Deli Meats Meat Additives (For Homemade Deli Meat) Cold Phosphate Binders Sodium Lactate

In Deli Meats 103, we went over some common meat additives that are used in commercially processed Deli Meats; most of them are harmless and are aimed at increasing the freshness of the meat, shelf-life, taste, and appearance. Most of these additives are not things you are going to have in your home or have easy access to; however, there are a few that are easily available and will give you nice reformed deli meat that can be sliced almost as thin as a true deli. These meat additives include Phosphates, Binders, Sodium Lactate, Sodium Nitrite, and Sure Cure. Keep reading for more information on each of these and the benefits of using them when making deli meat!

Phosphates

It doesn’t matter if you are making homemade deli meats or buying them from the store; some sort of phosphates will almost certainly be present. The phosphates raise the pH of the meat and allow it to hold more water. Commercial processors do this because a) water is much cheaper than meat, and b) consumers want juicier cuts of meat. We recommend you use Cold Phosphate as this will dissolve easier in cold water than some other types. An important note on phosphates is that if you are injecting it, you need to mix this in first so it can suspend in the water. I’d recommend you add phosphates to any deli meat you are making, but it is especially important when making low-fat deli cuts.

Binders

Binders, especially in low-fat cuts, are going to be very key when making a reformed cut of deli meat. Without it, you will have a hard time getting everything to stick together tight enough to let you slice it deli thin without it crumbling. Carrot Fiber isn’t a traditional binder, but it holds 26 times its weight in water, so it can help with juiciness. If you are going to use carrot fiber, like I do in future videos, it is best to use it in conjunction with cold phosphate. Super Bind is going to give you carrot fiber and potato starch, so you get the best of the carrot fiber plus, the potato starch forms a gel at the same temp as the meat really starts to expel water. The only problem with this is that in homemade deli meat, you are going to have some voids in your meat. Having no voids with a hand crank stuffer is extremely difficult, and those voids will be filled with this gel. It can be very unappealing. Sure Gel or Soy protein blend can also be good choices.

Sodium Lactate

Sodium Lactate is used by commercial processors to extend the shelf-life of meat products. It is sometimes used as a powder but is most often used in its liquid form. It increases the shelf life of meat products by regulating the pH of the food and reduces the effects of bacteria spoilage. In its liquid form, you would use it at a rate of 1.5% of your meat block, so for a 25 lb batch, you would use .375 lb. As we sell it in gallons, you can see that it would last you a long time.

Sodium Nitrite & Sure Cure

Another option for deli meat can be using sodium nitrite or sure cure. We’ve talked about it exhaustively in the past but using nitrite helps fight botulism spores. It’s important to use when smoking meat as you are often creating the perfect environment for the growth of botulism and other bad microorganisms. It can also assist in increasing the shelf-life of the meat and preserving its color and flavor.

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Deli Meats Homemade Lunch Meat (Deli Meat) Injecting Meat Smoked Meat Slicing Meat Meat Block

Eye of the Round
1 Bag of Soluble Pa’s Black Bull BBQ Soluble Seasoning

Equipment

Walton’s Automatic Syringe Injector

Process

The first thing you need to do is decide if you want to remove the fat cap before or after you cook the meat. I like to remove it first when making deli meat. Cut off as much of the fat as you can without cutting too far into the meat, and remove any silver skin or membrane still attached to it.

Choose a marinade that includes phosphates of some sort, phosphates allow the meat to retain more moisture through the cooking process, and since we aren’t going to cure this, we can’t step it up in slow stages, so moisture loss can be a major problem. Mix your seasoning into your water, making sure everything is fully dissolved. Inject your meat evenly with as much of the seasoning as it will accept. You will know that your meat is fully seasoned when the marinade starts shooting back out of the injection holes.

Vacuum Sealing

Hold the product overnight (or at least for a few hours) to allow the seasoning to disperse more evenly in the meat. My favorite way to do this is to put the meat in a vacuum bag and seal it. It does not need to be a perfect vacuum, simply remove as much of the air as you can from the bag; this will allow more of the marinade to stay inside the meat and will keep anything that leaks out in contact with the meat, adding to the flavor.

