No, salami is not made from strangled animals; it's a cured sausage using specific cuts of meat (mostly pork, sometimes beef/other) that are ground, mixed with salt, spices, and fermented. The idea of "strangled" meat likely comes from religious dietary laws (like Acts 15 in the Bible) forbidding blood in meat (pniktos), which refers to improper butchering, but modern commercial salami production follows strict, hygienic methods for safe, flavor-developed sausage, with blood typically drained during processing, not left in.
What Salami Actually Is
* Ingredients: Ground pork (lean & fat), salt, nitrates, spices (garlic, pepper, fennel), beneficial bacteria.
* Process: Ground meat is seasoned, stuffed into casings (often pig intestines), fermented (tangy flavor), dried/cured (weeks/months), sometimes smoked.
* Blood: Blood is generally drained from meat during proper slaughter; salami uses muscle cuts and fat, not blood-filled meat.
Where the "Strangled" Idea Comes From
* Biblical texts (like Acts 15) mention abstaining from "strangled" (pniktos) meat, meaning animals not properly butchered with blood drained, a rule for early Christians. This is a historical/religious concept, not a description of modern salami production.
In Summary
Modern salami is a processed meat product made hygienically from approved cuts, not from animals killed by strangulation with undrained blood.
WHAT ABOUT BLUTWURST?
No, Blutwurst (German blood sausage) isn't made from strangled animals; it uses blood collected during proper slaughter, mixed with fillers like pork, fat, bread, or barley, but abstaining from strangled meat is an ancient dietary rule (like in Acts 15:29) that means avoiding meat from animals not bled out, which is the opposite of how good sausage is made, ensuring the blood is fresh and fully drained from the body before processing.
Key Points:
* Blutwurst Ingredients: It's made from animal blood (usually pork) combined with cooked meat, fat, rind, and fillers like barley, rice, or bread.
* Proper Butchering: Animals for meat (and sausage) are stunned and bled out by cutting major arteries; the heart's beating helps drain the blood efficiently.
* Meaning of "Strangled": In dietary contexts (like the Bible), "meat of strangled animals" refers to creatures that died without proper bleeding, meaning their blood remained in the meat, which was considered unclean.
* The Contrast: So, Blutwurst uses blood collected from a properly bled animal, while avoiding strangled meat means avoiding meat where the blood was not drained.
