| here are three answers to this question and the one | | | | the solution so evenly as immersing a ham for 30 days |
| can be found already in the first step of sausage | | | | in a container. And the final result? Of course more |
| making - the meat selection process. Good meat cuts | | | | juiciness, after all you are eating more water now. But |
| make good meat products, everybody knows that. | | | | what happened to the original meat flavor? Well, it's |
| 1. Meat quality. The flavor of the meat, especially the | | | | gone now so you have to use all kinds of flavor |
| pig, depends on its diet. If the animal eats a lot of | | | | enhancements to compensate for it. |
| barley its meat is firm and fat. If the same pig will be | | | | Let's assume that for many years you have been |
| fed with corn, its meat will be softer and fatter. Meat | | | | drinking your favorite Earl Grey tea and you have |
| of pigs that were fed with kitchen meal leftovers or | | | | always used one tea bag per cup of water. What will |
| fed mainly with potatoes or beets, will contain more | | | | happen if you still will use one tea bag but add 50 % |
| water in it. Famous Spanish Serrano hams even today | | | | more water to your tea? Will it taste the same or will it |
| are still made from pigs that graze freely on grass and | | | | taste weaker? I believe the answer is self-explanatory. |
| eat a lot of oak acorns. Change that diet and you will | | | | The same happens to the meat, it may be juicier but it |
| change the quality of the ham. Old sausage makers | | | | will have a watered-down flavor. |
| were well aware of those factors and for them meat | | | | Commercially prepared curing solutions allow |
| was quality food and they strived for the best. Today | | | | introduction up to 80 % of the solution into the meat. In |
| all pork tastes the same as it is mass produced, | | | | simpler terms you can add 8 lbs of solution (water, salt |
| growth hormones and antibiotics are added, the pigs | | | | and chemicals) into 10 lbs of meat. After cooking, |
| movement is restricted, all that technology to grow | | | | smoking and other processes the finished product will |
| animals as fast as possible. | | | | weigh 13 lbs what constitutes 30 % gain in relation to |
| That large piece of meat that we buy from a | | | | the original weight of meat |
| supermarket will be most likely already individually | | | | 3. Extra ingredients. Looking at the original recipes you |
| packed and injected with liquid. If you read the label it | | | | will see how little spice was needed to impart a |
| will say: "up to 12 % of patented solution was added to | | | | required flavor to a particular sausage. And this is how |
| improve tenderness and juiciness". And the ingredients | | | | they were made and they were great. No binders, |
| are listed on the label: potassium lactate, sodium | | | | fillers or chemicals were used, only meat, salt, pepper, |
| phosphates, salt, sodium diacetate. Pig meat was | | | | sugar and spices. The only chemical that was used |
| perfect for thousands of years and now suddenly our | | | | was potassium nitrate and that ingredient was |
| plants want to improve it? Well, the truth is that this | | | | mandated by law in Poland and everywhere else in |
| patented solution was added to improve meat's shelf | | | | the world. Nitrates are still used in every country, |
| keeping qualities and preserve color, but that does not | | | | although in its different form called nitrite. If you look at |
| sound as nice as saying: to improve "tenderness and | | | | the sausage label you will see how many ingredients |
| juiciness". | | | | go inside of the factory made sausage. All those |
| 2. Adding water. It seems that today's meat | | | | extras have a certain cumulative value and will distort |
| technology is obsessed with adding the maximum | | | | the flavor of the sausage. To compensate for that we |
| amount of water that the meat can hold inside. Entire | | | | have to increase the amount of spices and use flavor |
| labs with college educated scientists are working on | | | | enhancers. |
| better and more efficient ways of trapping water | | | | We are not picking on meat plants that make those |
| inside. Check out any meat equipment supplier and you | | | | products as we understand that they have to walk a |
| will see that half of all equipment manufactured today | | | | very thin line between profits and quality. Our aim is to |
| is related to injecting meat with curing solutions and | | | | convince you that you can make those sausages at |
| shaking it in tumblers to uniformly distribute this liquid. | | | | home the way they were once made. And this is |
| You can shake it all your life and it still will not distribute | | | | what more and more people do. |