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>> Welcome, everyone, to
Wednesday Nite at the Lab.
I'm Tom Zinnen.
I work here at the UW Madison
Biotechnology Center.
I also work for UW Extension
Cooperative Extension, and on
behalf of those folks and our
other co-organizers, Wisconsin
Public Television, the Wisconsin
Alumni Association, and the UW
Madison Science Alliance, thanks
for coming to Wednesday Nite at
the Lab.
We do this every Wednesday
night, 50 times a year, and it's
another opportunity for you to
share in the discovery here at
your public land-grant research
university.
Tonight, it's my pleasure to
introduce to you Jeff Sindelar.
He's a professor in the
Department of Animal Sciences,
and he's also a meat specialist,
a state meat specialist with UW
Extension Cooperative Extension.
One of the great things about
what Jeff is going to be telling
us about is specialty meats, and
one of the other things that I
hope he tells us a little bit
about is the new building for
the Meat and Muscle Lab that
will be going up soon and will
finish sometime by 2017.
And I hope he'll think about
what that means for the state of
Wisconsin because every dairy
operation is also a beef
operation.
And the potential for artisanal
and specialty meats is a great
opportunity for entrepreneurship
in Wisconsin, and I think that
new building on campus will
continue to help make the campus
a more welcoming place and an
even better space for doing
innovation and entrepreneurship,
especially in agriculture and
particularly in meats.
Jeff got his bachelor's of
science from the University of
Nebraska in Lincoln in 1999.
He got his master's at Michigan
State in 2002 and his PhD at
Iowa State in meat science in
2006.
His research interests include
quality and sensory
characteristics of processed
meats, non-meat ingredient
functionality in meat products,
and investigating intervention
strategies to control pathogenic
bacteria in meat products.
His Extension works includes
providing assistance to meat
processors in the area of
product development, problem
solving, and regulatory
compliance, serving as a liaison
between academia, government,
and the meat industry,
coordination of meat science
workshops and training programs.
In other words, how do I sign
up?
And providing involvement and
support to youth meat science
related activities, which is an
area of interest to a lot of us
who want to infuse some more
science into the 4-H field,
particularly now that 4-H has a
science, technology,
engineering, and math
initiative.
So tonight we get to hear about
the discovery, history, and
science of meat.
Please join me in welcoming Jeff
Sindelar back to Wednesday Nite
at the Lab.
[APPLAUSE]
>> Good evening, everyone.
It's great to be back at
Wednesday Nite at the Lab.
I, first and foremost, need to
thank Tom for inviting me and
giving me an opportunity to talk
about a topic that I find near
and dear to my heart, both
personally and professionally.
I hope that by the end of this
evening, or after this
presentation, perhaps you might
find it near and dear to your
heart in some way, shape, or
form.
But, regardless, we're going to
try to have fun.
We're going to try to learn a
couple things about meat
science, meat products, meat
processing, and the history of
it all.
And I can promise you one thing:
before the night is over you'll
all have an opportunity to
sample and evaluate a number of
different meat products.
So, shall we begin?
Great.
So, my goal this evening is not
really to get into a whole ton
of science.
We're going to delve into
science a little bit here and
there.
My goal this evening is to take
you on a journey.
So I want you to think about the
presentation now and as we go
through the presentation with
that in mind.
Because we're going to talk
about discovering the history
and the science of meat
products.
And many of us, I think it's
safe to say that all of us take
our food for granted.
It's certainly no question that
meat and poultry products are
included in that food.
We have numerous types of meat
and poultry products, many more
than our earlier generations,
our ancestors did, and even
though we have so many different
meat products, very high quality
and very safe meat products, we
continue to develop more.
We see more in grocery stores.
We see the demand and the
interest and the drive to create
these products and do so in a
very safe and high quality
manner.
So for the next 45 minutes or so
don't think about all the
products that you buy on your
daily or weekly run to the
grocery store, think about the
products from a historical
standpoint, and hopefully
together we can make a
connection about the products
that are in front of us, the
products that we're going to
sample a bit later on, the
products that really created
what the meat industry is today,
and hopefully by the end of this
talk we can tie those back to
the first products that were
ever created, the first meat
products, per se, known to man.
So, without further ado, I think
this comment is very, very safe
to say.
The meat industry is steeped in
tradition and has roots dating
back to ancient history.
The meat industry has been
around for a long, long, long
time.
A real long time.
>> Public slaughterhouses date
back to Roman times.
In 300 BC, animals were
butchered in open air at the
Forum in Rome.
On special occasions, wealthy
Romans sometimes ate such exotic
meat as giraffe and tiny mice
stuffed with pine nuts.
The more unusual the food, the
more the guests of the host were
impressed.
In the Middle Ages, butchers
were restricted to certain
neighborhoods in which to ply
their trade.
This was due to the large amount
of animal waste and blood.
They were usually dumped into
the middle of the street that
served as an open sewer.
>> So, here's a real short
little clip that was taken from
a Discovery Channel video, and
this documentary was talking
about the history and the
current meat industry.
The documentary was called The
Butcher, and it kind of sets the
stage and puts this vision in
our minds about ancient times,
ancient Romans.
In fact, that's probably not the
beginning of time for the meat
industry because there's some
excerpts from the book The
Odyssey where Homer, the poet,
mentioned the production of
blood sausage and other types of
meat products.
So the meat industry has been
around for an awful long time,
dating back to the 11th, 12th
century BC and maybe even
earlier beyond.
So there are records for many,
many decades, many, many
centuries regarding the meat
industry.
If we think about that in
context, the early meat industry
was focused on the utilization
of fresh meats.
We harvest animals.
Those animals are composed of
biological materials.
The natural tendency of those
materials is for them to
degrade, decompose, and go back
to the Earth.
Meat processing, meat
preservation, the early meat
industry all dealt with those
same issues that we currently
deal with today.
They just did it in a different
light.
And it was a way to preserve
perishable foods.
So there are some very, very
ancient preservation methods
which, interestingly, are still
very commonly used today.
Drying, many different examples
of drying fresh meats.
Centuries ago.