Topical Seasoning

Before you put your meat in the smoker or oven, you might want to rub the outside with additional seasoning. I like to try to choose something that will either complement the marinade I used or something that will juxtapose it strongly enough to be easily noticeable. Rub as much as you want on the outside of the meat; since we are going to slice this so thin and this seasoning will only stay on the outside, it is almost impossible to overseason a topical rub when making deli meat.

Note

The cooking schedule will be very simple for this type of meat. If you are using a smoker, an important decision is whether to add smoke or not. When I made this, I used our PK-100 Smoker but did not add any additional smoke to it.

Thermal Processing & Smoking

225° until the internal temperature is 132°.

Cooling

Remove the meat from the smoker and cover it in tin foil for at least 20 minutes. This will continue the cooking process for a few minutes and let the juice absorb back into the meat. If you slice it too soon, the juice will leak right out of the meat.

Slicing

For sandwiches, it is preferable to slice your meat as thin as you can. This will depend on your slicer; trying to slice at the thinnest setting might not give you full pieces. Select the lowest setting you can that will still produce full slices.

Wrap-Up

Making homemade lunch meat (Fresh Deli Meat) is really very simple. You have probably made roasts in the oven before, and this is the same process; just make sure you are marinating with a seasoning that contains phosphates, and slice it as thin as you can.

Additional Tips If your preferred seasoning does not contain phosphates, you can add some to the marinade to increase the water-holding capacity of the meat. Just make sure you do not exceed usage of 2 oz per 25 lb of meat, or you might get a soapy taste to it. Other Notes

An important note is that once we have sliced the meat, we have exposed the entire area to bacteria. This means we need to treat it like a ground product, and it needs to be refrigerated and consumed within 3-5 days.

What Is Lunch Meat (Deli Meat)?

Deli meat can be made a few different ways; it can be fresh, which will be a whole muscle cut that has been cooked and then sliced like a roast or some turkey. Or it can be reformed from smaller cuts or even an emulsified product that is then sliced and sold by weight for sandwiches and subs.

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Deli Meats Restructured Meat Freeze Attachment Grinding Meat Mixing Meat Stuffing Deli Meat Slicing Meat Two Ways to Process

There are two main ways you can process restructured meat. The first is to take larger cuts of meat and bind them together, and the other is to completely break them down and then mold them into whatever shape you want.

In both of these processes, one of the main things they rely upon is solubilizing the proteins from the muscle in the meat and using that to bind the separate parts together into one cohesive piece, or loaf. Some processors will use transglutaminase, which acts as a meat glue, and there are all sorts of opinions on this practice. Some people disapprove of its use and say it misleads the consumer, and some even claim it is unhealthy.

Meat Block

Chicken or Turkey Breast
1 bag of Seasoning of your choice (click here for seasoning of cure to use per lb of meat)
1 oz bag of sure cure (click here for amounts of cure to use per lb of meat)

Equipment

Grinder
Stuffer
Clipper/Stapler

The Process

First, we need to solubilize the myofibrillar proteins in the meat, and then we need to extract those proteins from the muscle cells. Both of those processes are going to require salt to be added to the meat at some point in the process; generally, it is a good idea to inject your solution into the meat and let it marinate to allow the salt time to work on the muscle. Alternatively, you can use a vacuum tumbler if you have one, as this will speed up the process with both the mechanical energy of dropping the meat from near the top of the drum to the bottom and pulling the fibers further apart with the vacuum. Because we want the meat to hold as much water as possible, we want to choose a marinade that has some phosphate in it, as this will increase the water-holding capacity of the meat. It does this by changing the pH and allowing water molecules to form a tighter bond. Once these proteins have been extracted from the meat and are coating the outside of the muscles, they will become sticky and can start to hold together pieces of the meat.

