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Meat from Hungary

Téliszalámi (Hungarian winter salami)téliszalámi

Téliszalámi is Hungary's smoked, mould-covered winter salami. In the protected Szeged form, pork and fat are chopped to 2–4 mm, stuffed into casings at least 65 mm wide, cold-smoked over beech at no more than 12 °C for 12–14 days and then ripened and dried for 2–3 months while the house moulds of the drying rooms cover it. It stays low in acid, with a pH above 5.6.

Fully documentedMeat2.4 months – 3.5 months

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe Szeged specification fixes the meat, sizes and process but not the spice or salt amounts.
Pork shoulder, leg, loin and buttFrom pigs over 1 year old and at least 150 kg in the Szeged specification, boned by hand[eu-szeged-2007]
Glandless belly and jowl fat[eu-szeged-2007]
White pepper, allspice, sweet paprika and curing saltAdded during chopping; Pick calls its spice recipe secret[hu-szeged-spec][pick2011]
Natural or vapour-permeable artificial casingAt least 65 mm across[eu-szeged-2007]
Starterspontaneous house mould flora (the Szeged specification allows no acidifier, no starter culture and no mould starter)

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.4 months – 3.5 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
-6–-4 °C

What changes: Frozen pork and fat are chopped fine with the seasonings

Step 1 of 5
Chop chilled meat and fat with seasonings and curing salt
Time
Not documented
Temperature
-6–-4 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Téliszalámi is Hungary's smoked, mould-covered winter salami. In the protected Szeged form, pork and fat are chopped to 2–4 mm, stuffed into casings at least 65 mm wide, cold-smoked over beech at no more than 12 °C for 12–14 days and then ripened and dried for 2–3 months while the house moulds of the drying rooms cover it. It stays low in acid, with a pH above 5.6. Made in 5 steps over 2.4 months – 3.5 months. The longest step, dry slowly in the ripening-drying rooms, takes 2–3 months (Publication of an application 2007). House mould flora of the ripening rooms, mostly Penicillium species; more than 10 mould species in the rooms and at least 10 on the finished salami does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–3 monthsSet[eu-szeged-2007]Dry slowly in the ripening-drying rooms
Temperature-6–-4 °CSet[eu-szeged-2007]Chop chilled meat and fat with seasonings and curing salt
AciditypH at least 5.6Set[eu-szeged-2007]Dry slowly in the ripening-drying rooms

What makes this one different

Téliszalámi is barely acidified (pH above 5.6) and relies on cold smoking, house moulds and slow drying. Many dry sausages, such as sucuk or pepperoni, are first soured warm with lactic bacteria.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Szegedi szalámi / Szegedi téliszalámi PDOThe protected Szeged form, made only in Szeged; see its own entry.

Safety

Because the pH stays above 5.6, the Szeged specification warns that fast drying would harm food safety; the drying is kept slow, with the humidity gap held to 4–5 %. This is raw pork that is cold-smoked and dried with no cooking step, and CDC says curing, drying or smoking alone does not consistently kill Trichinella worms. Oregon's rules for shops making dry sausage require certified trichina-free pork, a commercial starter, a pH test and a water-activity test on each batch, and a process shown to cut E. coli O157:H7 by 5 log. This page describes commercial production under a specification; it is not a tested home recipe.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The Szeged specification names Rolando Péter as the first to make salami in Szeged, in 1841. It says Pick Márk founded his business in 1869 and started large-scale salami making in 1885, and that the name téliszalámi comes from salami being made only in winter at first. Pick Szeged Zrt. (2011 slides) says the firm was founded in 1869 and calls its winter salami recipe unchanged for 142 years. Szegedi szalámi / Szegedi téliszalámi was registered as a PDO in 2007 (Commission Regulation (EC) No 1485/2007 of 14 December 2007).

  1. [eu-szeged-2007] Publication of an application: 'Szegedi szalámi' or 'Szegedi téliszalámi' (PDO), Official Journal of the European Union C 86, 20.4.2007 (CELEX 52007XC0420(03))spec
  2. [hu-szeged-spec] Hungarian Government geographical indications register (gi.kormany.hu), Szegedi szalámi or Szegedi téliszalámi, product specification (termékleírás, in Hungarian)spec
  3. [pick2011] Pick Szeged Zrt., Using geographical indications for Hungarian salami (slides), EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperationweb
  4. [eu-reg-1485-2007] European Commission 2007, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1485/2007 of 14 December 2007 registering certain names in the Register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications (including Szegedi szalámi or Szegedi téliszalámi (PDO)), Official Journal L 330, 15.12.2007, p. 13 (CELEX 32007R1485)spec
  5. [cdc-trichinella] CDC, How to Prevent Trichinellosis (12 March 2024)gov
  6. [oha-sausage] Oregon Health Authority, Special Processes Guidance No. 2, Dry Fermented Sausage, HACCP checklist for operators (rev. 01/15)gov