Electric Blue Universe - The Secret Life of Sausage

Magnified Penicillium Sp. isolated from a 

Nord-Hessen Ahle Wurscht Sausage

Photo Credit: MycoBovine.com

I just returned from the meat laboratory this evening and my mind has been swirling with the electric blue images we captured there - shedding light on the most mysterious secret life of the fermented sausage.

Cultured Penicillium Sp. isolated from a 

Nord-Hessen Ahle Wurscht Sausage

Photo Credit: MycoBovine.com

Some readers here may recognize that authentic blue cheese is cultured with a special cheese mold, or fungi - of the species Penicillium roqforti - yet many may not realize the best sausages available are those fermented by a close cousin of this little blue stinker - Penicillium nalgiovense. 

Sporulating hyphae of Penicillium sp.
Photo Credit: MycoBovine.com

Many of us don't want to think about eating a mold, but it is important to remember that these fungi produce both an array of outstanding flavor molecules, as well as acting to balance the delicate microbial 'eco-system' of the sausage rind -  impacting taste, aroma, and even food safety.

I recently had the opportunity to culture and isolate a strain of fungi from a rare fermented sausage - the Nord-Hessicher Ahle-Wurscht - soon to be Germany's first regionally protected sausage. Will we find a commercially available strain such at p. nalgiovense, or, given this producers traditional methods, might we find some strange new variant or species?

Photo Credit: MycoBovine.com

 The genus of Penicillium  gets it's name from the latin for "painbrush"... no doubt for the paintbrush like shape it inhabits during certain stages of it it's life. Yet this fungi is also clearly a paintbrush in the highest artistic sense. These meat artisans sculpt their protein rich canvas's and paint upon them flavors and aromas with the help of these simple microbial tools.

Photo Credit: MycoBovine.com