Here's some examples of some
fresh pieces of meat that are
hanging on some lines.
I can promise you this practice
is done in certain countries
around the world still today.
In the US, it's probably not
quite so common.
We have other technologies, and
we'll talk about those.
Here's a great picture of an
Indian tribe drying meats.
The product biltong, has
everyone heard of that product?
Dried meats.
There's even a few companies
that will use pictures similar
to this to kind of describe the
ancient roots of that.
So drying was a very primitive
but very effective way to
preserve meats, specifically
fresh meats during that time.
Smoking was another very ancient
preservation method.
So, it is clear, and we can talk
science about this topic for an
hour, I suspect you're probably
not interested in that, but
smoking, if you do it long
enough and in the right way, it
alone can be a very effective
preservation method.
There are many compounds and
microbials and antioxidants in
smoke that can very effectively
preserve meat.
You just need to do it for an
awful long time to really see
some significant benefits.
So here's a couple pictures of
just a very simple smokehouse.
Gosh, this is very similar to
what barbeque smokehouses and
barbeque pits look like today,
isn't it?
Anyone barbeque in this
audience?
Do you not have a fire box and
an indirect heat source that
transfers the smoke into the
vesicle where you're slowly
barbequing or smoking meat?
These concepts have been around
for a very long time.
Oh, boy.
Salting, we're all very familiar
with this process.
Perhaps when we think about
ancient meat industry or meat
industry history it's probably
one of the first things we think
about is salting.
Still today we utilize this
technology.
Salting is very effective and
either packed in barrels or
loosely salted, very effective
method for preservation.
Oh, gosh.
So let's move into a little bit
about, a little more into
current times.
And we can talk about the term
the meat packing industry.
So, the meat industry by no
means is a simple and
straightforward industry.
There's a lot of different ways
that we describe ourselves.
There's a lot of different words
that we use.
Believe it or not, the meat
industry has its own vocabulary.
There are words that we use in
the meat industry that no one
else uses anywhere.
Like evisceration,
exsanguination, exudative, these
were all words that were
developed specifically to
describe meat industry
phenomenons.
So, the meat industry is
sometimes referred to as the
meat packing industry, and today
we kind of associate that with
meat packing plants, plants that
slaughter animals and generate
whole-muscle cuts, steaks and
roasts and chops and so forth,
but the meat packing industry,
looking back historically,
really was to define the way
that animals were slaughtered
and the meat was handled and
processed.
So the meat was packed with salt
in barrels centuries ago, before
today's great invention of
refrigeration.
Meat packing.
And this process, this
technology, salting, stimulated
the formation of large meat
packing plants, the growth of
the industry.
Don't worry, before too long
we'll get into current days-age
technology and so forth, but
work with me for a while.
We're kind of still back in the
older generations.
An interesting story which many
of you have probably heard or
read about.
There's a gentleman by the name
of Sam Wilson.
He owned a meat packing company
called ES Wilson Company in
Troy, New York, in 1800 or in
the 1800 circa range, time.
He was a meat supplier to the
military in the War of 1812, or
one of the meat suppliers.
So he supplied packed meats,
salted meat in barrels to the
military before the time of
refrigeration.
On those barrels it was stamped
US because at that time you had
to put on the barrels where the
meat was coming from and where
it was going to.
So the stamp was ES/US.
Mr. Wilson was also lovingly
referred to or known in his
areas as Uncle Sam.
So as media and discussions and
people and conversation and
conversations took place,
eventually US to many people,
United States, was kind of put
together with Uncle Sam, and
that is really where the term
Uncle Sam in relation to
describing the US government was
established.
So up to this point we've been
talking about the fresh meat
industry.
Let's talk about the processed
meats industry.
So let's talk a little about
processed meats history.
And in order for us to do this,
effectively, we have to think
about what processed meats are.
And this is, in some
conversations, kind of a million
dollar question, maybe a loaded
question.
What is a processed meat?
You could expand that and say,
what's a processed food?
But a processed meat by a
textbook definition is a product
where a physical, chemical, or
organoleptic transformation of
the fresh meat, the unprocessed
version, occurred which results
in a definable property.
So the texture has changed, the
flavor has changed, or perhaps
the taste has changed, or all
three or maybe some other
changes.
So this begs the question, when
we're thinking about the history
of processed meats, were these
products created by accident,
were they created by intention,
or were they created by
necessity?
So, if we think about the
preservation methods, the
salting, the drying, the
smoking, all methods that we
typically see in some way,
shape, or form in today's
processed meats, were they put
into fresh meats to develop
processed meats by accident?
Did we happen to realize that if
we salt a meat it's a processed
product?
Or did we happen to notice that
we needed to salt a product to
create a safe product to extend
the shelf life of that product,
hence it became a processed
product.
So, that's a great question to
ponder.
But let's talk a little bit more
about what defines a processed
meat product.
Meat processing, of course, is
the obvious answer.
But what exactly is meat
processing?
How do you take a fresh piece of
meat and transform it so that
the texture, flavor, aroma, or
any other organoleptic property
is different than the original
form?
So, there's some very common
technologies that have been used
centuries ago, very common
technologies that are used
today.
One of those is particle
reduction.
Any time that you take a big
piece of meat and you reduce the
size of that one muscle or
bundle of muscles into smaller
pieces, that's a form of
processing.
We could arguably say that
ground beef is a processed meat
product.
The original form is not what
you buy in a package.
The original form was whole cuts
of meat or perhaps smaller
trimmings that were generated
from making steaks and roasts
and so forth from those cuts.
Addition of salt, spices, and
other ingredients all create a
processed product, take a fresh
product to a processed product.
Curing or salting, smoking,
cooking, drying, or any other
change in physical or
organoleptic properties all are
definitions of meat processing.
>> What does that word mean?
>> Organoleptic, what does it
mean?
>> Your senses.
Your sight, your smell, your
touch.
Great question.
So, let's talk about some of the
advancements, really important
advancements that took us out of
the Ice Age, for lack of a
better word, to current meat
industry and the convenience
that we have today.
