The Art of Making Fermented Sausages, by Stanley Marianski
Sunday, December 14th, 2008
First, let’s get the carping out of the way.
Like other recent books by the Marianski’s this one is self-published, through Outskirts Press, and it clearly has not benefited from the services of a professional editor or proofreader. The book is littered with grammar mistakes, typographical errors, and odd locutions. The way the text is organized, they end up covering the same subjects from multiple angles, with the result that they repeat themselves over and over. Sometimes the organization simply seems haphazard, with “notes” appearing at the end of a section which could be more accurately labeled “afterthoughts.” The information presented is clear and accurate; just don’t expect a gripping read.
The most serious flaw is that the book contains no index. I plan to refer to this book a lot, and the only way to track down the subjects I’m interested in is a fairly detailed table of contents (sections are generally no bigger than a few pages and sometimes only a paragraph). I wanted to use the recipes at the back of the book to make a beef salami, but the only way to find out which recipes use beef is to look through them all, one by one.
As an example of the book’s lack of focus, buried in the middle of Part I is the clearest statement of their main point: “There is a difference in fermented sausage technology between the United States and the European countries. American methods rely on rapid acid production (lowering pH) through a fast fermentation in order to stabilize the sausage against spoilage bacteria. In European countries, milder fermentation temperatures are used and the drying, instead of the acidity (pH) is the main hurdle against spoilage bacteria. This provides color and flavor forming bacteria (Staphylococcus) with plenty of time to react with protein and fats and leads to better flavor development” (85).
