I feel as though every supermarket and deli I’ve been to has as many salami options as I have conflicting priorities. Not only is there a vast range, they’re all different in confusing ways. Often the only information is which ones are spicy. When so many options are in front of you, how do you choose without an hour of interneting? That is the question I hope to answer.
I bought 22 varieties of unspiced supermarket salami and blind-tasted them with a team of chefs, butchers and deli owners – Arnolfo Raimondi (Norcino), Alex Grenouiller (Marani Deli, the host location of this taste test), Stefano de Caro (Cicerone Cucina Romana) and David Stössel (Feather and Bone). We tasted over six rounds, each corresponding to a different salami category – Danish, Hungarian, Italian, sopressa, Milano and “other” (the salamis that didn’t fit into a neat category). We scored on appearance, aroma, texture and taste, with taste being, by far, the most important factor.
At the end, I predict I’ll continue to eat salami like my cat eats literally everything, indiscriminately and greedily – although hopefully not enough to do my gut any permanent damage. But I did gain a few helpful tips: when you’re confronted with a supermarket collage of sliced meat, pick anything with an Italian-sounding label (sopressa, Milano, calabrese etc) and be wary of ones labelled with a country, including Italian – generally, generic labels made for generic flavours. Reserve extra suspicion for Hungarian salamis, the only category to produce two with sub 5/10 scores. I predict neither myself or my cat, Princess Bitey Face Tundra Jordan Beasley Burnett, will be eating either ever again.
The best
Papandrea Fine Foods Veneto Fennel Sopressa, 100g, $7.99, available at select grocers
Score: 8.5/10
This doesn’t look, feel, smell or taste like any salami I’d expect on a supermarket shelf. It’s more what I imagine a 70-year-old nonno called Signor Papandrea might produce on a farm. It’s a little funky, quite fatty, very savoury and it tears inconsistently like an aged prosciutto. When we were eating it, a chef with 24/7 access to Italian cured meats started describing a character at a hotel buffet, the one who piles high-value foods on to their plate without a care for anyone else. “If there was this salami at a dinner party, I’d be like that guy,” he said.
The best value
Berg Deli Sopressa Mild Salami, 100g, $3.49, available at Aldi
Score: 8/10
All three of Berg Deli’s salami options could make a best-value list, but this was the only one challenging for the title of the best. Like the other Berg products, it’s soft with melty fat chunks (they’re all great sandwich salamis), and like Papandrea, Primo’s Tuscan and BB Products, the Berg Sopressa was one of the few products to have a genuine fermented appeal – reviewers said it tastes “handmade”, “a bit bootleg” and “artisan”. It even smells a bit pungent, as though it’s on the edge of fermenting a bit too far. Like the BO of a lover, it just adds a bit of character.
The rest
Puopolo Artisan Salumi Hungarian Mild Smoked Salami, 100g, $9.50, available from select grocers
Score: 7.5/10
I included an appearance score in the judging criteria, because to me, there are two main, vastly different uses for salami: sandwich ingredient and dinner party snack platter. Texture is more important for the former and appearance is only important for the latter. This, Papandrea and Montecatini aren’t just the more expensive salamis on the market, they’re the best at making your dinner party look expensive. The reviewers guessed it might be made with a mixed grind (giving it a unique chew and tear) and meat that’s gone through a marinade (producing its dark colour and richer flavour). It was the best Hungarian salami of the day, narrowly beating Berg Deli.
BB Products Milano Salami, 100g, $7.99, available at select grocers
Score: 7.5/10
When I bite into a sandwich I don’t want to use my jaw like a grinding tool because a piece of salami is too stubborn to get through. So, as well as being punchy enough to exude flavour through bread, cheese, pickles and whatever else, a sandwich salami should be soft. BB Products fits that brief exactly. It’s soft, thinly sliced and funky and rich like a blue cheese.
Primo Reserve Tuscan Salami, 80g, $5.50 ($6.88 per 100g), available at Coles
Score: 7.5/10
More than half of the products we tried had a flat, generic salami taste, like experiencing the “essence of salami”, not the real deal. So any product with a distinct flavour was an immediate standout. I thought this tasted like a pizza and, to one of the other reviewers, like meatballs. No idea if that’s the fortified wine, herbs, garlic powder, spice or just the fact I was inspired after tasting so many salamis with the character of an Ikea sideboard.
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Don Deli Cuts Italian Shaved Salami, 80g, $4.30 ($5.38 per 100g), available at major supermarkets
Score: 7/10
If this salami was a cuisine it would be American: fatty, savoury and soft enough for a baby to eat – then get addicted to. After seeing it had torn in several places, leaving little holes, one chef likened it to sbriciolona, a soft Italian salami known for its lack of structural integrity. A solid sandwich salami but potentially one of the worst picks for an anxious party host.
Montecatini Truffle Salami, 80g, $6.50 ($8.16 per 100g), available at select grocers
Score: 6/10
Honestly, I don’t think the sourness, slight bitterness, meaty flavour or artisan look is going to matter – if you like truffle-flavoured products, you’ll enjoy this. If you enjoy lecturing people about the inauthenticity of truffle oil, then you’ll think this is some sort of satanic artefact sent to the mortal plane just to irritate you. If you’re in-between, you’re still not buying it because you don’t want to pay the premium for truffles, all 0.025% of them.
Salumi Australia Classico (Pepper), 100g, $8.99, available from select grocers
Score: 5/10
It looks and smells the part, but has a bizarre bitter-sour taste unlike any of the other salamis we tried. After discussing what the hell was going on with it, one of the reviewers said: “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” I think this is the salami equivalent of my HSC experience. A lot of effort went into trying to convince people there was substance in what I wrote, but any joy-oriented individual would find it woeful.
Primo Reserve Hungarian Salami, 80g, $5.50 ($6.88 per 100g), available at major supermarkets
Score: 3/10
While almost every salami we tasted listed pork in the ingredients, a handful of products, including this, say “meat including pork”, which means, as per Australia’s food standards code, it could have meat from any part of any animal that’s legal to eat. In my book, this is colossally less concerning than the fact it tastes as though there’s barely any meat in it. One reviewer said it’s oddly sour and compared the texture to “wet paper”, which is probably the only way you’d notice it was in your sandwich.
Don Deli Cuts Mild Hungarian Salami, 80g, $4.30 ($5.33 per 100g), available at Coles
Score: 3/10
During the taste test, one of the reviewers lamented the fact his kid liked poor-quality salami, sometimes more than the high-quality stuff he serves at his restaurant. When we ate a low-scoring salami I’d turn to him and ask: “Would your kid eat this?” He’d always say, “Yeah, of course.” But when this salami came out, he said, “Even my nine-year-old wouldn’t eat this.” Confusingly, while Don’s Italian salami (rated 7/10) is a solid sandwich addition, reviewers described this one as having a “very dry, odd texture” and an “intense flavour, but in a bad way”. My favourite review was just one word with three exclamation marks: “Shocking!!!”
Products cut for brevity
San Marino fennel sopressa 7/10
Provedore garlic and fennel 7/10
Berg Sliced Hungarian-style salami 6.5/10
Berg Deli Milano salami 6.5/10
Proper Meat sopressa mild 6.5/10
Mon Deli premium Spanish-style salami 6.5/10
Bertocchi Italian-style mild salami 6/10
Primo Danish salami 6/10
Thomas Dux mild sopressa 6/10
Proper Meat Danish salami 5.5/10
San Marino Milano 5.5/10
Provedore mild Italian salami 5.5/10