And there are a couple really,
really important advancements.
One of those, both of them are
related to preservation.
One of those is related to the
discovery of meat curing.
And meat curing was first
discovered by an ingredient
called saltpetre, spelled
P-E-T-R-E or P-E-T-E-R, which is
potassium nitrate.
Here's a picture when you could
buy, you can still buy saltpetre
today but here's an old picture
in an old cardboard container of
saltpetre.
It says certified quality
saltpetre granular.
And this was product was
produced out in Denver,
Colorado.
This ingredient resulted in meat
products with improved quality
and safety.
This ingredient allowed for more
palatable products.
So, we're still
pre-refrigeration.
And we're still extending the
shelf life of those products,
taking perishable foods and
keeping them safe and keeping
them from spoiling very quickly.
So, if you don't mind eating 10%
or 12% salt in a piece of meat,
no problems.
But no one in this room, I
suspect, even the little bit
older generation in this room
probably wouldn't be able to
tolerate 10% or 12% salt.
I suspect you could probably
handle 5% or 6% salt pretty
easily, maybe even a 7% or 8% in
this room.
But this ingredient allowed us
to reduce the amount of salt to
make a product more palatable
and enhance the safety of that
product by controlling bacteria,
especially pathogenic bacteria.
And this discovery was by
accident.
It dated back to the 10th
century with the ancient Romans
and probably before then.
But at that time it was an
ingredient that worked.
They didn't know why it worked,
what it was.
It just made a product that was
higher quality and, as time
would pass, safer and having a
longer shelf life.
This is the modern version of
that ingredient which is a
sodium nitrite.
So, potassium nitrate is an
inner compound.
It must first be converted to
this ingredient, potassium
nitrite or sodium nitrite in
this case.
In those times it was discovered
occurred by the conversion of
nitrate to nitrite by natural
microflora, bacteria that was on
the meat, spoilage bacteria.
And when that occurred, it
resulted in curing, meat curing,
which was absolutely significant
in the meat industry.
The other change in addition to
curing was the advent of
refrigeration.
And although today it's just a
modern, it's not even a
convenience, it's really an
expectation, this technology has
allowed us to have all the
different products that we have
today in the marketplace.
Without refrigeration, we would
have far, far fewer meat and
poultry products to choose from.
Of course, we would have a whole
lot fewer other products as
well.
But it alone has had a greater
impact than probably any other
technology just in allowing the
industry to grow.
So, how did refrigeration and
the advent of sodium nitrite and
curing, how did it effect
processed meats?
We're clearly now in the
processed meats side of thing.
One, we've touched on an
improved shelf life.
So without refrigeration, we can
make products that last a very,
very long time.
Here's an example of one of
those.
Prosciutto, high in salt, this
stuff will last years, and it
will do so because of the salt
that's in this product.
But we typically don't want to
be eating summer sausage that
has the same amount of salt as a
prosciutto, or we may not be
wanting to eat hotdogs that have
the same amount of salt as
prosciutto.
So, we must do something, and
refrigeration is the answer.
So, we can get improved shelf
life.
Rather than days before products
spoil, we can get weeks and, in
some cases, months.
Improved palatability.
By reducing the salt, using salt
as an example here a lot, we can
make products that are much more
enjoyable.
You don't have to run right away
to a water fountain after you
get done eating a meat product.
There's a few that still give
you that need.
Improved safety, absolutely.
It goes without saying.
Improved retail costs.
Sometimes we, as consumers,
don't think about this a whole
lot.
If products don't have to be
thrown away or discarded because
they have a longer shelf life,
the cost, overall, of products
goes down.
And improved variety for
consumers.
Because of refrigeration,
because of longer shelf life,
because we can transport
products from across a country
and around the world, we now can
get products, and this is a bad
example because this is made in
Italy, but we can get products
from other countries very, very
readily.
So we do need to talk about the
scientific component of meat
processing.
And there's a whole ton of
science that goes into quality,
safety, shelf life,
palatability, organoleptic
traits.
I'll quit using that word.
But there are some very
fundamental concepts, very
fundamental scientific concepts
about meat processing which are
very, very important and we
utilize to allow the products
that we have in the marketplace
today.
One is a concept called protein
solubilization and extraction.
So, we have ground beef.
We cook that ground beef.
We eat that ground beef.
Perhaps we make hamburgers.
It crumbles.
It has loose texture.
Typically no salt or maybe just
a few shakes with a salt shaker.
We take that ground beef, we add
2% or 3% salt, some other spices
to make it not ground beef.
We do some mixing, some
mechanical action.
We allow the salt to act on the
protein, the meat batter becomes
sticky because of extraction and
solubilization of the proteins,
and we result in a product that
has a very unique texture.
And we're going to sample this
product here in a couple
minutes.
A second very important
scientific concept is pH.
The meat industry, on a daily
basis, controls and utilizes the
adjustment of pH of a meat
system.
So, as living animals and
humans, the pH of us is about
neutral.
We're around 7.0 pH.
After animals are slaughtered,
that pH declines, and some
biochemical changes occur during
this process.
And for those of you that were
in the summer sausage and
bratwurst Wednesday Nite at the
Lab I did about a year and a
half ago, we talked about that
very extensively.
But we can control the pH and
utilize the pH for a number of
reasons.
We can improve the texture of a
sausage or a meat product.
We can improve the safety of a
meat product.
We can change many, many things.
And there's also a whole myriad
of biological and biochemical
changes that we scientifically
research and understand.
Those that are specifically
related to very important meat
biochemistry and meat chemistry
concepts.
Whether it be the rancidity of
fat, lipid oxidation, change in
color, change in protein,
lipolysis, protein degradation,
a number of different
phenomenons that are all
centered around the basic
sciences, especially
biochemistry as well as
chemistry.
So let's go back to this thought
about defining processed meats
because it think it's really,
really important to kind of
think about a little more.
Here are two very, very
generalized ways of categorizing
and defining processed meats.
Earlier I mentioned meat
processing is defined as taking
a whole muscle, perhaps a native
product muscle or group of
products, and doing something to
it.
