Dry and Semi Dry Sausage

[patricimo54]

What a great way to preserve meat.

If I am not mistaken some of the earliest sausages were encased in the skin of a chickens necks. This was back in the day of ancient Rome.

The word sausage is derived from the Latin word salsus which in the literal translation means salted or preserved.

In my hobby pursuit of off the grid living I have concerned myself with "How did the Ancients Preserve Meat" Dry and semi dry sausage was the answer.

I have been a big fan of Spanish Chorizo for some time. this has been the wind behind my quest to produce a quality dry sausage.

Cleanliness and maintaining temps below 38* are vital.

Following a recipe from this book has furthered my quest.



If you have ever enjoyed a bite of hard salami you know where I am coming from.

There are many different recipes out there, but I only follow those that speak of hanging the meat long term in reduced temp's(34*to38*) and alcohol in the recipe.Both help to insure that bacteria will not form.(Botulism)



When first extruded this is what it looked like. After hanging in our utility frig at 38* for 10 weeks it looks like this.





I used a cheap thermometer to monitor temps



I am thinking the shrinking inside the casing is obvious.



This stuff makes for some good eats with a glass of wine.

[Admin]

I have never heard of anybody making sausage that way but I guess it would be similar to a beef stick. Very interesting Pat

[patricimo54]

Thanks for posting the link Chris, cool stuff. The recipe that I am following is nitrite free.

[lookout]

this is dangerous business.

I have the above book as well as a couple others including Rytek Kutas's Great Sausage recipes and meat curing
www.sausagemaker.com/71200greatsausagerecipesandmeatcuringbyrytekkutas.aspx

as well as others but the above goes into safety considerations quite heavily.

Some things are clear - Botulism is deadly. The only way to rid yourself of the threat of botulism positively is Nitrates and Nitrites. Used properly, most of the nitrates and nitrites are used up in the maturation of the sausage.

Mr. Predika has a section in his book where he mentions the use of nitrates and nitrites and he advises that you can use them but he personally, does not.
Thats a personal decision, but when you're feeding it to your family, I would suggest the safety of using nitrates and nitrates overrides any concern for carcinogenic properties. Heck, at the same time the studies were talking about carcinogens in sausage, they were saying that butter is bad for you, use Margarine! Now people are moving back to butter with health benefits.

The ancients might have used uncured sausage (cured is with nitrates and nitrites) but they also had alot of deaths with unspecified causes.

[patricimo54]

lookout, thanks for your input and the link. It looks like a very good resource.