Sausage and Processed Meats Short Course 2007
Charlie Murphy has nothing on Klaus Kreibig, the "wurstmacher" at Iowa State University's annual Sausage & Processed Meats Short Course.
Murphy, the fictional pitchman for Johnsonville Brats may cook up a mean brat, but when it comes to creating sausage, no one can match Kreibig’s expertise. He has been coming annually from Germany for the past 20 years to teach the latest technology in sausage and meat processing at the Iowa State University Meat Lab.
Sausage and Processed Meats Short Course
Iowa State University Extension offers the Sausage and Processed Meats Short Course to meat processing professionals from around the world. Plant managers, chefs and research and development technicians in the meat processing industry are among the participants. But occasionally, just for the fun of it, enthusiastic nouveau sausage makers are willing to fork over $1,250 for a week of intense instruction and group projects.
Animal science professor Joe Cordray has been leading the course since 1995. In July, 75 participants from six countries joined 27 instructors for the 2007 course.
Kreibig arrives a week before the first session to prepare for the course. He puts his artistic talents to work in creating different Old World styles of sausage with a variety of ingredients for the participants to see and taste. This year Kreibig and the class made over 80 different types of sausage, pates, aspics and other processed meats.
The week of class culminates with a Wurstfest where all the varieties of sausages and processed meats are displayed and sampled.
Latest technologies and processes
Along with the arrival of Kreibig from Germany is equipment from various companies around the country – stuffers, skinners, injectors, bowl choppers, grinders and emulsifiers – are just a few of the latest technologies on loan during the course. Participants also gain hands-on experience with the state-of-the-art processing equipment in the ISU Meat Lab like smokers, large grinders, cookers, vacuum packagers, stuffers, tumblers and mixers.
International links
Each year the July short course sells out well in advance so occasionally additional courses are added. One such course is simultaneously translated into Spanish for participants coming from Mexico and South America. The course, including speakers, supplies and equipment, has also been taken on the road to Cape Town, South Africa.
Long history of processing education
ISU animal acience professor Robert (Bob) Rust initiated the first short course in 1979. He was encouraged to offer a course featuring the latest technologies in sausage and meet processing by Hans Schneider, a master butcher from Germany, who had heard about the newly built ISU Meat Laboratory. Schneider, with an expertise in wurst-making assisted Rust in teaching 40 participants from around the country as the students designed and manufactured 24 products. The leading authority on meat emulsions from Holland, John Schut, was a key speaker.
In addition to the basics of processing meat, least-cost formulation was demonstrated using the first “portable” computer – the IBM 5100 – that weighed a whopping 50 pounds. Vacuum packaging, a new technology at the time, was also demonstrated. Under Rust’s leadership the course grew in scope and three additional types of sausage short courses were added to take place throughout the year.
