Australian supermarket sliced salami taste test: ‘Even my nine-year-old wouldn’t eat this’

‘I’ll continue to eat salami like my cat eats literally everything, indiscriminately and greedily,’ says Nicholas Jordan. Photograph: Isabella Moore/The Guardian

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 internetting? 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.