and drying meat scraps to preserve them.
When salted scraps are squeezed together,
microbe-laden surfaces end up inside the
moist mass, and salt-tolerant bacteria that can
grow without oxygen thrive there. For the
most part, these bacteria turn out to be the
same ones that can grow in salty, air-poor
cheese: namely the Lactobacilli and
Leuconostocs (and such relatives as the
Micrococci, Pediococci, and Carnobacteria).
They produce lactic and acetic acids, which
lower the meat pH from 6 to 4.5–5 and make
it even less hospitable to spoilage microbes.
Then, as the sausage slowly dries out with
time, the salt and acidity become more
concentrated, and the sausage increasingly
resistant to spoilage.
Southern and Northern Styles of Sausage
Fermented sausages come in two general
styles. One is the dry, salty, well-spiced
sausage typical of the warm, dry