I like Vienna sausages. I like potted meat faux food product. Due to heart troubles, I can’t eat them any more- they’re too salty. These two products do, however, share a certain strong taste or flavor that isn’t salt. This spice or whatever also occurs in bologna to a lesser degree. Can anyone tell me what it is so I could try to simulate it in a low-sodium home-cooked concoction?
Try a little mace (the spice) or nutmeg. Bologna and hot dog get some of their flavor from the sodium nitrate, which is what makes it pink. A little liquid smoke, garlic powder, and onion powder would help too.
Armour’s celestial recipe for potted meat food product contains:
Hormel’s totally inferior analog has:
I suspect that the answer you seek is going to be found buried somewhere in the “Natural Flavorings” part of both ingredient lists. Which is laughable considering that while they’re more than willing to list the various cow and pig innards in painful detail on the ingredient label, they’re not going to come across with the actual flavorings they use.
I think another spice or herbal secret ingredient along with the aforementioned mace and nutmeg I have seen is savory (herb). Probably not in Vienna sausages, but maybe in Bolognas and the like.
I also think they might use some paprika or paprika oils in potted meat, and also mustard.
Speaking as one who cans his own meat, there is something about the pressure canning process itself that influences flavor. The beef cubes I can for myself have nothing added to the jar but a little salt, yet they have the same aroma and flavor as Dinty Moore stew, hash, and other canned beef products.
I expect vienna sausages have their unique taste just from being pressure canned bologna.
Just a guess, but nearly every canned meat product, soup, chili, etc. has onion powder. Probably because it is cheap and very savory. Might be this is what you’re tasting?
By law they are required to list those products as such. Otherwise, I’m sure they and many others would be more than happy listing their ingredients as Beef and Suet and Pork and boned chicken. And I believe that would be accurate as well.
If it’s the tripe in potted meat that you are distinguishing, well then that’s a different story, that has a very specific flavor that for the life of me I cannot explain as other than “acidic”, “gamey”, and well, not to beat around the bush, “vomitous”. I’m sure its some family of acids that add to that flavor, but luckily the tripe has probably had the shit cooked out of it, industrially (no pun intended) and of course it is ground so fine to make its spongy texture unrecognizable. Ya know if you took the ingredients on their own and deconstructed “potted meat” and added lye processed hominy corn you could probably make a really good pozole (heart tripe, suet and pieces parts in a res, yum)?.. and yet that is not a persecuted food… no, that’s “hip nouveu international cuisine”.
Ya know, Pozole would be a natural movement and evolution of canned soup for Campbell’s -they beat around the bush with :Southwestern: and Mexican: Flavors… but they haven’t gone :potted meat: res. I think of our one time local and old Turtle Soup monopoly. Heart and tripe in a soup would be almost novel and sought for by foodies… and well, not to beat around the bush, hungover Mexicans (not too mention other nationalities)
Typical pate spice is quatre-epices - ginger, nutmeg, cloves and pepper. I also like to add coriander and cinnamon sometimes. Maybe that’s what you’re tasting?
Regardless, it’s a good blend, and pretty easy to make a simple chicken liver pate.
So far, I’ve read liquid smoke, mace, nutmeg, NaNO3, savory, paprika, mustard, pepper, onion powder, garlic, ginger, and cloves.
I’ll have to start experimenting.