Dry Curing with potassium chloride and sodium chloride to reduce salt intake...study...

[indaswamp]

Link:
Physicochemical changes in dry-cured hams salted with potassium, calcium and magnesium chloride as a partial replacement for sodium chloride

 

[indaswamp]

Salami...
Mineral composition of Italian salami and effect of NaCl partial replacement on compositional, physico-chemical and sensory parameters

 

[indaswamp]

So...I have pure food grade potassium Chloride on order. I plan on doing a little R&D replacing 1/3 of the NaCl in salami with KCl. Will post a thread on the project...and taste results.

 

[SmokinEdge]

So...I have pure food grade potassium Chloride on order. I plan on doing a little R&D replacing 1/3 of the NaCl in salami with KCl. Will post a thread on the project...and taste results.

That’s interesting. It may be possible to lower salt (NaCl) with KCI and still get AW where it needs to be and PH. I’ll look forward to your testing and tasting. Not sure why we need to engage in this as most people don’t eat salami as a main course for supper, but you really are mastering the craft. It’s a new age and I will look forward to the results.

Any testing on the effects of KCI on bacteria? Does it have anti-bacterial properties? Or does the lower salt (NaCl)carry the day?

 

[indaswamp]

That’s interesting. It may be possible to lower salt (NaCl) with KCI and still get AW where it needs to be and PH. I’ll look forward to your testing and tasting. Not sure why we need to engage in this as most people don’t eat salami as a main course for supper, but you really are mastering the craft. It’s a new age and I will look forward to the results.

Any testing on the effects of KCI on bacteria? Does it have anti-bacterial properties? Or does the lower salt (NaCl)carry the day?

Salt will inhibit bad bacteria growth....It's the effect of the ions; matters not if the ion is Na+ or K+.
Concentration is what matters. BUT, apparently the good staphyococcus bacteria responsible for flavor formation perform better with K+ions in the mince. The flavor creation is said to be better when K+ ions are present and that is where my main interest lies. Though the lower sodium is also a secondary benefit. As noted in the research paper, too much potassium in the salami will give a bitter taste so I am going to try replacing 25% sodium and go from there.

 

[indaswamp]

excerpt:

Excerpt from Gerhard Feiner, Meat products handbook: Practical science and technology pp. 77-78

1 Salt is a flavour enhancer and no meat dish or meat product tastes good
with insufficient salt, even if spices are used in the preparation of the
meat.

2 Salt, in conjunction with phosphates, solubilizes protein, which in turn
can immobilize large amounts of added water and is also able to emulsify
fat in meat products. The addition of salt influences the interactions
between actin and myosin. These electrostatic interactions are based on
negative and positive charges, which attract or repel each other and the
addition of salt causes a repelling effect, obtaining larger gaps between
actin and myosin. Around 12 g of added salt per kilogram of meat
product is the lower limit to activate protein effectively.

3 The texture of meat products is also improved by activation of protein.

4 Salt lowers the Aw value (lowers the amount of free water within a
product). Therefore in meat products, such as raw fermented salami or
raw air-dried products, it is an important hurdle against microbiological
spoilage during the initial stages of the production.

5 The addition of salt favours the growth conditions for Gram-positive
bacteria instead of Gram-negative bacteria. Quite a few pathogens, such
as Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli, are Gram-negative bacteria.

6 Salt itself eventually becomes poisonous to bacteria by creating an
electrolyte imbalance within the cell.

7 The addition of salt to meat causes a slight move from the IEP of muscle
tissue towards a more acidic pH value. Depending on the amount of salt
added, the IEP can move from 5.2 to around 5.0. As a result, increased
levels of water can be bound without changing the pH value of the meat
itself, as the shift of the IEP from 5.2 to 5.0 widens the gap between
pH value present in the meat and the IEP. For example, prior to the
addition of salt, the pH gap in meat was 0.5 pH units (from 5.7 to 5.2)
and after the addition of salt, the gap is 0.7 pH units (from 5.7 to 5.0).
A larger gap between the two pH values increases the capillary effect of
the muscle fibres and an increased capillary effect causes increased
WBC once again.

Salt, or specifically the sodium part of salt, can lead to high blood pressure
if consumed in excess. `Light` meat products are available which have a
sodium level of around 450-750 ppm of sodium per 100 g of product (depending
on the food legislation in the respective country). In such products, only
around 8 g of salt (sodium chloride) are applied per kilogram of product and
potassium chloride is introduced instead so that the total level is 12-16 g of
salt per kilogram of product. When considering the sodium level of a meat
product, it should also not be forgotten that sodium is frequently added to
meat products in other forms, such as sodium nitrite, sodium erythorbate and
sodium phosphates.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Interesting