What is Hot Calabrese?
Hot Calabrese is a type of Italian dry-cured sausage originating from the Calabria region in southern Italy. Also known as "Calabrese salami," it's renowned for its bold spiciness and flavorful profile. The sausage is made from coarsely ground pork seasoned with red pepper flakes, paprika, garlic, and other spices. Hot Calabrese is distinctively fiery due to the generous use of red pepper flakes, which give it its characteristic heat. The mixture is then stuffed into casings and left to air dry and age, allowing the flavors to develop and intensify. This spicy salami is often enjoyed sliced thinly as an appetizer, used in sandwiches, or added to pizzas and pasta dishes. Its vibrant flavor and considerable heat make it a favorite choice for those who enjoy a powerful kick in their cured meats.
What does Hot Calabrese Taste Like?
Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Spicy is a flavor that brings heat and fire to food by creating a burning sensation in the mouth or sinuses. Spicy flavors come from hot peppers, horseradish, and wasabi. Spicy adds a kick and sometimes complexity to a dish and releases endorphins, creating a mildly addictive quality.
Ingredients
Pork is a term for any meat that comes from a pig. The main cuts are the shoulder, loin, leg and side belly. Raw pork is pink and often has a white trim of fat, or dots of fat. The texture is moist and and semi-firm. Pork is used to make bacon, sausage, salami and other various meat products. Pork can be bought and used ground, or in specific cuts, such as for pork tenderloin, a delicate cut of meat, with a lower fat content. Pork is known for being a fatty meat and has a full flavor that is enhanced by salt and spices. Pork should always be cooked thoroughly before consuming.
Sea salt differs from table salt by a number of factors. It is obtained by evaporating sea water. The result is a minimally processed compound with a subtle difference in flavor; sea salt tends to have a rounder flavor, whereas table salt can be sharp. The color may be slightly warmer in tone while still white and the texture is a touch less fine.
Natural flavors refer to any number of oils, distillations, oleoresins, protein hydrolysates or extracts made from plants including: barks, fruits, vegetables and herbs, or from animal sources. These sources undergo a number of different methods in order for the flavor to be obtained and made into use for human consumption. Natural flavors are used to add specific tastes to many packaged products such as drinks or snacks.
There are a number of spices used in cooking and baking. Spices generally refer to a variety of seeds, barks, fruits and roots that are used to add specific flavors to food. Some spices are sweet, spicy, pungent or savory. The flavors range greatly and spices can be used whole or ground and are usually cooked, but generally cooking them is not required.
Sugar comes from sugar cane and sugar beets. The sugar is extracted from the juice of both plants and refined into the granulated substance known as sugar. Sucrose, the sweet substance of sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose. White sugar is composed of tiny white, dry granules. The flavor is sweet and neutral. Brown sugar is brown and has more moisture, with a richer flavor that hints at molasses. Sugar is used in both sweet and savory foods.
Cooking wine is exactly what it sounds like, wine created and used specifically for cooking. Any wine can be used in food preparation, but cooking wine is less expensive, less complex in flavor and not made to drink. Cooking wine comes in reds, whites, sweet wines and rice wines. Each one suits specific dishes and is poured in to a sauce, gravy, meat, etc. and lends depth of flavor and richness. The alcohol cooks out via the heat source, leaving only the wine flavor.
Additives are added to food items in small quantities to improve the flavor, change the texture, enhance appearance, or preserve the item. Additives are both natural and artificial. Natural additives have been used for a long time, while many artificial ones were discovered in the 19th century. There are numerous artificial additives including soy lecithin, guar gum, ascorbic acid and sodium nitrite.
