Nitrate-cured Meats: Salami, Hot Dogs, Lunch Meats, Etc.

Mo Freschetti is Founder of the Zingerman Community of businesses in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I have eaten at Zingerman’s Delicatessen and it is truly a delightful experience. You will find no better deli– even in New York City. Here is his article on nitrates added to salami and such.  Nitrates reduce to nitrites during curing and nitrites are cancer-causing. Mo explains you can cure meats with nitrates and yet be legally labeled “nitrate-free.” How? By using celery juice!  Definitely see Mo’s blog and go to the Zingerman deli and menu.

I spent a few minutes this week talking to Francois Vecchio, the man behind the crespone, finocchiana, cacciatore and felino salamis we carry. He gave me a chemistry lesson on salami making that I thought was worth sharing.

People are often worried about meat cured with nitrates. Is it a valid concern? I’ll get to that in a minute. First let me explain how nitrate cures meat. Welcome to a brief voyage through high school chemistry with apologies to mad scientists if I get any of the specifics incorrect.

Sodium nitrate NO3 is added to salami ingredients before they’re stuffed into the mostly air proof casing. Inside, the bacteria and microbial organisms live in an anaerobic environment—no oxygen.

Their activity sucks one of the three oxygen molecules away, turning sodium nitrate into sodium nitrite NO2. Sodium nitrite is unstable and aggressive to microbes. It’s the compound that does the real work of curing, making it safe for us to eat.

While it does its job another oxygen molecule is leeched off. What’s left is nitric oxide NO. This fixes the pigment color, keeping salami red. This molecule is safe.

Even though we started the cure with NO3 we ended up with NO. While Francois adds 150 parts per million of sodium nitrate to start the cure, only 2 or 3 PPM are left. The traditional thirty day curing process eliminates the substance.

So if cured salami doesn’t have any sodium nitrate or nitrite left, why are people afraid of it?

While traditionally cured meat doesn’t have any sodium nitrate/nitrite, non-traditionally cured meat may. During the middle of the last century, in between inventing Twinkies and Cheese Whiz, food scientists deciphered the chemistry that I just explained. Until then it’d been a two thousand year process that no one understood – people just knew it worked. The scientists correctly identified sodium nitrite NO2 as the money molecule. It did the majority of the curing work. NO3 didn’t seem to do much, so they experimented with adding NO2 directly to the meat, cutting NO3 out of the game. It worked. It saved time. Meat could be cured almost overnight. It could go to stores faster. It was a huge success.

Sort of. The problem is when the cure is rushed, NO2 doesn’t disappear like it does when you cure traditionally over thirty days. It’s still present in the meat. NO2 is a carcinogen.

That’s the reason people are worried about nitrate cured salami. Meats may be cured with sodium nitrite – not nitrate – and rushed to market when the nitrite carcinogen is still present. This isn’t true for the salamis we carry.

What about the “no nitrate” meat at supermarkets?

Nitrates are necessary for curing meat. You can’t cure without them and keep meat pink and safe. But if nitrates are necessary for curing meat, how can places like Whole Foods carry meats they say are nitrate free?

The trick is celery. It’s high in nitrates. Concentrated celery juice is used in the curing, instead of the naturally occurring mineral sodium nitrate. The FDA allows it to be called “Natural Flavor” instead of “Sodium Nitrate.”

Visit the Zingerman Community of Businesses, including the famous Deli.

Thanks to Anita Sorkin, Cincinnati WAPF and Cincinnati Real Food Connections and one of our Cincinnati correspondents, for sending this to the Journal.  

Eating Chocolates Without Guilt

Rolling out cacao beans

If you observe Halloween, you and your children may be munching on all that disgusting candy out of the plastic pumpkin or some other Chinese-made device. Now is the time to be thinking of those ingredient labels. You will find that it is not really food (or candy for that matter). It is basically an HFCS injection, coupled with a variety artificial flavors and colors. Worse yet, if it is “diet” candy with the factory-made artificial sweeteners, it will help you get fatter and hungrier, studies have concluded.Dr. Mercola, at Mercola.com, had put out a nice Halloween treat the other day that talks about the chocolate candy vs. real chocolate. Here is a couple excerpts:

Even many so-called “natural” chocolates may contain some of these unhealthy ingredients — avoid them at all costs…

• Trans fat — An artery-clogging type of fat that forms when vegetable oils are hardened into margarine or shortening. 

