Deli Counter – Cooked and Cured Meats

 

ButcherSA explores the delicious selection of cured and cooked meats, available to the deli operator. Simultaneously we address how ingredients and packaging ensure consistent quality, appearance and shelf life of these susceptible products.

 

As your cold meat selection is fully visible to the customer at the deli counter, an attractive display is imperative. The first prerequisite is that products convey freshness, the second is variety.

There is a plethora of meats available to the deli counter supervisor, most locally produced but many with a continental twist.

Starting with pork products, we are spoiled for choice with a vast array of cured, cooked, baked, oven-roasted and hot-smoked hams on offer.

Worldwide favourite smoked Black Forest Ham is seasoned with pepper, juniper berries, coriander, garlic and other spices. Pepper and Alpen ham are also seasoned with black pepper but the latter has the addition of paprika.

Continental ham is defatted leg of pork, cooked and cured in a round mould, whereas Country ham is made from topside and silverside, leaving a small portion of fat which is cooked and smoked. Gypsy ham retains a thin layer of fat ±5mm cured and hot smoked and oven baked until black in appearance. Hickory ham retains no fat or skin and is cured, cooked and smoked.

 

Other speciality hams include Pesto ham, a cured leg of pork covered with Pesto sauce and basil leaves, wrapped in a net, slightly smoked and cooked and what about Winzerham (Winemakers ham) delicately spiced with wine aroma.

On the subject of speciality hams no article would be complete without the inclusion of Parma ham, this boneless cured and air dried meat is matured for around 12 months, sometimes up to 2 years. It is imported from Italy where it is almost a national dish. Certain local suppliers have emulated the process some with great success.

Still with pork products, we cannot ignore gammon, although this tends to be a seasonal favourite, there is a steady demand for it throughout the year. This is available in a number of variants, including with bone, deboned, rolled and glazed.

Kasseler comes in cooked and smoked rib, as well as roll shape. Locally made Portuguese Piao Kasseler is guaranteed to be an attention-grabbing addition to the deli operator’s selection. This is pickled pork loin spiced in garlic, paprika, cayenne pepper and black pepper; air dried and smoked.

If all the above is not enough, we should mention the variety of ham loaves on offer, perfect for sandwiches, tramezzinis etc.

Meats set in gelatin remain firmly rooted in South African tradition. In addition to plain or curried pork brawn, be sure to stock ham and chicken in aspic.

Popular beef products include roast beef, smoked beef, pepper beef, tongue and pastrami. Although beef navels are the traditional cut of meat for making pastrami, it is now common to see pastrami made from beef brisket, beef round and turkey.

An interesting combination of beef and pork is the Italian specialty Mortadella which has a fine texture with coarse speck cubes – delicious!

 

Although salami is a cured, fermented and air-dried sausage, all local salamis are used as cold meats for anti-pasta, sandwiches, pizza toppings and pasta dishes, and are thus incorporated on in this article.

 

Smoked and matured Brotform salami is a medium-texture salami delicately spiced with garlic added. It is not in a casing but moulded and covered with crushed black pepper coating.

Cervelat, which contains 50% beef and 50% pork, has a fine texture and contains mustard seed. It is naturally matured and smoked.

Smoked and matured Hungarian Salami contains beef and pork and has a medium to fine texture. It is spiced with garlic and white pepper corns.

Naturally matured, unsmoked Italian Salami has a coarse texture and is spiced with garlic and black pepper.

Naturally matured and smoked Pepper Salami, made of 50% beef and 50% pork, has a medium texture with added green Madagascar pepper corns.

Pepperoni is made of 50% fine-texture pork with bacon cubes added. It is spiced with fresh chillies and garlic.
Besides Large White Salami, there is also Milano – a small white salami containing 50% beef and 50% pork with a medium texture filled into a white casing. It is spiced with fresh garlic.

Beef Salami is delicately spiced with garlic and white pepper, while French Salami is made of pure pork spiced with pepper and garlic.

