Soft salami

Introductions and chatter

Soft salami

Postby Fingers » Tue Nov 15, 2016 11:30 am

Hi Folks

Last year I embarked on my first salami which turned out ok, however. What I made was hard/firm compared to the shop bought. I reduced the weight by 35% but wonder if this figure is what the shop guys go for, as there seem to be a great deal softer.

Is 35% the min safe figure, if so then how are they producing soft fully cured sausage?

When I say soft I don't mean fresh sausage soft, firm but with a slight give to it and when sliced is very flexible.
Fingers
Registered Member
 
Posts: 122
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:46 pm
Location: Northumberland. UK

Re: Soft salami

Postby onewheeler » Tue Nov 15, 2016 1:52 pm

If you look at the web sites of the supermarkets you'll often find the meat content of cured products.

A quick look at Waitrose: cooking chorizo 120 g meat / 100 g product. Cured chorizo 155 g / 100 g product. I think the most I've seen is 160 g / 100 g, but many are around 140 g. One has to guess how much liquid might have been added, but if one takes 150 g / 100 g product as typical then the weight loss is about 33%: maybe getting on for 38% if there was say 10% liquid in the initial mix.

Only an indication of the likely weight loss, but probably near enough.

Martin/
User avatar
onewheeler
Registered Member
 
Posts: 456
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 1:40 pm
Location: Nympsfield, Gloucestershire most of the time

Re: Soft salami

Postby Fingers » Tue Nov 15, 2016 2:44 pm

Interesting

140g of Pork per 100g of finished product, which is only 28%! however there will be spices and seasoning in the 100g but is the 140g just the pork excluding everything else.

https://groceries.morrisons.com/webshop ... _SHELFVIEW
Fingers
Registered Member
 
Posts: 122
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:46 pm
Location: Northumberland. UK

Re: Soft salami

Postby Fingers » Tue Nov 15, 2016 5:02 pm

Prepared with 122g of Pork per 100g of finished product, 18% for this German salami, much scratching of chin here.? Even taking into account the seasoning this is a low weight reduction. So how the...????

https://groceries.morrisons.com/webshop ... _SHELFVIEW
Fingers
Registered Member
 
Posts: 122
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:46 pm
Location: Northumberland. UK

Re: Soft salami

Postby wheels » Tue Nov 15, 2016 10:32 pm

Unfortunately, food declarations (QUID declaration) don't necessarily work how you would think that they do. For example, we weigh the whole salami and calculate weight loss based on he whole weight. The food declaration doesn't (necessarily) do this. Their figure is only for the meat. In the case of pork, any fat above 20% VL will lower this figure.

Both of the two Morrison's items above have well above 20% VL, or I'm guessing they do from the fat per 100g in the declaration for the finished product. This will affect the '% pork per 100g' figures.

The FSA used to issue a downloadable spreadsheet to enable small producers to calculate these figures.

I'd use weight loss as a guideline, but use 'feel' to make the final decision when to use the salami.

HTH

Phil
User avatar
wheels
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 12890
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Leicestershire, UK

Re: Soft salami

Postby Fingers » Wed Nov 16, 2016 7:00 pm

So the 35% not a hard and impassable rule? I say this as I would prefer to have a softer product. But at what point does the product become safe to eat? 35% loss is different of you add water or wine to the product. But if you ad say 10% water/wine then the meat itself has not lost as much water as it would with out adding that in the first place?
Fingers
Registered Member
 
Posts: 122
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:46 pm
Location: Northumberland. UK

Re: Soft salami

Postby NCPaul » Wed Nov 16, 2016 8:25 pm

Food safety is determined by water activity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_activity
You could dry to a lessor degree by increasing the salt content to arrive at the same water activity. The meters to measure water activity are very expensive. I've always kept the salt content above 2.3 % and consider 30 % weight loss to be safe (though not where I like the texture, which is 35-40 %). No added water.
Fashionably late will be stylishly hungry.
NCPaul
Site Admin
 
Posts: 2918
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:58 am
Location: North Carolina

Re: Soft salami

Postby wheels » Wed Nov 16, 2016 11:57 pm

As NCpaul says, Water activity (Aw) is one of the 'hurdles' in making salami. The other major one is pH.

Get either, or a combination of both, to certain levels and the salami will be safe.

Phil
User avatar
wheels
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 12890
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Leicestershire, UK

Re: Soft salami

Postby onewheeler » Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:13 pm

wheels wrote:Unfortunately, food declarations (QUID declaration) don't necessarily work how you would think that they do. For example, we weigh the whole salami and calculate weight loss based on he whole weight. The food declaration doesn't (necessarily) do this. Their figure is only for the meat. In the case of pork, any fat above 20% VL will lower this figure.


Interesting Phil.

Your interpetation seems to be that the ingredients quote g (meat) to start / g (meat) in finished product, or do you mean / g(total finished product)? The former would seem hard to calculate. I'd certainly not realised that fat is treated separately from non-fat meat in these sums.

Martin/
User avatar
onewheeler
Registered Member
 
Posts: 456
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 1:40 pm
Location: Nympsfield, Gloucestershire most of the time

Re: Soft salami

Postby wheels » Fri Nov 18, 2016 8:21 pm

It's hard to explain Martin, but the numbers don't necessarily 'crunch' like you'd expect them to. Particularly with more than 20% pork fat.

The FSA calculators are here:

www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/spreadsheets ... alc_v2.xls

https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/f ... cfeb04.xls

Have a play and see what you make of it.

Phil
User avatar
wheels
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 12890
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Leicestershire, UK


Return to Chatter

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests