Process of rapidly preparing a fermented dry or semi-dry sausage product and products therefrom

A process for rapidly preparing a fermented dry sausage or semi-dry sausage product in a period of time less than five hours, comprising the steps of

• i) admixing an amount of ground meat, containing a source of at least one fermentable carbohydrate, with an amount of an edible acidulant to lower the pH of the ground meat below its buffering ability,
• ii) adding an amount of a bacterial culture to enable the fermentation of the ground meat;
• iii) forming the meat admixture into a desired shape;
• and
• iv) fermenting the formed sausage admixture to achieve the desired dry sausage or semi-dry sausage product;
• wherein the amount of the acidulant is selected so as to minimize denaturation of proteins in the ground meat admixture thereby retaining the textural quality of the fermented dry sausage or semi-dry sausage product.