Nondairy Fermented Foods and Products

Fermented sausages are produced generally as dry or semidry products, although some are intermediate. Dry or Italian-type sausages contain 30–40% moisture, are generally not smoked or heat processed, and are eaten usually without cooking.58 In their preparation, curing and seasonings are added to ground meat, followed by its stuffing into casings and incubation for varying periods of time at 80–95°F. Incubation times are shorter when starter cultures are employed. The curing mixtures include glucose as substrate for the fermenters and nitrates and/or nitrites as color stabilizers. When only nitrates are used, it is necessary for the sausage to contain bacteria that reduce nitrates to nitrites, usually micrococci present in the sausage biota or added to the mix. Following incubation, during which fermentation occurs, the products are placed in drying rooms with a relative humidity of 55– 65% for periods ranging from 10 to 100 days, or, in the case of Hungarian salami, up to 6 months.47 Genoa and Milano salamis are other examples of dry sausages.