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Meat from Greece

Salami aeros (Greek dry salami)σαλάμι αέρος

Salami aeros, "air salami", is the Greek name for dry fermented salami. Traditional batches are made without starter cultures and ferment with the wild lactic bacteria and staphylococci of the meat while humidity is lowered slowly. In one industrial study they finished at pH 5.0–5.2 with 27.7–30.3 % water.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Salami aeros itself.

DocumentedMeat

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source read gives a recipe; amounts vary with the maker's skill and experience.
Minced meat and fat, salt, curing salts and spices, stuffed into casingsThe study abstracts read do not give the recipe or amounts
Starterspontaneous (traditional batches); starter cultures in some industrial salami
Start
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What changes: Meat and fat are minced and mixed with salt and spices

Step 1 of 4
Mince and mix
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Meat and fat are minced and mixed with salt, curing salts and spices; the sources read give no amounts.

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

Salami aeros, "air salami", is the Greek name for dry fermented salami. Traditional batches are made without starter cultures and ferment with the wild lactic bacteria and staphylococci of the meat while humidity is lowered slowly. In one industrial study they finished at pH 5.0–5.2 with 27.7–30.3 % water. Wild Lactobacillus sakei, an active lactic flora above 10^8 CFU/g, governed fermentation in four industrial batches made without starters and Lactobacillus curvatus, L. sakei and Weissella (including W. hellenica and W. minor) among 348 lactic isolates do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
AciditypH 5–5.2Measured[samelis1998]Ripen and dry

What makes this one different

Salami aeros is a general Greek type, not an EU protected name (none is listed in eAmbrosia), and its traditional form uses no starter. Its wild flora is unusually rich in Staphylococcus saprophyticus, which one study proposed as a nitrate-reducing starter for the Greek style.

Related ferments

Safety

In one study of four starter-free industrial batches, Listeria spp. present in the fresh mix were gone by the end of fermentation, and the salami was substantially free of sulfite-reducing clostridia and coagulase-positive staphylococci. A slow fall in humidity prevented batches that acidified too little. Those were industrial batches, not a home method. Washington State University Extension does not recommend making dry sausage at home, because S. aureus toxin can form if fermentation is not rigidly controlled.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria spp. in the fresh sausage mix, gone from all four batches by the end of fermentation; batches substantially free of sulfite-reducing clostridia and coagulase-positive staphylococci.

History and sources

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

  1. [wsu-sausage] Washington State University Extension, Homemade Meat, Poultry, and Game Sausages (EB1661)gov
  2. [samelis1998] Samelis J., Metaxopoulos J., Vlassi M., Pappa A. 1998, Stability and safety of traditional Greek salami, a microbiological ecology study, International Journal of Food Microbiology 44:69-82 (abstract)paper
  3. [samelis1994a] Samelis J., Stavropoulos S., Kakouri A., Metaxopoulos J. 1994, Quantification and characterization of microbial populations associated with naturally fermented Greek dry salami, Food Microbiology 11:447-460 (abstract)paper
  4. [samelis1994b] Samelis J., Maurogenakis F., Metaxopoulos J. 1994, Characterisation of lactic acid bacteria isolated from naturally fermented Greek dry salami, International Journal of Food Microbiology 23:179-196 (abstract)paper
  5. [drosinos2005] Drosinos E.H., Mataragas M., Xiraphi N., Moschonas G., Gaitis F., Metaxopoulos J. 2005, Characterization of the microbial flora from a traditional Greek fermented sausage, Meat Science 69:307-317 (abstract)paper
  6. [wiki-salami] Wikipedia, Salami (section on Greek dry fermented sausage, salami aeros)wiki