The Spiritual Meaning of Natural Food and Drink

Everyday is Thanksgiving

by Augie

Food and drink is something everyone loves; but there is much more to it than the titillating of all of our senses and the filling of our stomachs.

Food and drink connect us all; it is music to the soul—a universal language. There is a spiritual significance to the planting of seed, growing, harvesting, proper preparation and eating of food—even the soil, seed and plant. There is greater meaning in feasting on naturally grown food grown by farmer friends or from your own garden/homestead; even more so when enjoyed with family and good friends. There is a spiritual connection to these rituals; a connection to the Creator and His people. We will be examining this spiritual meaning of natural food with a biblical perspective.

Before we get into more depth, you must first enjoy this 4-minute presentation on the godly artwork that shows divine design of natural foods and their health-giving properties.

The importance of natural drinks, water for example, must also be considered to understand the full scope of the subject.

The Poop on Corn

Roastin' Ears-- serve with salt and butter!

A most interesting article, Think More Kindly of Corn; What It Lacks in Nutrition, It Makes Up on Cleanup , was published in Washington Post’s Eat, Drink and Be Healthy column by Jennifer Huget. We know that corn does not digest well for many and these folks are fed up with corn. If you have a intestinal discomfort from eating corn, there are soaking methods (with canning lime and water) to increase nutrient absorption and make it more digestible. This can help.

Janet talks about the nutrients in corn, but I wanted to point out some of the good work of the outer hull does for the gut. Here is the extract:

The Land of Milk and Money: Dairy Cartel Revealed by NPR

Augie's Favorite: A Brown Swiss Cow

National Public Radio aired a remarkable story this week called Independent Farmers Feel Squeezed by Milk Cartel. Although the title is an understatement, it does explain how dairy farmers are being milked and sucked dry by their only customer– a milk monoply. I think the same can be said of meat farmers– they are being butchered by the meat monolopies. Oh, what an opportunity for them to join the profitable, sustainable and natural farm industry that is rapidly growing– including the raw milk and herdshare revolution.

The story, in print and audio, explains how dairy cartels continue to prey on the farmer forcing many off their farm and losing their lifelong savings.

There is a special treat for you at the end of this post. Our Washington, D.C. Correspondent Kimberly Hartke was with NPR investigative reporters at a Virginia dairy and she provides her story here.

The Spiritual Meaning of Natural Food

Everyone loves food–but there is far more to it than the titillation of all of our senses and the filling of our stomachs.

Food and drink connect us all; it is music to the soul—the universal language. There is a spiritual significance to the growing, harvesting, proper preparation and eating of food—even the soil, seed and plant.

Read, see and hear The Spiritual Meaning of Natural Food Drink here at the Journal.

Getting the Most Out of Your Grains

Kristen Michaelis, the Food Renegade down in Leander, Texas, wrote another fine article this week called How to Eat Grains.

She discusses the proper preparation of the grains to get the maximum nutrient absorption into our bodies with easier digestion.

32,000-Cow SuperMax Dairy Factory

This video was submitted to the Journal by Scott from Alliance, Ohio. Scott is a member of Ohio Connections.

This public relations commercial from Fair Oaks Farms of Indiana shows a factory of 32,000 cows supplying milk to 8 million people every day through WalMart stores. There is no mention or video of the cows on grass and pasture. In the 5 minute video, you will see the big barns in this confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) surrounded by 25,000 acres of probably just cornfields– part of the feed.

Lard Has Clearly Won the Health Debate

Our Cincinnati Correspondent Anita Sorkin, a Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader and Co-director of Ohio Connections to Whole Food and Nutritional Healing, has submitted this article on the health benefits of lard as a tried and true meal making friend.

 Article author Regina Schrambling in Lard tells the truth about this healthy fat, childhood memories of her home kitchen, and the food industry con to switch us to synthetic substitutes. “Lard has clearly won the health debate.” Anita says, “The one aspect about lard that is sorely missing here is any mention of the importance of how the pig has been raised. ‘Think local’ and ‘know your farmer’ are the best way to avoid eating any factory farmed animal product.”