Whether you're grinding it or
adding salt or a spice.
Whether you're cooking it or
drying it.
For today's discussion, we're
going to define processed meats
as cured, whole muscle meats or
sausages, and this by no means
encompasses all of processed
meats.
Processed meats are sometimes
really, really difficult to
define because there's so many
different variations and there's
so many different names of
products and there's so many
instances where if you do
something to a product, change
it slightly, it makes a
completely different product.
So, unfortunately, consumers
kind of get the brunt of that
because you don't necessarily
have a meat product labeling
book, which you can get access
to if you'd like to.
So you're kind of at the helm of
what's on the label.
Today we're going to try to
learn a little bit more about
that so you guys can have some
tools to understand.
So, defining processed meats.
Cured, whole muscle meats, these
are typically whole muscle or
larger muscle pieces that
contain salt and sometimes
sodium nitrate.
The other category is sausages,
and these are products that
typically have significant
particle reduction.
So they're ground.
Big pieces or small pieces,
muscles are ground into smaller
pieces.
And they utilize meat trimmings
that are generated from the
fabrication of whole muscle
cuts.
Going back a couple centuries
from this point.
Meat trimmings were generated
from carcasses.
So you take a side of beef, you
take the round off and the chuck
off and the rib off and you end
up, when you're removing those
cuts from the bones, you end up
with some meat trimmings.
Those small meat trimmings, what
do you do?
Of course you don't discard
them, you don't throw them away.
You utilize them in some other
type of form.
Sausages happen to be an
excellent form to utilize those
trimmings in.
Most sausages are cured with
salt and sodium nitrate.
So let's talk first about
sausages.
And if we define sausages, we
can use the Romans context is
they called it salsus, which
means salted or preserved.
Surprise, surprise.
And this word comes from the
Latin root where the term
sausage is generated from.
There's a whole host of
sausages, and there's a lot of
different kinds of sausages
because of many, many reasons.
Some of those are the
availability of ingredients.
So, different parts of the
country, different parts of the
world have different
ingredients.
So sometimes sausages have been
defined because of that.
Think of like --, places in the
world where peppers and picantes
and things of that are very,
very commonplace.
Stuff that I don't really see
too often when I'm driving to my
home outside of Madison.
Parts of the country or the
world where there's different
climate and storage conditions.
Summer sausage really has no
historical home.
Summer sausage is really a
definition of how the product is
stored.
The idea for summer sausage is
that you would make it in the
winter when it was cold before
refrigeration and make it so
that it would not spoil during
the hotter months, during the
summer.
Hence, you could eat it during
the summer, hence it's called
summer sausage.
Isn't that kind of a quirky,
silly way to define or brand a
product?
Is summer sausage important to
the state?
Oh, heaven forbid, yes.
Absolutely.
I can think of a couple
different ways to bring down the
empire of the state of
Wisconsin.
Banning the sale of summer
sausage would certainly be one
that would move up to the top of
the list.
Cultural uniqueness and
discovering ingredients such as
saltpetre and, today's version,
sodium nitrite.
All of ways to define some of
these different products.
There's also ways to define
products based on where their
roots are from, where they came
from.
So, we sometimes use the word
frankfurters.
Most times in the US we call
them hotdogs, but they're also
known as frankfurters.
And frankfurters got the name
because they were invented in
Frankfurt, Germany.
Wieners, another name for
hotdogs, although these are
technically a little bit
different.
And there some purists that
would tell me they're a whole
lot different.
Wieners were invented in Vienna,
Austria.
Genoa salami was invented in
Genoa, Italy.
Bologna was invented in Bologna,
Italy.
Braunschweiger, another great
German product, also important
to this economy, to this state,
Braunschweig, Germany.
And Lebanon bologna, has anyone
ever had Lebanon bologna before?
It is one of the very few
products that we as a country in
the US can have a claim to fame.
Lebanon bologna was invented in
Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.
It's very similar to a summer
sausage.
In fact, if you go out to
Lancaster or surrounding areas
and you say give me summer
sausage, they would give you
Lebanon bologna.
Very similar to this product,
although it's typically a lot
heavier smoked.
It's even more acidic than this
product, and sometimes they add
a bunch of sugar.
They make a sweet version of
this where they add, everybody
ready for this, for every 100
pounds of meat they'll add up to
20 pounds of sugar.
So it's a very, very, very sweet
product.
I'm far more in favor of the
Wisconsin style summer sausage.
So, sausages today, now we're
kind of getting into today's
era.
Again you can define this a
number of ways.
But there are technically four
basic types.
We have fresh sausages, dry and
semi-dry sausages, liver
sausages, and cooked or scalded
sausages.
And scalded sausages are
typically water-cooked, sausages
that are cooked in water.
From those four basic types,
there are thousands of
varieties.
Think about this.
Close to 200 countries in the
world.
If each country has an average
of five different sausages,
that's a thousand right there.
And in the US we have far more
than five different types.
So from those four different
sausages, how do we get to
thousands of different
varieties?
Well, it comes down to the
formulation.
So, what the spice is, what the
ingredients are, and how much.
Whether we're talking about a
frankfurter or a Vienna sausage
or a wiener.
The meat technology employed
whether we are making a very
finely ground and emulsified
product like a frankfurter or
making a -- or an aspic such as
a head cheese or a --.
Or a whole muscle product such
as a bacon.
A lot of different technologies.
We can define sausage by the
casings that we utilize, what we
put the meat batter into.
So here's an example of what you
would typical consider a
traditional frankfurter or
wiener, this is actually labeled
wiener, because this is stuffed
into a natural casing, which is
a very, very expensive casing
today.
Centuries ago this is what you
used because this is what there
was, and it was a way to utilize
the small intestines from sheep.
Today, the meat industry pays a
premium because these products
have a very unique snap, bite,
and texture because of the
casings that are utilize.
And other products, like this,
chorizo, this is stuffed into a
fibrous casing.
So it's generated from plant and
tree fibers that are made into a
cylinder shape and then sausages
is stuffed inside.
So, casing type, ingredients
added.