Polony otherwise known as Bologna, is a large smoked sausage made of seasoned mixed meats.

Chicken and Turkey tend to be supplied in aspic as outlined above, rolled or compressed into loaves.

A variety of meat loaves are also on offer containing everything from bacon and egg, olives, pimentos and cheese.

While not everyone’s favourite, no deli counter would be complete without Tongue. The local variety is usually plain or pickled, however there is a continental variant which is cubed with speck, blood, gelatine, salt and spices called Berliner Zungenwurst.

 

 

Deli operators can obtain cold and cured meats of exceptional quality from Feinschmecker, Hartlief Deli, Gastro Foods, Holstein and Seemann’s to name but a few.

 

 

Addressing freshness, pre-packed deli products are suitably cosseted from contamination, but meats that are displayed, for example in roll form, must be protected from elevated temperatures and oxygen as well as ultraviolet light, which either turn the meat grey or green, or causes the colour to fade.

When customers request sliced meats, they should be cut in paper thin slices or as the customer dictates and packaged in deli wax or grease proof paper or placed in plastic, polystyrene or pulp trays and covered in shrink film.

Finally, an unusual slicing process has become popular for bone-in or boneless hams sold by delicatessens in the US. Fully-cooked, wet-cured, smoked hams are sliced with a special spiral slicing machine that cuts the ham in a continuous motion from top to bottom.

The result is a ham that retains its full shape, though the slices can be simply removed.

From a meat producer point of view, the retention of the correct colour of the meat is crucial and starts in the production chain – from animal genetics to nutrition and correct carcass transportation to housing at the abattoir.

The colour of cured meat depends on the type of meat used (meat colour is determined largely by the amount of myoglobin a particular animal carries – the more myoglobin present, the darker the meat), the amount of nitrite used and the period of curing, and cooking temperature.

The sodium salts of nitrate (NaNO3) and nitrite (NaNO2) are used in the curing and preserving of processed meats for three purposes: to preserve colour, especially the pink colour for hot dogs; to enhance flavour by inhibiting rancidity; and to protect against bacterial growth.

Cured meats develop a particular pink-reddish colour due to the reaction that takes place between meat myoglobin and nitrate/nitrite. If insufficient amounts of nitrate/nitrite are added to the meat or the curing period is too short, the final cured colour will be poorly developed. This will be less noticeable in products where the meat is ground and stuffed, but slicing a larger piece, like a ham, will reveal the unacceptable grey-and-pink colour.

Colour presentation – the most important single factor affecting consumer acceptance – is further enhanced by the correct packaging employed by meat processors. Additional packaging requirements involve the vapour transmission rate (VTR) and the oxygen transmission rate (OTR) required.

Processed products require more sophisticated and extensive packaging because they will be stored at higher temperatures for longer periods than refrigerated products.

Much of the research for extending the shelf life, safety, and quality of foods has shifted from manipulating the product to controlling the packaging system. The emphasis remains on controlling the atmosphere, particularly the presence of oxygen, a major factor in food deterioration through aerobic pathogens.

The meat industry has embraced the development of Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), which flushes packaging with nitrogen (N2) or carbon dioxide (CO2) before sealing the package tray with a plastic lidding stock. AGQPE and Ulma Packaging supply a wide variety of MAP packaging machine solutions (Thermoforming, Tray Sealing and Flow Wrapping) for sliced cured meat. Another alternative used by many processed meat suppliers is shrink bags or laminated metallic pouches, plastic films or foils.

Cured meats have special requirements as opposed to fresh meat. Shorter shelf life fresh meat requires the presence of oxygen for maintaining colour for consumer appeal. Cured meats degrade in the presence of oxygen, which plays a negative role in both the colour stability and shelf life of RTE (ready-to-eat) meat products. Consequently, removal of traces of oxygen has a major impact on the appearance and shelf life of vacuum or MAP sliced meat products.

Exim International, Crown National, Fortified Foods and Freddy Hirsch supply complete curing ingredients, including additives to preserve food colour and prolong shelf life.

 




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