Stuffing & Forming

Now you can form the restructured meat into any desired shape, though until they are heat-treated, you could easily pull the pieces apart. They won’t become one piece until we heat-treat the product. For the home user, one of the easiest things to do is to very tightly stuff it into a loaf casing like the Smoke Coated Loaf Casing or the large red bologna casings. Be aware that you need to stuff this as tight as you can, or it will not bind properly; that is one of the reasons we like these casings, as they are very strong. Commercial processors will use a vacuum stuffer for this, which will stuff the casing much tighter than we could ever hope to, so make sure you stuff them as tightly as you can. If you don’t get it stuffed tightly enough, you can have voids in the deli meat, or you might have sections that do not bind properly to each other. Some voids are going to be almost unavoidable with a hand crank stuffer, though, so if you have a few empty spaces, it’s not the end of the world.

Thermal Processing & Smoking

Smoking or any type of cooking of this type of deli meat is a little different than normal smoking, as once the proteins have denatured, no more smoke will adhere, so we need to have an initial stage of low heat and high humidity to equalize all products in the smokehouse; if you are only doing a single loaf, then this isn’t as important. Then we need to run a quick-drying phase where the outside will become nice and tacky to allow the smoke to adhere and penetrate the meat. In the next stage, we will introduce heavy smoke and keep the temperature similar to the drying phase. Also, we are not adding a cure to this, so we don’t have the luxury of keeping the temperature of the smoker low for long periods. For an uncured Chicken breast deli loaf like this one, we set the temp right to 180° with 100% Relative humidity right after our drying phase.

Binding Together

The next step would be to raise the temperature, which will denature the proteins and force them to bind together. Simply put, the increased heat forces the molecules of the meat to vibrate fast enough that they break their previous bonds and precipitate. No, they don’t start raining; chemically speaking, precipitate means to form a solid from a solution. Now we will have what will look like one solid piece of deli meat that we made up from multiple pieces of chicken breast. You can still clearly see that it was made up of multiple pieces, but the small amount that we ran twice through a 1/8" plate is working with the proteins we extracted from the full pieces to act as a glue to help hold it all together. And when we simply grind it all, then you can see it looks close to summer sausage in consistency.

Slicing

For sandwiches, it is preferable to slice your meat as thin as you can. This will depend on your slicer; trying to slice at the thinnest setting might not give you full pieces. Select the lowest setting you can that will still produce full slices. This is somewhat easier if you are breaking the product all the way down instead of forming it from smaller cuts. When making one large loaf from smaller cuts, we are relying on the binding of the small amount we ground plus the binder to keep the larger pieces together. This means we need to slice those types thicker.

Wrap-Up

Making homemade Restructured Deli Meat is very simple. You have probably made summer sausage at home before, and this is the same basic process; just make sure you are fully solubilizing the proteins to allow everything to set firmly together during the cooking process.

Other Notes

An important note is that once we have sliced it, we have exposed the entire area to bacteria. This means we need to treat it like a ground product now, and it needs to be refrigerated and consumed within 3-5 days.

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Deli Meat How Long Does Deli Meat Last (& Other Safety Tips for Buying Deli Meat) How Long Is Deli Meat Safe For?

Once you have brought the meat home, you should only keep it for 3-5 days max; beyond that, you run the risk of spoilage. When it was in its loaf form, the inside was protected from any germs, and it was kept, hopefully, at a controlled temperature. But now it has been sliced, exposing everything to possible bacteria, so be safe and throw out older cold cuts. Another thing to look for is any slime on the surface of the meat, this is a good indication that the meat experienced some significant temperature fluctuation and is no longer good to eat; again, just be safe and throw it out.

What Is The Danger?

The big thing we are trying to avoid here is any meat tainted with the listeria bacterium, which can cause the infection listeriosis. While very rarely deadly, listeriosis is a serious problem that has a variety of unpleasant effects on the human body. The quality control at the processing plant where your deli meat was made might be top-notch, with a USDA inspector on-site and watching the process to make sure the plant is producing safe food, but what happens once it gets to the deli or grocery store? Keeping an eye on the conditions where they are slicing your food is a good idea.

Simple Things To Look For

Are the employees wearing gloves? Does the slicer look clean? What is the temperature in the meat case? When the meat is removed from the meat case, how long is it left out?

Pre-Packaged Cold Cuts

When buying prepackaged cold cuts, keep an eye on how they are stored. Are they properly refrigerated? Is the packaging intact?