If we add cheese or vegetables
or rice or barley or oats or
etc, etc, etc, those all create
different products and the
ethnic or the region
specificity.
So, sausages in China are very
different than sausages here.
Although, there's more and more
US types sausages going that
direction.
Sausages from Mexico or Cajun
sausages from the southeast part
of the country, they all have
their own little twist, their
own little category, their own
little change in the typical
sausage.
Most of today's meat products
have clear ties to history, and
this is what I want to really
try to explain the rest of this
evening.
So let's go back to those
categories, and let's talk about
the ties from ancient times.
Times of pre-refrigeration
preservation methods, salting,
drying, smoking.
Fresh sausages are a huge
category today.
Here's a whole variety of
different fresh sausages.
I've got a couple here, and
we'll be sampling one of these
in a moment.
But fresh sausage, the most
common one that we deal with in
the great state of Wisconsin is
bratwurst, which as we learned
about a year and a half ago is
actually a frying sausage.
It's not necessarily a type of
sausage.
Bratwurst is actually a
definition that means frying
sausage.
And then we see breakfast
sausages and chorizo and all
these different fresh sausages
that must be cooked before
they're consumed.
We see these products in
refrigeration.
We see these products frozen.
And this is a huge category.
These products represent very
simple processing technologies.
Grinding, adding salt at lower
levels than what would have been
needed years ago because of
refrigeration as well as
freezing, and the addition of
spices.
Dry and semi-dry sausages.
Examples include summer sausage,
snack sticks, Genoa salami,
pepperoni.
These products are dried, have
salt, and have a change in pH,
both for flavor as well as
preservation.
So if I grab my trusty UW Meat
Lab beef summer sausage and if I
cut this open, or actually I
just handle it here a little
bit, I notice very quickly that
it's a firm product because it's
a dried product.
When I bite it, when I eat this
product, I taste some salt for
preservation.
I also notice some acid or some
tang, which is a result of
adjusting the pH, changing the
pH.
All of those techniques are
very, very refined versions of
the ancient preservation methods
of drying and salting and
changing the components of the
product so that it can last a
long time.
Liver sausages, a lot of
different varieties of these.
Perhaps the most common ones
that we're familiar with are
Braunschweiger or liver pate,
which are all liver sausages.
They all contain some component
of liver.
Cooked and scalded sausages, the
largest category of sausages
because there are so many
different types of sausages that
fit under this category.
Frankfurters, smoked sausages,
cooked bratwurst.
How many of us consume or buy
cooked bratwurst?
Let me back up.
That was a bad question.
How many of you consume fresh
bratwurst?
How many go to the grocery store
or supermarket and buy fresh
bratwurst and grill them?
Gosh, I was hoping it was going
to be 100%.
I was expecting it was going to
be 100%.
So, now, again, how many of you
buy precooked or cooked
bratwurst?
Why do you do it?
Convenience.
Why can you do it?
Because we have refrigeration.
Many of those are cured with
nitrite for safety.
Most all of them are vacuum
packaged to extend shelf life as
well as, in some cases, provide
safety.
But they offer convenience that
centuries ago we didn't need.
And there's many examples of
that throughout the marketplace.
Specialty cooked sausages and
meat products, there's a large
example of a whole variety of
different types of products that
includes things like blood
sausages such as ring liver,
kishka, blood pudding, blood and
tongue, aspics, head cheese,
jellied loaves, loaves in
general, and even liver cheese.
I have a couple examples of
these products here.
And these are great examples of
products that were created well
before today's modern
conveniences.
These products were created,
most of these products, many of
these products were created as a
way to utilize animals that were
slaughtered.
The whole concept of nothing
goes to waste.
So, here's an example of a
kishka.
Here's two examples of a kishka.
Here's a kishka.
Ingredient statement.
First ingredient: cooked
buckwheat groats.
So that's the number one
ingredient, the most of it.
Pork, pork snouts, pork skins,
pork liver, onion salt, spices,
sodium nitrite.
Great product.
Here's the same product but with
blood and a very small amount of
blood.
Typically less than 10%,
typically around 5% or 6%.
Cured and whole muscle meat
products.
So, again, this is a very vast
category.
It includes a variety of
different types of products that
can be both categorized and
defined in a number of different
ways.
Some whole muscle cuts are only
one muscle.
Some are many smaller muscles.
So, here's a ham steak taken off
of a cured whole ham.
This is a whole muscle product
but it's many muscles.
You can see all the different
muscles.
Here's a ham, a boneless ham
that we make at the meat lab.
Same type of product but the
muscles are smaller.
So we take these muscles, make
them a little bit smaller, mix
them, add salt, extract protein,
stuff them into a casing, and we
have a very uniform and
consistent product with smaller
muscle pieces.
Some are cured.
So some of these whole muscle
products are cured.
Some are eaten hot.
Some are high in salt, and some
are low in salt.
Some are heavily spiced.
Some are smoked, etc, etc.
Let's talk about some categories
of cured and whole muscle
products.
One category is hams.
And hams can be a very, very
confusing category because
there's so many different types.
I just showed you two different
types of hams.
A whole muscle ham that has a
ham leg bone.
So there's one example.
Here's a boneless ham.
Very high quality ham that
actually has two muscles.
And if you look very closely,
you can see there's a little
seam where the two muscles come
together.
We talked about this ham, which
we sometimes call it chunked and
formed ham, small chunks.
So we take these big pieces, put
them into smaller pieces.
Here's another example of that.
Here's a chopped ham.
We take these pieces, make them
even smaller, stuff them into a
casing.
And for each of these products,
and there's more, they all have
different texture, they all have
a little bit different flavor,
some are saltier than others,
and they all have a different
price point as well.
Typically, the larger the
muscles, the less further
processing that's taken place,
the more expensive.
And if you think about just a
chopped ham versus a two-piece
muscle ham and think about the
price difference, it kind of
makes sense.
There's also a product called
country ham.
And this is one of the products
that is most closely tied back
to ancient preservation methods.
These products are made, this
one is made in Missouri.
The southeast part of the
country and the Midwest makes a
lot of these products.
