a little confused on cure accelerators

[DeerSlayer]

a little confused on cure accelerators
If I am making a batch of say Lebanon bologna or snack sticks
would I use Sure Cure and Sodium Erythorbate and Encapsulated Citric Acid
or is it sure cure and ONE of the others …
is there harm to be done using both Sodium Erythorbate and Encapsulated Citric Acid together

tried using sure cure and smoked meat stabilizer on a snack stick recipe and was not happy with end result
meat lost most of the seasoning taste and turned gray . same seasoning just using sure cure
was more flavorful and nice red color

[blackbetty61]

DeerSlayer
I asked the same question. If you look at my thread @johnathon and lamurscrappy answered some questions I had

[DeerSlayer]

Ok i’m new to the site. Will look around
Thanks

[blackbetty61]

DeerSlayer
Me too, (to asking questions) but after looking through some threads there’s a ton of excellent info here

[blackbetty61]

DeerSlayer
It shouldn’t be to hard to find I posted it a few days ago

[daveomak]

Cure accelerator is used by commercial processors… It is used in place of letting the meat rest in the refer, while the cure does it’s job and flavors mingle with the meat… It converts nitrite to nitric oxide to speed up the curing process due to lack of space for conventional curing practice…
As home processors, it is my belief to not speed up anything when making home sausage… time is your friend… depth of flavor comes with the dehydration process… dry aging like a good steak…
IMO, if you are in a hurry, buy the krap sausage they sell in the store… you don’t know what’s in it… could be any part of any animal… ears, nose, skin, thymus… anything that fits into the USDA parameters…

[Jonathon]

DeerSlayer Something happened when you used the smoked meat stabilizer as there is no reason it should have negatively affected the color of the meat. Like daveomak says, extra time can add depth of flavor and depending on how sensitive your pallet is you might notice a difference when using a cure accelerator (if you use Citric Acid that you will absolutely taste a difference) but the meat should turn brownish grey before smoking but give you a nice red finished product after smoking.

Can you give me a little more information on your process when you used the Smoked Meat Stabilizer?

[DeerSlayer]

daveomak and Jonathon thanks for the responses .
most of my supplies come from Waltons been pleased with the service and products so far
love the Lebanon bologna and the Pepperoni spice mixes
I have done several batches using the sure cure and citric acid (and all turned out well) so yes I am familiar with the tangy added taste using ECA
as for the problem sticks some info

My snack stick recipe
3 lbs pork butt 1 lbs of deer (gives me approx. 30% fat)
16oz ice water
1tsp insta-cure
.32 oz of smoked meat stabilizer (8oz to 100 lbs per bag instructions) so .08 x 4 =.32 Please check my math on this
4tsp salt
1TBS brown sugar
1tsp ground mustard
2tsp whole mustard seed
1tsp coarse ground black pepper - add more if you like pepper taste
2tsp white ground pepper - substitute with black pepper if you dont have this
1TBS Paprika
1tsp onion powder - more or less to taste
1tsp garlic powder - more or less to taste

If you like it hot add the following
2TBS crushed red pepper
2TBS ground cayenne pepper - more or less to taste

mix all spices and cure#1 and 16oz of ice cold water into ground beef until mixed through.
Stuff in casings
place into smoker at125 degrees DOOR OPEN, NO smoke for one hour to dry casings,
then 140 DOOR Closed add smoke for 1hr ,
then 150 for one hr with smoke then raise heat to 180 until an internal temp of 152 to 160 degrees,
place into ice cold water for 20 minutes
then bloom sticks at room temperature for 2 hrs
Then refrigerate in a brown paper bag

[DeerSlayer]

