Recent Sausage Trends

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impish

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Growing up in the Chicago area meant, of course, wonderful sausage being made locally under a variety of ethnic orientations. German, Czech, Polish, Italian, we had 'em all, and loved 'em all! As a kid, our neighborhood was predominantly Czech, with a smattering of Polish and Italian here and there; the town had 50,000 residents, second suburb out from Chicago heading west on Cermak Road. Anton Cermak was a Czech Mayor of Chicago, shot and killed in a mistaken attempt on the President's life.

The main street through our town, Cermak Rd., traversed only 2 miles of the town. Up and down those 2 miles I can remember at least 10 or more ethnic butcher shops, which specialized, of course, on making sausage of all kinds. Jaternice, Jelita, Buchta, were all Czech sausages; Bratwurst, Weisswurst, Leberwurst, were of course German.

One fact we knew about around 1950 or so was that Sodium Nitrite was used widely as a preservative for prepared meats of many kinds, including almost all Ham. Our old family doctor warned my Dad regarding ham, and "all those Bohemian sausages", that they should be eaten sparingly, especially by ME!

The purpose of my thread: We are seeing many sausage varieties offered for sale containing no preservatives, artificial coloring, no NITRITES or nitrates. They cost more, taste the same to me, (maybe better, psychologically, safer, healthier), and we buy them when on sale.

How are they able to guarantee safety without the traditional preservatives?
 
impish said:
The purpose of my thread: We are seeing many sausage varieties offered for sale containing no preservatives, artificial coloring, no NITRITES or nitrates. They cost more, taste the same to me, (maybe better, psychologically, safer, healthier), and we buy them when on sale.

How are they able to guarantee safety without the traditional preservatives?
Click to expand...

A difficult question - but our more distant ancestors didn't use anything more than simple preservation techniques and often, simply salt. Although, I am aware that nitrates are a form of salt. Are nitrites or nitrates very different from rock salt or sea salt? I don't know!

Salt, fermenting, pickling and drying (which overlap) are the main ways of preservation as far as I know.
 
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Well they sound like fresh sausages. I make homemade sausages, mostly Cajun because we can't find them here, well I should say good ones. Andouille, Chaurice and Boudin. The first two are smoked. We also make a cured pork product called Tasso or Tasso ham, which is also smoked. We dabble a little in charcuterie where some products require pink salt, either cure 1 or cure 2. I've posted a recipe for Andouille here.
https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/andouille-sausage.11991/
 
morning glory said:
A difficult question - but our more distant ancestors didn't use anything more than simple preservation techniques and often, simply salt. Although, I am aware that nitrates are a form of salt. Are nitrites or nitrates very different from rock salt or sea salt? I don't know!

Salt, fermenting, pickling and drying (which overlap) are the main ways of preservation as far as I know.
Click to expand...
@morning glory
In the world of Chemistry, both nitrates and nitrites fall within a class of compounds called "salts". Most folks think of salts as table salt, of course, which is a chloride salt, sodium chloride, a compound of sodium and chlorine. Sodium Chloride is responsible for allowing our bodies to store water amongst the tissues, which squeezes blood vessels, which increases blood pressure. For that reason, sodium chloride-reduced diets are sought. As I understand it, the sodium content is the bad guy, thus other sodium salts such as nitrates and nitrites would have the same blood-pressure increasing effect.

However, nitrites have been involved in ongoing controversy concerning their safety, since they are metabolized (gotten rid of from our bodies) by the liver into nitroamines, which are proven carcinogens, real bad guys. Arguments FOR nitrites claim the amounts of nitroamines formed are harmlessly small. But what about those folks whose systems are already pre-disposed to inability to handle carcinogens?

My OP, is to question how the meat-makers can offer packaged meats already cooked, refrigerated but not frozen, and offer them up for sale on the shelves for extended lengths of time? As @CraigC mentions, such product is commonly consumed after short-term cold storage, which everyone normally does. The "no-preservative" meats, however, may be a number of weeks old when purchased, then remain in purchasers' fridges for another week, or longer, before being consumed. Bacteria are everywhere-present, thus meat processed and wrapped for sale with no preservatives of any kind, is bound to contain some live bacteria. At that point in time, their number is such that immediate consumption causes no discernible untoward symptoms. Given time, they multiply within the packaged meat, and then present potential danger. The usual preservative, sodium nitrite, prevents that for extended periods of time, working more successfully than salting (brine), for example, that being done with the salt sodium chloride, relatively harmless.

One non-chemical preservation means I know of is irradiation, in which the packaged product is exposed to one or another type of radiation, which kills off any contained bacteria. I wish I knew more about this or other means employed. Milk, for example, is HEATED during Pasteurization, but heating meat seems to not be an option.

I have been unable to login to the forum for several days. Was there a problem?
 
impish said:
@morning glory
In the world of Chemistry, both nitrates and nitrites fall within a class of compounds called "salts". Most folks think of salts as table salt, of course, which is a chloride salt, sodium chloride, a compound of sodium and chlorine. Sodium Chloride is responsible for allowing our bodies to store water amongst the tissues, which squeezes blood vessels, which increases blood pressure. For that reason, sodium chloride-reduced diets are sought. As I understand it, the sodium content is the bad guy, thus other sodium salts such as nitrates and nitrites would have the same blood-pressure increasing effect.

However, nitrites have been involved in ongoing controversy concerning their safety, since they are metabolized (gotten rid of from our bodies) by the liver into nitroamines, which are proven carcinogens, real bad guys. Arguments FOR nitrites claim the amounts of nitroamines formed are harmlessly small. But what about those folks whose systems are already pre-disposed to inability to handle carcinogens?

My OP, is to question how the meat-makers can offer packaged meats already cooked, refrigerated but not frozen, and offer them up for sale on the shelves for extended lengths of time? As @CraigC mentions, such product is commonly consumed after short-term cold storage, which everyone normally does. The "no-preservative" meats, however, may be a number of weeks old when purchased, then remain in purchasers' fridges for another week, or longer, before being consumed. Bacteria are everywhere-present, thus meat processed and wrapped for sale with no preservatives of any kind, is bound to contain some live bacteria. At that point in time, their number is such that immediate consumption causes no discernible untoward symptoms. Given time, they multiply within the packaged meat, and then present potential danger. The usual preservative, sodium nitrite, prevents that for extended periods of time, working more successfully than salting (brine), for example, that being done with the salt sodium chloride, relatively harmless.

One non-chemical preservation means I know of is irradiation, in which the packaged product is exposed to one or another type of radiation, which kills off any contained bacteria. I wish I knew more about this or other means employed. Milk, for example, is HEATED during Pasteurization, but heating meat seems to not be an option.

I have been unable to login to the forum for several days. Was there a problem?
Click to expand...


I'm learning lots here @impish

Re the login issues see here. Thank you for the explanation.
 
We were recently given a big bag of home kill beef sausages, no flavouring that I'm aware of, but just the best ever sausage, or banger. We've been eating them all summer. About 25 kgs worth. Free. I also have been getting from my local butcher pork and leek sausages. They are really nice too. I watched my friend who had a butcher shop make sausages. He put a lot of water and a lot of spices in his. Too many in my opinion. One day I saw him put some cuts of dark meat in the mincer, I looked at the box and recognised the brand was clover, a factory that butchers horses. The only reason I knew was I bred horses and know the whole chain in the life of a horse. I never bought a sausage off him again.

Russ
 
There is a farm not far from here, they make delicious beef sausages, they are by far my favourite, not too keen on pork.
 
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