Mastering the Craft of Making Sausage (10 page)

There are several ways to do this, but most of these approaches would make the sausage taste awful. There is one way, however, to change the chemical composition of the sausage and make it taste even better: Add a very small amount of sodium nitr
ite
(NaNO
₂
). Toxin formation is positively prevented if a specified amount of this chemical is mixed with the raw sausage.
Not one person has ever been known to contract botulism after eating sausage properly treated with sodium nitrite.
You can feel confident that sausage properly treated with this chemical will be free of the toxin.

One of the commercially produced curing powders known as Prague Powder #1, Instacure #1, or Modern Cure is recommended for treating the sausage. Used as directed, any one of these products will impart exactly the right amount of sodium nitrite into the sausage. The sausage will be wholesome and free of botulin. (Commercial meat processors are required to use sodium nitrite in cooked sausage and luncheon meats, as mandated by the Federal Drug Administration.)

If you decide that you will not use chemical additives for processing your sausage products, you should also decide that you will not make smoked sausage. Untreated raw sausage (also called
fresh sausage
) can be made, cooked, and eaten safely—even if it is stuffed in casings. However, smoked sausage made without the above-mentioned nitrite may be deadly because, as men- tioned above, the sausage is usually smoked for a long time in the temperature range that encourages spore reproduction and toxin formation.

E. COLI
O157

I had never heard of this bacterium until the summer of 1996. I was living in Japan then, and it became headline news in that country. Almost 10,000 Japanese became ill, and at least eleven people died. Later, I found out that 700 people suffered the same kind of food poisoning in the U. S. in 1993; they ate undercooked ground beef at a hamburger sandwich chain.

E. coli
O157 is a new strain of the intestinal bacteria that are known collectively as
E. coli
. Most of these
E. coli
bacteria are either harmless or cause temporary intestinal discomfort and diarrhea. However, one of them acquired genes that enabled it to cause severe illness in human beings. In 1982, U. S. scientists isolated it and labeled this new strain. They called it
Escherichia coli
O157:H7 (
E. coli
O157 is an abbreviation of the technical name).

Food poisoning caused by 
E. coli
 O157 is much more severe than that caused by salmonella food poisoning, and it is very difficult for doctors to treat; antibiotics can worsen the condition. Symptoms appear several days after consuming the contaminated food.

In a technical report published in March of 1995, it is reported that there are a minimum of 20,000 cases of 
E. coli
 O157 infection each year, and about 250 of these cases result in death.

Continuing research will clarify much of the mystery surrounding this new health threat, but there are some useful facts available at this time. It appears that non-chlorinated water and almost any food can become contaminated with 
E. coli
 O157 bacteria, but meat—particularly beef—deserves special attention. About 1 percent of healthy cattle have 
E. coli
 O157 in their intestines. Improper slaughtering can cause contamination of the meat. If this contaminated meat touches other meat or other food—directly or indirectly—contam-ination can spread.

One outbreak of 
E. coli
 O157 infection is especially important for the home sausage maker. From November 16 through December 21, 1994, there were twenty cases of 
E. coli
 O157 infection in the state of Washington, and three more cases were identified in northern California. Investigation and testing confirmed that all cases resulted from eating a certain brand of dry-cured salami purchased from the delicatessen counter of a specific chain grocery store. The suspected product was recalled—all 10,000 pounds.

The salami involved in this incident was traditionally dry-cured salami. This type of salami is fermented while it is being slowly dried under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. It is never cooked, and it is intended to be eaten raw. The combination of the lactic acid produced by fermentation and the loss of moisture preserves the sausage and kills the harmful microbes. This dry-cure process has had an excellent safety record for hundreds of years. In this case, however, the 
E. coli
 O157 present in the sausage were not killed.

Subsequent tests by the USDA have confirmed that 
E. coli
 O157 can survive the process of fermenting and dry curing. The USDA is currently doing research to develop processing techniques that will insure the destruction of this bacterium in dry-cured sausage. In the meantime, the producers of dry-cured sausage of any variety are being required to validate (prove) that their process results in a sausage that will be safe to eat. Some processors accomplished this by using a longer fermentation process; other processors used thermal treatment. (Thermal treatment means heating the sausage to a certain temperature and maintaining that temperature for a certain number of minutes.) However, many processors of dry-cured sausage have gone out of business; some refuse to change the traditional curing process to a process that will result in an inferior product, and other producers have found the validation requirements to be too burdensome or too expensive.

What does all this mean for people who make sausage at home? It seems to be clear that it is no longer safe for the average person to make dry-cured sausage. The meat that we might use for dry-cured sausage today, or next week, may not be contaminated by 
E. coli
 O157, but there is a chance that we will unwittingly use contaminated meat sometime in the future. If we use that meat to make dry-cured sausage using traditional methods, the people who eat that product could become very ill, or even die. If that same meat is used to make fully cooked sausage, the sausage will be perfectly safe because the 
E. coli
 O157 will be killed. The same precautions used to reduce the risk of salmonella food poisoning, or any other food poisoning, are equally effective for 
E. coli
 O157; cooking sausage to an internal temperature of 160° F (71° C) will kill 
E. coli
 O157.

In this book, there are recipes for salami, summer sausage, Thuringer, and the like, but they will be of the fully cooked variety. Instead of fermenting the sausages, a product called Fermento will be suggested. This commercially prepared product contains lactic acid, and gives the sausage a taste similar to fermented sausage. Some of these products will be 
semi
dry-cured, but they will be fully cooked.