They're very high in salt.
Sometimes people will buy these,
take them home, soak them in
water to get a little bit of the
salt out, and then they'll cook
them.
Sometimes people eat them raw,
or eat them the way that they
are I should say, as a finished
product, but another example of
a different type of ham.
Bacon, pancetta, dried beef,
roast beef, turkey breast, and
even enhanced products like
marinated poultry or marinated
pork tenderloins all are
different examples of more whole
muscle cuts.
So, what I would like to do is
go through and talk about some
different specific products and
do a little bit of product
sampling.
I have a few folks here that are
going to help me out with this.
You are not by any means
expected or required to
participate, so feel free to not
participate if you prefer not
to.
We're going to pass around a
cup.
This is called an expectorant
cup.
[LAUGHTER]
What is that so I don't have to
say it?
>> Spit.
>> It's a spit cup.
So, sometimes when we evaluate
products, to get the essence and
have the best evaluation
possible, we don't want to
consume everything.
We want to only consume what we
need to.
But you're welcome to consume
what you would like to.
We're also passing out napkins,
some small plates, and a
toothpick or two.
Again, sample as you would like
to.
By no means sample if you do not
want to.
If there's certain samples that
you prefer not to sample, feel
free not to as well.
At the end of this evening's
program, we'll entertain a bunch
of questions and discussions if
you have questions about a
certain sample or a certain
product.
We have a question here already.
>> I'm wondering if, you didn't
mention aging.
I know they don't do it anymore,
but it was done quite commonly
and I think it's still done.
>> Sure.
The question was about aging of
meat.
I can tell you that meat is aged
every day.
And aging typically refers to or
is tied to fresh meats.
So, in meat along with protein
and fat and water and some other
minerals and nutrients there's
also enzymes.
If we allow certain enzymes to
function over time, they will
slowly break down collagen or
connective tissue and other
bonds within a whole muscle.
And the effect is that that
product is aged or it's called
aged.
But, essentially, it typically
has a tenderizing effect.
If you go to a white cloth
restaurant and pay $60 for a
30-day dry aged steak, you'll
understand what I'm talking
about.
But, actually, all meat is aged
because after animals are
slaughtered those carcasses hang
in coolers, sometimes for a
couple days, sometimes for up to
a week or even two weeks before
they are fabricated.
So aging does take place.
In fact, aging also takes place
while the meat is in
transportation and while the
meat is in grocery stores,
although not quite as much as it
does if you control some other
things.
Yeah.
>> What's the difference between
nitrates and nitrites?
>> The question is, what's the
difference between nitrates and
nitrites?
So, nitrates, which I referred
to as a definition like
saltpetre, that was nitrates.
They are inert compounds.
They are present in nearly every
vegetable known to man because
of the nitrogen cycle and the
accumulation of nutrients,
uptake of nutrients.
Nitrites are the active version
of nitrates.
So when nitrates are converted
to nitrites, curing takes place.
If only nitrates with an A are
utilized, no curing takes place.
There's actually a little bit of
nitrate is actually found in
some toothpastes, some sensitive
gum toothpastes, because of its
ability to help with that.
Okay, so the first product
that's being passed around is an
example of a fresh sausage.
So, let's talk about what a
fresh sausage is.
It's generally lower in salt.
So, as we go through this
activity, think about your daily
consumption or perhaps think
about your normal consumption of
pork sausage.
Think about all the pork sausage
that you've consumed, and then
you can kind of relate it to
some of my comments.
Bear in mind that there are
dozens of different types of
pork sausages.
So they all are a little bit
different, either in saltiness
or flavor or texture.
So these comments are pretty
general, but they kind of give
you the idea of what a fresh
sausage is.
So it's typically a product
that's a little bit lower in
salt.
Generally 1.5%-2% salt.
Closer to 1.5%.
They typically have a crumbly
texture, and that's by design.
They have a fair amount of fat.
They can have between 35% and
50% fat.
They can have a little bit of
water.
Up to 3% water is allowed by the
federal government, and that's
to actually allow the proper
mixing of spices and
ingredients.
And most breakfast sausages,
pork sausage, fresh sausage,
browns very nicely because one
of the ingredients is usually
dextrose or some type of simple
sugar than can participate in a
browning reaction and gives you
a very nice caramelized flavor
and aroma and so forth.
So, when you, can I get a
sample, gentlemen?
[LAUGHTER]
Would it kill a guy?
They do this to me all the time.
Whenever they do sampling, they
always forget to give this guy a
sample.
[LAUGHTER]
It seems really unfair.
So, typically, what I have to do
is get all the leftovers, which
is fine, but oftentimes they are
cold.
Okay, so when you consume it,
natural casing so you get a
little bit of a snap.
You'll notice right away that's
it's a little bit crumbly.
You start eating it, and it
breaks up very, very quickly.
That's because it's low in salt.
That's because the product was
developed and designed so it
would be more crumbly.
Would you want a breakfast
sausage like this to eat like a
hotdog where there's a lot of
texture and a lot of work to bit
it?
Think about.
It's early in the morning.
You had a late night.
You want a good flavor product.
You're not interested in all the
work and all the chewing and all
that kind of stuff.
You'll also notice this product
has a fair amount of sage
flavor.
There's two primary pork
sausages in the US.
Kind of the southern style,
which this is what this would
be, and then the east coast
style which typically has a
little bit more pepper and
sometimes is a little bit
saltier.
So, a great product.
The next product that we'll talk
about, or product in a product
category, is have some
discussion about a semi-dry
sausage.
So, pepperoni, let me back up.
Summer sausage is a classic
example.
Snack sticks is a classic
example of a semi-dry sausage.
It generally has about a medium
salt level.
In this finished product,
probably about 3% to 3.5% salt.
So, a fair amount of salt,
right?
But far less than 200 years ago
when meat products had 10% or
12% salt.
We've done a pretty good job of
reducing salt levels as well as
sodium content.
When you consume it, you should
find a firm or firmer and maybe
some of you might even classify
it as a rubber texture.
And that is because of the salt.