Here are some excerpts:

Lard has clearly won the health debate. Shortening, the synthetic substitute foisted on this country over the last century, has proven to be a much bigger health hazard because it contains trans fats, the bugaboo du jour. Corporate food scientists figured out long ago that you can fool most of the people most of the time, and shortening (and its butter-aping cousin, margarine) had a pretty good ride after Crisco was introduced in 1911 as a substitute for the poor man’s fat. But shortening really vanquished lard in the 1950s when researchers first connected animal fat in the diet to coronary heart disease. By the ’90s, Americans had been indoctrinated to mainline olive oil, but shortening was still the go-to solid fat over lard or even butter in far too many cookbooks.

That’s all changed. Now you could even argue that lard is good for you. As Jennifer McLagan points out in her celebrated book Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes, lard’s fat is also mostly monounsaturated, which is healthier than saturated fat. And even the saturated fat in lard has a neutral effect on blood cholesterol. Not to mention that lard has a higher smoking point than other fats, allowing foods like chicken to absorb less grease when fried in it. And, of course, fat in general has its upsides. The body converts it to fuel, and it helps absorb nutrients, particularly calcium and vitamins.

Read Lard at Slate magazine.

Learn more about healthy fats and oils at the Journal, including the Skinny on Fats, The Rise and Fall of Crisco, Butter is Better and more.

Cholesterol concerns over using lard? Well, more on this later; but in a nutshell the same techniques used to con us into eating unhealthy margarine are used to convince us to eat statin drugs to lower cholesterol. See The Cholesterol Scam on the right panel.

More on Benefits of Real, Old-fashioned Sauerkraut

Over at Nourished Magazine, a tremendous Aussie site I might say, is another post on the health benefits of sauerkraut. I will give you the intro here, then you can go to the full article with a recipe, which is ready to eat in two weeks.

Sauerkraut

By The Nourisher

Sauerkraut, sour cabbage, is a german lacto fermented cabbage dish. In the 18th Century Captain James Cook used sauerkraut to prevent the death of his sailors from scurvy but Germany’s sauerkraut is actually a version of chinese kraut, brought to Europe by the hoards of Gengis Khan.
Raw cabbage is implicated in depressed thyroid functioning, while fermented cabbage and other vegetables provide many health benefits and should not be under estimated for their healing powers. Sally Fallon in her book, Nourishing Traditions provides some excellent instructions on the fermentation of vegetables and fruits, in addition to grains, nuts, seeds, fish and meat.

Basic Recipe for Sauerkraut

• 1 litre glass jar with plastic lid or spring lid
• 1 Cabbage Medium sized (1kg)
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 4 tablespoons of Kefir whey (you may use already fermented sauerkraut for an innoculant or simply add another tablespoon of salt.)
• 1 tablespoon of carraway seeds or fresh chopped dill.

Germans have always sliced the cabbage with a specially made machine and pounded them with a wooden mortar in a large crock to bruise the cell walls.
Grate cabbage with a hand grater or process in a food processor, then mix in a large food grade plastic bucket (get them at a hardware store) with the salt and Kefir whey. Pound with a meat mallot or wooden pounder of some kind. I’ve been known to use a pick handle, a clean one of course. Pound until the juices cause suction when you pull the pounder out of the mix.

Press the mixture into a clean glass jar using a wooden spoon. Press firmly until the juice rises to the top and covers the mixture, which it will do when it is pounded enough. Leave at least one inch or more of space at the top of the jar to allow for expansion.
Cover the kraut and store the jar in a cupboard for 3-5 days (depending on the ambient temperature) before transferring to the refrigerator. The sauerkraut may be consumed after a couple of weeks, though if you allow the fermentation process to continue for a month or so in the refrigerator you will be well rewarded with a most delicious flavour. I love sauerkraut at 4 months old.

As with all fermenting, follow your nose. If it smells putrid or you have any doubts about the quality, then discard the sauerkraut and start again.

Commonly Asked Questions Answered by Sally Fallon

Read the rest at Nourished Magazine.