Inoculant starter culture

[ABC321]

Naïve question; any reason you cannot used bits of a cured salami as an inoculant in the ingredients of a new salami?

 

[Dave in AZ]

Naïve question; any reason you cannot used bits of a cured salami as an inoculant in the ingredients of a new salami?

You can. Bette to use freshly fermenting salami, once cured the cultures drop off a lot as sugar used up, pH drops, and Available Water reduces. Like just done salami from a store wouldn't have much active bacteria left, and maybe not the right ones. Different cultures dominate as the ferment progresses, the important lactic acid producing ones needed for initial safety pH drop are much reduced in a "done" salami.

Before freeze dried cultures and refrigerated cultures, salami producers did this as a way to increase the chances their known-good ferment culture took root, before bad pathogens could. The technique is called "back-slopping". It carries much more risk than using lab cultures, so producers with income and livelihood and $10,000 of meat on the line, don't do it now. Since I can get 1/4 tsp of 5 different cultures for $1, delivered to my house within days, I don't risk my 2 months of effort doing that, either. ;)

 

[ABC321]

I have to say (as a lapsed Biochemist), I suspected that would be the case. Still, worth a shout....

Thanks for the detail.

 

[indaswamp]

You can, this practice is called 'backslopping' and use to be common. Problem is if you get contamination after repeated cycles...

 

[BGKYSmoker]

you can
its called back slopping