beyond the comprehension of a typical person. The art for the art`s sake (Sztuka dla sztuki) would be the best description of those books.

Thus was born the idea of simplifying technical textbooks and making it as simple as possible. Needless to say a lot of research was done on the Internet in English, Spanish, German and other languages. Not forgetting some our own experiments which were conducted in order to verify some of the concepts that we wrote about.

When writing a book we approached a few American distributors of sausage making equipment and supplies and asked whether they would be interested in the book. The answer was yes and they asked us for advice on equipment and starter cultures that they should carry for their customers. We can proudly say that the book was very instrumental in convincing some people that they can make salamis at home. It can be expected that more similar books will appear in the future but we have the satisfaction of being the first.
This post is a general letter of introduction but we intend to write here on a regular basis about fermented products that would bring value to the forum. So keep in touch.

Seminole
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Is Polish Cold Smoked Sausage a Salami?

Post by Seminole » Thu Oct 28, 2010 15:18

One does not associate cold smoked products with traditionally made salamis, but sometimes there is not much difference. Take for example Polish Cold Smoked Sausage (Polska Kielbasa Wedzona). Sausage is hung for a few days at low temperatures which helps in curing and removes some moisture. It also allows lactic acid bacteria to multiply so they will later metabolize sugar. Spoilage bacteria don`t grow as they don`t like salt. Pathogenic bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum are held in check by nitrate. Little sugar is added which will help lactic acid bacteria to produce little fermentation during cold smoking process as long as temperatures are around 20-22 C. PH drop (increased acidity) is very small but it stabilizes sausage against growth of undesirable bacteria.

Cold smoking removes more moisture and provides additional protection against microorganisms, primarily on the surface. Then the sausage enters drying process and more moisture is removed making it microbiologically stable.

It basically becomes a salami.

If you compare Polish Cold Smoked Sausage with Hungarian Salami or Spanish Chorizo you will see how similar those sausages are. The main difference is that Chorizo is not smoked. You can see the recipe links below. The recipes include starter culture, but the sausages can be made without them.

Polish Cold Smoked Sausage http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-re ... old-smoked

Hungarian Salami http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-re ... -hungarian

Spanish Chorizo http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-recipes/chorizo

The complete list of sausage recipes is at:

http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-recipes

Seminole
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