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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]