More salt, more protein
extraction, firms up the
texture.
It's also because of the
tanginess that you might sense.
So, this product has a lactic
acid starter culture, so it has
bacteria that when added consume
sugars, dextrose, any type of
sweetener.
They produce lactic acid.
That lactic acid accumulates.
We call this fermentation.
Same concept as fermenting beer
and cheese and other types of
goods, perishable goods.
When that lactic acid
accumulates, the pH goes down.
When that pH goes down, we get
more of a tangy, acidic flavor.
Wisconsin is very unique in its
summer sausage.
Most states, most other states
do not care for Wisconsin type
of summer sausage because it's
very tangy, very acidic.
But part of the texture that...
Could I get a sample?
[LAUGHTER]
>> You have a stick.
>> Great point.
I have a stick.
I was really expecting after the
whole first time around that I
was going to get it.
Thank you, Bill.
I appreciate it.
But part of the texture is
because not only the salt but
also the reduction of the pH.
>> Could you explain why this
tradition developed in
Wisconsin.
Was it based on immigrant groups
that came?
>> Sure.
So the question is, how did this
product as well as other
processed meets evolve in
Wisconsin?
It's a number of things.
A primary reason is because we
have an extremely outstanding
meat industry in this state that
has very good roots in meat
processing.
We've had many immigrants from
Europe and others parts of the
world that immigrated here
decades ago and set up butcher
shops and know how to make these
products, as well as some of
these other products.
Braunschweiger and liver sausage
is a very common product in
Wisconsin.
Not so much in a lot of other
states.
We probably consume more summer
sausage than any other state in
the country.
If that data was out there, it
would probably would say that.
And we certainly make more
summer sausage than any other
state in the country.
So, this product, because we
reduce the pH, we're getting
somewhere.
We're going the right direction.
Because we reduced the pH, we
can understand the biochemical
properties of what happens.
It allows us to remove moisture
much more quickly.
So this product, if we make 100
pounds of summer sausage, we'll
end up with 85 pounds of
finished product.
We'll lose about 15 percent
moisture.
So that's also partly why it's a
drier, firmer texture.
Dry sausage, the next category,
and the product being passed
around is a Genoa salami.
And you might notice visually
that it's even firmer and even
more rubbery.
And it also is higher in fat.
Don't mistake those white
pieces.
That's not cheese; that's fat.
And I think this would be a good
time to reiterate, or actually
just iterate the first time that
fat is very important for
sausages.
It gives it flavor.
The reason that that breakfast
sausage was, in my mind,
delightful, very juicy, very
flavorful, not only was it
because of the spices but more
importantly it was because of
the fat that was in that
product.
If you remove all the fat and
all the spices and all the salt,
you're going to be eating ground
pork or ground beef, which has a
very meaty flavor but it's far,
far less complex than a fresh
breakfast sausage or a summer
sausage.
So, dry sausage, a higher salt
content.
Typically 4% to 6% salt.
Or 5% to 6% salt is not that
common.
It's more firm, more rubbery
because of the higher salt
content.
It also has a pH reduction, and
it's also a drier product.
So it typically has around 30%,
sometimes a little bit more,
sometimes a little bit less
water removed.
A hundred pounds of meat
starting, finished product in
this form 70 pounds.
What's also very unique about
dry sausages, this is what
separates them from a semi-dry
sausage, is some of them have a
tangy, acidic flavor, some of
them have very unique aromas and
flavors.
Anybody pick up a difference in
flavor?
Pick up something you either
liked or didn't like?
Yeah.
That is fermentation at its
best.
That is an example of using
starter cultures that have a
specific function for creating
flavors and aroma.
So they're breaking down the
fat, breaking down the protein
and creating these very unique
flavor compounds from this.
Good stuff.
Liver sausage is the next
category.
Liver sausage generally has a
medium to medium-low salt level.
So around that 2%-2.5%.
You'll start sensing a pattern
that to make products that have
good texture and, to a certain
extent, flavor, we kind of have
to have a certain amount of
salt.
And that 2%-2.5% salt is really
important.
I should also mention that 10
years ago the salt content was
higher, on average, in processed
meats.
Twenty years ago, the salt
content was even higher.
And today, and it's difficult
for me because I don't have
enough wisdom to be able to
compare what products were like,
but I'm pretty confident that
most of you that have a little
more age or wisdom than I can
remember how much salt your
products were 20-30 years ago.
And you probably have even
forgotten how much saltier they
are.
If we could go back in time and
make a product that was made 30
years ago, which you probably
enjoyed back then, you would
probably almost spit it out
today because we've become
accustom to the levels of salt
that we consume.
What do we have here?
Okay.
Did we do liver sausage?
>> Yeah.
It's going around.
>> Oh, my gosh, I'm not even
paying attention.
So, liver sausage, here's an
example of a Braunschweiger.
It generally has a firm, soft,
or creamy texture.
Has some fat.
Has a little bit of water.
Sometimes it doesn't.
By definition has to have at
least 30% livers, generally pork
livers are used.
Can be emulsified or ground.
This is an example of emulsified
product where we're taking fat
and water, which typically do
not like each other, we're using
the protein in the meats as our
binder.
Similar concept to mayonnaise
with water, oil, and an egg or
lecithin to make the emulsion
complete or make it work.
And that's how we make this
very, very excellent product.
>> I've got a question.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> I used to eat liver sausage
all the time about 10 or 20
years ago.
I got the idea or somebody told
me that it was bad for you.
Is that just me or have other
people heard that?
>> Liver sausage I would say is
not bad for you by any means.
It's very high in iron.
It has no more salt or fat than
many other products.
And, in fact, I would say if you
were wanting nutrients, protein
and nutrients from any meat
product, liver sausage would be
a good one to put on your list.
It does have some fat, and it
does have a little bit of salt.
And it can be sliceable or
spreadable.
The reason that we sampled this
product is because it's a very
unique product in that it's
stuffed into a natural casing.
A very expensive vestibule to
hold very expensive raw
materials.
Livers are cheap.
Some of the trimmings that are
used are a little less
expensive.
