ring bologna seasoning for Hot dog ?

[Garry Tarpley]

Because the excalibur ring bologna season  doesn't have sodium erythorbate  in it and I don't have it on hand could  it still be used in the  making of beef hotdogs and the end  product  hold on to a pink color?

[Dave in AZ]

Garry,
I think you’re asking if you can use the ring balogna seasoning for hotdogs, without adding sodium erythorbate, and keep good color?

Why not use ascorbic acid, plain old vitamin C? Stanley Marianski seems to indicate it is a superior accelerant to sodium erythorbate, can’tfind the phrase where I got that impression though. Most of his recipes that or text that indicate use of an accelerant, he says to just crush up a vitamin c tablet and add. Here is a cut and paste for you:
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Curing accelerators speed up color formation. These substances accelerate the reaction of sodium nitrite with meat’s myoglobin resulting in the development of the red color. Antioxidants prolong the products shelf life by preventing fat rancidity and color changes that are caused by exposure in oxygen in the air. They also stabilize color in the finished products and act as antioxidants. Curing accelerators are of little use in air dried products as by increasing nitrite reaction they soon deplete its amount. As a result less nitrite is available for long time curing. The best known cure accelerators are: Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) - should not be added with sodium nitrite at the same time as they react violently creating fumes. Therefore, ascorbic acid should be added last. A vitamin C tablet may be pulverized and applied to meat. It is usually applied at 0.1%. Sodium ascorbate - sodium salt of ascorbic acid. Sodium erythorbate (isoascorbate) - salt of erythorbic acid. Ascorbate is added at 0.4 - 0.6 g per kilogram of total mass, ascorbate or erythorbate are added at 0.5 - 0.7 g per kilogram of total mass. Curing accelerators are of little use in air dried products as by increasing nitrite reaction they deplete its amount. As a result less nitrite is available for long time curing.

I went to 3 supermarkets, Frys, Safeway, Commissary, and read the ingredients on every single sausage package… was just doing a survey on what various commercial producers were using. More than half, maybe 60%, used vitamin C. Some used both. Maybe 30% used just the erythorbate. This was all smoked stuff of course.

I used vitamin C recently on polish smoked sausage, and venison hunter smoked brats. After 30 min at 120f drying in my oven, I cut into the ends of a few to check cure status, and all the meat was that nice pink, totally color fixed. They held great color after smoke and cook and freeze. I posted some pics of cross section on the Bragging Board yesterday.

Application of 0.1% is a thousandth. That means 1 g per 1 kg of meat. Vitamin C tablets are commonly supplied as 1000mg tablets, I’m looking at my 2 bottles right now. So 1000 milligrams = 1 gram, which is the correct amount for 1kg of meat, super easy! Just crush up 1 vitamin C tablet per 2.2 lbs of meat, mix with a bit of water to help disperse evenly, and add to your meat mix near after you’ve already nicely dispersed the cure#1, I did it after 4 min mixing or so. Then mixed it for another 5 min, and stuffed.

Worked great, and who can complain about getting some vitamin C in their hot dog!

[Garry Tarpley]

Thanks for reinforcing what I thought was right. I just had read the similar info. Going to give it a try next week.
Good info. Thanks for input

[samspade]

Very interesting read. The tablets would make easier measuring.

[zbigjeff]

Dave in AZ Very nice recap of the diff uses of products to attain the same end. Great job.

[cdavis]

Dave in AZ great post thanks for sharing

[GWG8541]

Dave in AZ interesting post. Thanks for sharing