Salt percentage in air-dried sausage

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Salt percentage in air-dried sausage

Postby Kaiser Soze » Mon May 27, 2013 12:40 pm

I've always been under the impression that air dried sausage needs 2-3% salt for safety reasons. 2 percent I understood was the minimum.

But I've recently been looking at air dried sausage/salami recipes by Len Poli and also some from the Charcuterie book (Ruhlman and Polcyn) and they seem to use less than this. For example, this sopressata recipe uses 1.63% salt:

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Salami%20soppresata%201.pdf

And the sauccison sec recipe from Charcuterie uses 1.77% salt.

Am I missing something here? I know there's not a defined amount of salt that makes food safe and that it's a sliding scale, I was just wondering if my previous understanding of 2-3% was incorrect...
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Re: Salt percentage in air-dried sausage

Postby tommix » Tue May 28, 2013 1:13 pm

I have been using between 1.63% - 1.8% salt in my recipes. I use 1.8% in my air dried products, anymore than that and it is too salty for me. I don't know what the absolute minimum is either but I think most recipes error on the safety side with a higher salt content.
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Re: Salt percentage in air-dried sausage

Postby crustyo44 » Tue May 28, 2013 8:49 pm

Hi,
Matter of fact, my wife is very much salt intolerant and is always on my back to reduce it.
From now on, I will reduce the salt in some recipes, being a good husband!!!!!!!!
Thank you Kaiser for bringing it up on the forum and thank you Tommix for your post.
Cheers,
Jan.
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Re: Salt percentage in air-dried sausage

Postby NCPaul » Tue May 28, 2013 9:24 pm

The Marianskis' book (Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages p. 359) gives 2.3 % as a minimum of salt (excluding cure #2) for air dried salami. I have confidence in their statements. A lot of things can "work" and not be the best practice.
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Re: Salt percentage in air-dried sausage

Postby wheels » Tue May 28, 2013 10:39 pm

In the US there are set minimum salt levels for different styles of processing where the product isn't cooked, to ensure destruction of trichinae. See:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/9/318.10

I'd go 2.3% so long as a starter culture is used but a minimum of >3% without.

HTH

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Re: Salt percentage in air-dried sausage

Postby BriCan » Wed May 29, 2013 7:49 am

Can I add to the mix ????

It seems that the person (Kaiser Soze and crustyo44) that are interested in reducing/or finding the least salt in the curing process is not of this land and yet we are 'stating' a % for the salt that is used for the USA. Where I reside things are a tad different (we are close cuz we call them neighbors :lol: ) we to have our problems with Trichinella but it seems that our inspectors catch it before it gets out.

Saying that there is always the chance to get past the inspectors and thus there are rules in place upon looking I find that there is a note on "salt reduction" :shock: ~~ mind you I had a good feeling that there would be something

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fss ... exae.shtml

Its a good read and the following is the reduction of salt

A.1.6. Method # 6 (Dry Cured Sausage; Optional Cooking or Smoking; Optional Reduced Salt Formulation)

my next step is to check Australia and there rules :)
But what do I know
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Re: Salt percentage in air-dried sausage

Postby Kaiser Soze » Fri May 31, 2013 1:42 am

Thanks for the input guys. I'm actually glad to see that it's not such a cut and dried question, and now I don't feel so stupid for asking it :D

BriCan is right - I am in Australia, and NAHIS (National Animal Health Information System) states that:

Trichinella spiralis is not present in Australia.
A different, distinct species, Trichinella pseudospiralis, has only been detected in two carnivorous species of marsupials in Tasmania, quolls and Tasmanian devils.
Abattoir monitoring and surveys on mainland Australia have remained negative for Trichinella spp. Extensive monitoring of pig and horse meat for Trichinella spp continues to have negative results. Australia's domestic pig population is also recognised as free from T. pseudospiralis and other Trichinella spp.


(http://nahis.animalhealthaustralia.com.au/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Factsheet.80-2?skin=factsheet)

It's always been suggested to cook our pork med-rare if we like it that way, presumably because the pork meat here is free of Trichinella spp.

I've made sausages at 3% salt level before, and they were wayyyy too salty even for me (and I like my salt!). I'm definitely not trying to cut back on salt, but I would like to know that I'm doing things safely. I am (in most cases) using a starter culture and nitrites/nitrates, which I guess adds a few hurdles of safety.
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Re: Salt percentage in air-dried sausage

Postby wheels » Fri May 31, 2013 10:02 am

The salt added also helps reduce the Water Activity. I would heed the Marianski's advice:

At least 2.5 % salt (25 g salt/1 kg of meat) should be added which will help to lower water activity and inhibit the growth of bacteria. From http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-types/fermented-sausage


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