DeerSlayer said in a little confused on cure accelerators:

daveomak and Jonathon thanks for the responses .
most of my supplies come from Waltons been pleased with the service and products so far
love the Lebanon bologna and the Pepperoni spice mixes
I have done several batches using the sure cure and citric acid (and all turned out well) so yes I am familiar with the tangy added taste using ECA
as for the problem sticks some info
My snack stick recipe
3 lbs pork butt 1 lbs of deer (gives me approx. 30% fat)
16oz ice water
.8 tsp insta-cure
.32 oz of smoked meat stabilizer (8oz to 100 lbs per bag instructions) so .08 x 4 =.32 Please check my math on this
4tsp salt
1TBS brown sugar
1tsp ground mustard
2tsp whole mustard seed
1tsp coarse ground black pepper - add more if you like pepper taste
2tsp white ground pepper - substitute with black pepper if you dont have this
1TBS Paprika
1tsp onion powder - more or less to taste
1tsp garlic powder - more or less to taste
If you like it hot add the following
2TBS crushed red pepper
2TBS ground cayenne pepper - more or less to taste
mix all spices and cure#1 and 16oz of ice cold water into ground beef until mixed through.
Stuff in casings
place into smoker at125 degrees DOOR OPEN, NO smoke for one hour to dry casings,
then 140 DOOR Closed add smoke for 1hr ,
then 150 for one hr with smoke then raise heat to 180 until an internal temp of 160 degrees,
place into ice cold water for 20 minutes
then bloom sticks at room temperature for 2 hrs
Then refrigerate in a brown paper bag

[DeerSlayer]

Just wanted to give an update … I switched up to a meat mix of 50% deer 50% pork butt . Eliminated the liquid smoke
now grinding twice , mixing spices and sure cure.
refrigerate for approx. 6 hrs
then stuff in casings and refrigerate overnight
in the morning smoke according to waltons schedule
last 2 batches have come out awesome
many thanks

[lamurscrappy]

DeerSlayer i guess i never replied to this thread even though i was mentioned! Sorry about that!
Glad things are turning out great! Just an FYI you could probably just stuff right away into casings, it will make it much eaiser for you then after 6 hours then resting again! Also im a huge supporter of sodium erthorbate as an accelerator. It will make your snack sticks look better and last longer!

[Jonathon]

DeerSlayer Yes, absolutely stuff first and then let rest, you can blow out the gears on a stuffer if your meat rests first and then gets set up before stuffing. Also DeerSlayer the only thing I will say about Sodium Erythorbate is that if you are doing small batches you need a HYPER ACCURATE scale because you use 7/8 (.875) of an ounce for 100 lb of meat, so if you are doing a 10 lb batch that is .0875 of an oz of sodium erythorbate and that is a tiny amount for most home scales to measure.

[daveomak]

The sodium erthorbate speeds up the action of the nitrite… Without it, your sticks will take about 12 hours to do what the erthorbate does in one hour…
I have no idea what the “smoked meat stabilizer” does… I’d try a batch without it… I’ve never thought of using it… It’s probably designed for commercial use…
Erthorbate should only be used in a liquid injection, like ham… not in ground meat…

[Joe Hell]

Jonathon Reloading scales might work.

[lamurscrappy]

Jonathon so generally speaking 1 tsp does 10lbs and 1/2 tsp does 5lbs. That would be an easier way to measure it out for small batches.

[DeerSlayer]

lamurscrappy Google says .0875 equals 1/2 teaspoon…so 1/ teaspoon for 10 lbs and 1/4 teaspoon for 5 lbs
someone else please check it and post back

[lamurscrappy]

This post is deleted!

[blackbetty61]

DeerSlayer 7/8 of an ounce is 24.81grams for 100lb so divide by 4= 6.2025 grams for 25lb divide by 5= 1.2405 grams for 5lb if my math is right, so then .2481 grams per lb

[blackbetty61]

DeerSlayer guessing you’ll have to use a grams scale

[blackbetty61]

DeerSlayer yes that’s what I got too 1/4 teaspoon for 5lb and 1/2 teaspoon for 10lb. I thought about using a gram scale but I remembered my scale only does whole numbers for grams