Encapsulated Citric Acid Needed?
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Planning on stuffing some Hawaiian snack sticks tonight (pork & pineapple) and smoking them tomorrow morning. It will most likely be about 8 hours between when I finishing stuffing them tonight and when I start the smoker in the morning. I know you normally would add encapsulated citric acid if going straight from stuffing to smoking but in my situation with an 8 hour delay what would you recommend? I will be using the normal cure with my maple seasoning tonight when I mix and stuff them.
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Hawkeye i would be safe and wait the full 12 hours holding period. Not sure if it needs to be from time it was put in fridge or time it was fully mixed with cure
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glen Regular Contributors Team Grey Sous Vide Canning Dry Cured Sausage Masterbuilt Power User Meat Hack Winner Veteran Kansas
Hawkeye; If you are asking whether ECA is OK in the stuffed sticks overnight, it is not recommended but I have done it a couple times in a pinch and it was fine
If you are asking if an 8 hour cure without ECA will give you the same twang, it wont -
Thanks guy! Should have clarified a couple things in my question but it has nothing to do with twang, just making sure the meat is safe for consumption after I’m done smoking. Normally I would either leave it in the fridge overnight (i.e 12 hours or more) or would just go with ECA and go immediately into smoker right after stuffing. Without going into all the details I really don’t have that option this weekend so my choice is either a) add the ECA with the cure and start smoking within 6-10 hours of when the cure and ECA are added to the pork or b) leave the ECA out. I’m planning on smoking about 100 pounds of sticks in the smoker so I’m thinking it will probably take me 3-4 hours just to get everything mixed and stuffed (i.e. thus the reason for the 6-10 hour range). Based on these additional details, would you recommend ECA or not?
