Summer sausage
Meat
Top 10 pairings
Summer sausage is a semi-dry, tangy fermented sausage of cured beef and pork — sometimes venison or all beef — seasoned with salt, mustard seed, black pepper and garlic, fermented to a sour pH and then cooked or low-temperature smoked until firm. Named because it keeps without refrigeration through warm months, it is a North American and Central European staple eaten cold in thin coins, on crackers, on a board or in a sandwich.
Picking a good onedrag
Freshly cut: firm, tangy, mustard-fleckedOff: sticky or slimy, mouldy, sour
Sound stickBuy itSound to buy and eat cold. If you are pregnant, 65 or older, or immunocompromised, heat it to 74 C / 165 F, steaming hot, or leave it: rarely, Listeria.
The stick in the handFirm, a shade harder and drier towards the tied ends
Casing and surfaceDry and sound, the colour a little uneven along it
The cut faceA shade darker where it met the air; a rainbow sheen is normal
Smell at the cutSavoury, the tang a little quieter, still clean