Cooked meat, cured meat, luncheon meat, cold cuts, and deli meat. They’re all similar, but what are they? Quite simply, they’re pre-cured or cooked meats that are sliced and served hot or cold, made to be ready to eat. Chances are if you’ve ever had a sandwich, from a supermarket then you’ve had some cooked meats, or if you’ve ever had a pepperoni pizza, pepperoni is a spiced cured meat made from either pork or a combination of pork and beef. Jerky is dried trimmed and dried meat, and often salted to prevent the growth of bacteria. You get the idea.
Is cured meat bad for you?
There’s a common misconception that cured meat is full of unhealthy things, but in fact, the curing process draws out the water in the meat, removing the environment in which bacteria would grow, making cured meat as safe as it is delicious.
How is meat cured?
One of the most common processes for curing meat is dry curing, which is best used for curing hams, bacon, and smaller cuts of meat. The most traditional method sees you submerge your meat into a container of salt and, depending on the meat and what flavours you’re looking to achieve, add herbs and spices. This is the process that leeches out the moisture from the meat.
With meats like pepperoni, after choosing the specific cuts of meat to ensure the correct meat-to-fat ratio, it is mixed with spices and ground to around 2-3mm granules for the texture. It’s then mixed with a culture called lactobacillus bacteria, which is crucial to this curing method as well as being what gives pepperoni its unique tangy flavour. After that, it is hung up and smoked where it ferments for up to 5 days before then being dried for a few more days.
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