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Deli Meat Types of Deli Meat (And What Is It)? Slicer Fresh Deli Meat

One of the types of Deli Meat is fresh, or whole muscle, which are cuts that are fairly simple to make at home but are more difficult to keep in a deli or grocery store. They will be injected with a soluble seasoning, then cooked or smoked until they have reached a safe internal temperature and vacuum packed. They generally contain no nitrates or nitrites, so they can have a dull color, and the shelf life will not be the same as a cured product. If you are making this at home, the meat should be consumed within 3-5 days; when sold in stores, this variety is generally sold at a premium due to the costs associated with product loss.

Restructured Deli Meat

The more common type of deli meat is made from multiple smaller pieces that are formed together to make the turkey or other meat loaves that you see in your local deli. To do this, the smaller cuts will generally be injected with water-soluble seasonings and cure for a cured product, then they will be massaged in a vacuum tumbler to loosen the proteins in the meat to help the products bind together during the cooking process. They will then be put into a preformed plastic mold, vacuum packed, and either smoked or cooked, which will bind the separate pieces together into a single solid piece.

Reformed Deli Meat

A third way to make deli meat is to use smaller excess pieces of meat that will be emulsified either with a bowl chopper or a meat grinder, which turns the meat into a thick paste-like substance. Once this is done, it will follow a similar process as when it is made from larger cuts that are pressed together. After cooking, some of them will be lightly fried to give them a nice crust and add more flavoring. It will then either be packaged and refrigerated for shipping to your local Deli, Grocery Store, or Restaurant, or it will be sliced and packaged at a processing plant for sale in prepackaged meals or cold cuts.

What is Deli Meat?

Deli Meat covers a wide variety of different types of meat, but most types will be Ham, Turkey, or Beef. Deli meat can be made a few different ways; it can be fresh, which will be a whole muscle cut that has been cooked and then sliced like a roast or some turkey. Or it can be reformed from smaller cuts or even an emulsified product that is then sliced and sold by weight for sandwiches and subs.

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Deli Meat Deli Meat Ingredients Cold Phosphate Complicated Ingredients

Have you ever looked at the ingredients on the back of a package of deli meats? It can be a pretty eye-opening experience, they are usually filled with things that most people have no idea how to say, let alone know what their purpose is. Generally, the fewer ingredients in meat products, the better, but this is not always true. Let’s start with a few of the more common and benign ingredients, and we will look at some to avoid in later posts.

Common Ingredients

Citric Acid – This has a few different functions as an additive, it is going to protect the flavor of the meat, and as it is a strong antioxidant, it is also going to play a role in keeping the color of the meat and preventing it from looking brown or grey. Depending on the amount used, it can also add a certain amount of tang to the taste.

Papain – This is an extract from Papaya fruit, and it is used to help break down the proteins in the meat to help them form into loaves more efficiently. It is also a common ingredient in meat tenderizer solutions.

Phosphates – This ingredient covers a few different types of phosphates, including cold phosphate and sodium phosphate. It functions as a moisture retainer, and it helps your meat stay juicy. Commercial processors also like it, as it can increase their final yield by allowing the meat to retain more water through the cooking or smoking process. It does this by increasing the ionic strength by raising the pH of the meat from around 5.5 to 6.

BHA and BHT – It is a form of vitamin E and a powerful antioxidant that is used to fight off rancidity in taste and keep the color looking fresh.

Sugar/Corn Syrup – Widely used as a sweetener in meats and a ton of other foods. I’m fine with this as an ingredient as long as it is not High-fructose corn syrup.

Nitrates/Nitrites - These are used to kill off botulism spores in your meat. As you smoke or slow-cook meat, you are creating the perfect temperature and humidity range for the growth of these spores, and without a Nitrite based cure, you could quickly have spoiled meat. Nitrates break down into nitrites which then break down into nitric oxide, so for slower cures, a mix of nitrates and nitrites is used to provide nitrites right away and a source for them later during the curing process.

MSG - Mono Sodium Glutamate is used as a flavor enhancer to provide a fresher taste or enhance an already present flavor. Some people do have a negative reaction to this. However, it is not as common as it is made out to be.

Hydrolyzed Protein - Used as a flavor enhancer in the meat industry.

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