Although we can no longer make dry-cured sausages at home safely, I do not think that it is a great loss. In the culinary world, it is commonly believed that making dry-cured sausages is the most difficult task that can be attempted with meat. Special rooms or enclosures with round-the-clock temperature and humidity control are required. But even with these special rooms or enclosures, failure must be expected because it occurs as often as success. Dry-curing sausage is so difficult that many chefs with excellent credentials will not attempt it.

Nitrites and Nitrates

At least as early as ancient Rome, impure salts that were mined from certain locations were used to cure meats. The salts from some of these locations were prized for their ability to flavor meats and to give the meats a reddish or pink color, even when fully cooked. A few hundred years ago, it was realized that nitrates were the impurities in those salts that caused the unique flavor and the color fixing effect noted by the ancients. Since then, nitrates have been added to pure salt to cure meats and sausage. The most commonly used nitrate was potassium nitrate (KNO
₃
, commonly called saltpeter), but sodium nitrate (NaNO
₃
, also known as saltpeter or, less confusingly, as Chile saltpeter) has also been widely used. The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 officially authorized the use of nitrates for the curing of commercial meat products.

Later on in the early 1900s, scientists discovered that the nitrates used for curing would slowly break down into nitrites. It was also discovered that those nitrites were the chemicals that led to the color fixing and flavor changes. Consequently, the U. S. government permitted the direct use of nitrites to cure meats, but placed a limit on the amount that could be used.

In the late 1960s, it became clear that the use of nitrates and nitrites could cause nitrosamines to be formed under certain conditions, and nitrosamines in substantial amounts were known to act as carcinogens in test animals. Therefore, in the early 1970s, there was much research and discussion about this. Tentative conclusions and a set of guidelines regarding nitrite and nitrate usage were issued in 1975, and there have been no significant changes in the guidelines since that time—this is in spite of continuing research.

Several problems confound this research: Nitrates and nitrites occur naturally in human saliva, in vegetables, and quite often in drinking water. For example, celery, beets, and radishes contain between 2700 and 1600 PPM (parts per million) of nitrites. The ham and sausages commonly available at a grocery store will contain not more than 156 PPM of nitrites.

Below is a summary of the most important considerations and conclusions made by researchers and government policymakers:

• The risk of botulism in some kinds of cured meat is very great. Nitrates and nitrites are the only palatable additives presently available that will positively prevent this often-deadly form of food poisoning.

• Though nitrosamines can cause cancer in test animals, it is not clear whether they will cause cancer in humans.

• Tests on commercially prepared products occasionally show trace amounts of nitrosamines, but the amounts detected are much lower than the amount that would be required to cause cancer in test animals.

The net result is that the danger from botulism is a real danger if these chemicals were to be banned. The degree of danger from nitrosamines posed by the continued use of these chemicals is unknown. Actually, there may be no danger at all. Considering these points, it was decided to continue to permit these chemicals to be used in some products (bacon, for example), and to mandate that they be used when there is a clear botulism hazard (smoked sausage in casing, for example). At the same time, however, they placed many restrictions on the usage of these chemicals in order to minimize the risk of exposure to nitrosamines. This approach allowed the continued production of traditionally cured products, preserved the protection against botulism offered by nitrates and nitrites, and minimized the exposure to carcinogens.

One significant restriction is that nitr
ates
 (not nitr
ites
) are banned for all products, except fermented sausage and products cured with traditional dry cure. (Such products undergo a lengthy curing process, so the slower dissipation rate of nitrates is required.) Another change was that the amount of nitrites permitted in various categories of foods was reduced.

Of course, the U. S. government cannot prevent an amateur sausage maker from using nitrates and, furthermore, can’t regulate the amount 
of any
 additive he or she uses. Nevertheless, since the federal regulations for the commercial use of nitrites and nitrates are for protecting our health, it is in our interest to follow those regulations to the extent possible. Consequently, nitrates are not specified for use in any sausage curing procedure in this book because fermented sausage formulations and processes are not presented.

Government regulations for commercial products specify nitrite content in 
parts per million
 (PPM), and the required or permissible amount differs according to the product. For example, more nitrite is required in sausage than is allowed in bacon. Since few of us have the equipment or expertise to measure nitrite in PPM, we will rely on the commercial curing powders—these curing powders must also meet federal regulations. Used as directed, they are formulated to give you a product that will be within government regulations—a product that will positively prevent botulism and pose zero to minimal risk from nitrosamine exposure.

CHAPTER 5

Grinding, Mixing, and Stuffing

Preparing the Meat

Note: Before reading this section, it might be helpful to review the “Meat” section in Chapter 3.

T
he meat to be ground for sausage should be fresh and well chilled—but not frozen. A little more meat than the recipe requires should be prepared to allow for trimming waste.

Trimming and cutting should be done on a clean plastic cutting board; cutting boards made of wood can harbor bacteria. With a boning knife, remove all blood clots, bone, and as much connective tissue as possible. It is impossible and unnecessary to remove all connective tissue, but try to cut out and discard tissue that is gristly, or tissue that might jam the cutting knife of the grinder.

Most sausage formulas suggest that the meat should contain about 25 percent fat. Here are two ways to get the fat-to-lean ratio you want:

• After the meat has been trimmed, cut the fat away from the lean. Precision cutting is not required here; if the fat and lean are roughly separated, that is fine. Now you can easily weigh the amount of fat and lean you want. This is a fast and reasonably accurate way for a home sausage maker to get the desired ratio.

• Probably the most widely used method for home sausage making is to look at the meat and make a guess as whether fat needs to be added or removed. Experience will improve accuracy of judgment. Pork shoulder butt (also called Boston butt) contains about the correct amount of fat. For beef, selected beef chuck usually contains the proper ratio of lean to fat.