So the reason that these are
utilized, very expensive
casings, is because the casings
themselves can impart a very
unique flavor, and in some cases
aroma, to a sausage.
So next time you go out and buy
some liver sausage, buy one that
has a natural casing and buy one
that has a regular casing and
then do a little side by side
taste comparison.
>> Are all these products made
in Wisconsin, including the
Genoa salami?
>> Many of them are.
Usinger's is over in Milwaukee.
The breakfast sausage is made by
Jones Dairy Farm down in Fort
Atkinson.
The Genoa salami we made at the
meat lab for a short course.
The summer sausage we made at
the meat lab.
Many of these products are made
here, and we'll have some Oscar
Mayer product, which I think is
in Madison.
Is that right?
Yeah.
They're right here in Madison.
So, the next category, scalded
or cooked sausage.
So, a huge category.
We've got a couple being passed
around.
One is a frankfurter.
It generally has a low to medium
salt level.
Again, around that 2% salt.
It can have a soft or a firm
texture.
It depends on what's in it.
All-beef hotdogs, such as this
one, typically have a little bit
firmer texture.
If you buy a poultry hotdog, it
typically has a little bit
softer texture.
They can have small to large
particle sizes.
They can have 15% to 25% fat, or
you can buy low-fat versions
that have less.
Typically they have a little bit
more water, especially the ones
that are emulsified.
And they have a variety of
different flavors and can have
different ingredients as well.
The other cooked product being
passed around is a great
product.
This is another Wisconsin
company, Klement's over in
Milwaukee.
This is called --, and it's is
an aspic or a terrine, which
basically means that it's food
particles, in this case meat and
a few vegetables, that are
suspended in gelatin.
Traditionally, this was made
without adding any gelatin.
You took parts of a carcass that
were high in collagen, like hog
heads, you boiled them in water,
you have tongue and cheek meats,
snouts, you ground them, added
some spices, captured some of
the liquid that had a lot of the
collagen in it, added it back,
put it into some type of
vestibule, perhaps a mold, put
it in the cooler where it
cooled, voila.
Today, we don't have enough
heads, it's too expensive to do
that process, so we add a little
bit of JELL-O or gelatin to make
the product.
It typically has vinegar or more
vinegar as well as some other
vegetables.
Where head cheese, its friendly
cousin or sister, doesn't have
either of those or has less
vinegar.
Ham can be high to low in salt.
It can have very small to very
large particles, as we discussed
earlier.
Generally it's very lean.
If you see, if ham has fat in
it, you typically visually can
see it.
It can have a lot of water
added.
Up to 35% water.
Or it can have a lot of water
removed.
Country ham by law has to have
18% water removal.
So if you have 100 pounds of
ham, it has to yield 88 pounds
of finished product.
And it can be served hot or
cold.
So the ham being passed around
first is a ham made at the meat
lab.
That's this version.
And you'll notice that it would
be considered a decent ham.
Not something that you would
spend $15 a pound for, not
something you would spend $2 a
pound for.
It has good bite because it has
some particle reduction but not
very small particle reduction.
The second ham that's being
passed around is called
prosciutto, and it is, as I
mentioned earlier, similar to a
country ham, kind of the same
classification, actually the
same category.
The closest thing we have to
ancient preservation methods, in
my mind.
High salt.
Product takes a minimum of six
months, oftentimes a year and a
half and up to three years to
dry.
So it's a high-salt, very, very
dry product.
Very expensive product because
of all that.
Bacon is another huge category,
and the sample that we're
passing around is a Patrick
Cudahy fully cooked bacon.
Patrick Cudahy is in Cudahy,
Wisconsin.
So, many people look at these
products and they say, wow, this
is really expensive to buy this
precooked bacon.
Precooked bacon is expensive
because it loses a lot of
moisture, and it has to.
So during the cooking process,
this product has to lose 60%
moisture.
So if you had one pound of raw
bacon, you would have to cook it
so there would only be .4
pounds left to call it
precooked bacon.
So you're paying for the product
that's not there.
It typically has a medium salt
level.
Sometimes people think that
bacon is very high in salt.
In fact, it's not that high in
salt.
It's just the perception.
It typically has a firm texture,
can have a fair amount of fat,
between 30% and 50%, and for all
bacon, all the water that's
added during processing to do
the curing, it all has to come
back out.
And there's very stringent
curing regulations regarding
nitrite as well as other
ingredients.
The next product being passed
around is called corned beef.
This is an example of a whole
muscle cured product.
So typically made from beef
rounds.
This was made at the meat lab.
Generally a low to medium salt
level.
So typically the salt is there
just for flavor.
A firm texture because it's a
whole muscle.
Very little fat.
It can have water added,
typically it has water removed
which is why it's also a bit
firmer.
And corned beef received its
name from the corning process.
So the corning process really
was defined by using coarse
granular salt known as corns,
salt corns.
Today's corned beef typically
has very unique ingredients
because it's a beef product and
you need a lot of flavor or it
can have a lot of flavor.
So you see things like allspice,
cloves, mustard seeds, and it's
very, very similar to a
pastrami.
Turkey breast is the last
product that we're going to talk
about.
Turkey breast is a really unique
product because it's not that
old of a product, but it is,
today, one of the most popular
products.
There are tons of different
varieties.
We see it on menus everywhere.
Turkey breast is a low to medium
salt product.
So typically around 1.5% to 2%
salt.
Again, we're at very low levels
so that we can still maintain
texture.
It generally has a soft to a
medium texture.
That's primarily because of the
poultry muscle itself.
Typically very lean.
Generally 10% to 20% water
added.
Sometimes it's cured, and when
it's cured it's usually so that
it can have a longer shelf life
and it can be a safer product.
And turkey breast has a very
delicate flavor profile.
So by itself, turkey breast is
pretty bland.
But when you add it to another,
put it on a sandwich or put it
in a wrap, put it in some type
of food dish, it can take on a
lot of flavors and it does a
very, very great job of that.
This concludes my discussion
about the history and science of
meat products.
I thank you for your time and
attention.
[APPLAUSE]