Smooth acid in pepperoni

[salmonmaster]

The smooth acid, like Jonathon said, is amazing! This was the exact taste I was looking for, wife love’s it too. Has a tang, but different kinda tang than straight citric acid, and not over powering. Added a lot of flavor to pepperoni. I’m going to be ordering a bunch more.

Pepperoni came out good this time, a lot better than my last attempt. Pretty much zero smeared fat, or fat out. Casings with a few small wrinkles, but turned out good. Keeped the meat VERY cold, and didn’t get lazy about it this time. Thanks to all, and your advice.
Meat block
6 pounds meat
50% deer burger- 80/20 beef fat 1/8 grind
50% pork butt, fat cap removed, ground separately thru 8mm. Plate once
8 tbls seasoning
1 1/2 tsp.sure cure
9 tbls soya protein
59.5 grams smooth acid
7oz. Beet juice
Mixed spice, cure, and beet juice for 4 min., then added ground pork, another 4 min., then added pork fat and soya protien, mixed another 1 minute, then added smooth acid, 1 more minute mixing. Into stuffer, from stuffer, into smoker. Added beet juice instead of water to try to get a little more red in pepperoni, I THINK it MIGHT have made it a little red-er, don’t have anything to compare it to. Should have done some with, and without juice just to see.
Smoker
120° 1 hour ,no smoke, drying, vent open
125° 2 hours, smoke, vent closed, added sponge
140° 1 hour, smoke, vent closed
155° 2 hours, smoke, vent closed
165° 1hour, pulled at 135°, put in sous vide at 150° for 15 min. Then up to 158 till meat hit 150°, then set sous vide for 154 for 1 hour to let smooth acid do it’s thing. Into cold water for half hour, pulled at 80° from water, hung- bloomed for 2 hours and into fridge. It’s nice and firm, can cut it very thin, has a good texture, over all I’m pleased. Seasoning was a little weak. Just one of those seasoning off the shelf at big box sporting goods store. Gotta look around on that. Here’s a side note.
I usually mix the meat by hand, this time I used this potatoe masher. It worked REAL good, for me anyway. This is just a small one handed one, ordered a big 2 handed one off the enterweb for 7 bucks. It didn’t smash the meat like my fingers do, it mixed it very well, a lot less effort, didn’t get the meat warm, it just worked. Did the final 2 minutes mixing by hand, but the rest with this thing.

[bocephus]

salmonmaster Glad the second time around turned out good, thanks for the tip on the potato masher,

[Denny O]

salmonmaster said in Smooth acid in pepperoni:

8 tbls seasoning and 7oz. Beet juice, what did you use?

[salmonmaster]

bocephus I think it’s has to be that kind too, not the flatter kind, but this bent wire looking thing. It went thru the meat quite easy, and I got good protein extraction, good bind. Their only a couple bucks, nothing ventured, nothing gained

[calldoctoday]

salmonmaster They look real good. That is a good idea for your liquid base. I end up adding more Paprika to mine & some smoked paprika too, but have never got it like the good ones from the store yet.

[salmonmaster]

Denny O the seasoning was from hi countr×, a pepperoni snack stick mix, and the beet juice was just out of a can of sliced beets from store.

[Denny O]

salmonmaster If you are mixing a large amount of meat in a 5 gal bucket, use a 2 handed drywall mixer!
Wal-Board

[salmonmaster]

calldoctoday the beet juice from store was red, but the beet juice from my homemade pickled beets is really RED. Like I said, not sure if it made a difference, it has a reddish color. I think if I do it again I’ll get some fresh beets and cook them off and get some real red color.

[salmonmaster]

Denny O I was thinking about that too, but I had this on hand and decided to give it a go, and it worked surprising well

[Dave in AZ]

salmonmaster real nice job, great writeup with good details on process! This is the kind of post that really helps the next person, much appreciated!

I also LOVE that you like the smooth acid blend. I kept harping on it for 6 months, and Walton’s came through and bought some! So I really hope others discover it like you and Jonathan have, and they are able to keep carrying it as a profitable product. It is a real improvement IMO.

Congrats!
P.s. for color. If you add some Sodium Erythorbate, or 1 tablet of crushed vitamin C per kg meat, you will get more color and it will be fixed better, as well as cure acceleration. In your described process, it will likely give a bit more cure and color, and protect against oxidation later, all good. And of course a mild paprika adds the classic color.
I’m impressed with your nice writeup

[salmonmaster]

Dave in AZ thanks for your kind words, much appreciated . Here’s maybe some kind of comparison.

Top picture is supreme pizza sausage made last week or so. 50% elk, 50% pork butt. The bottom picture is pepperoni, just made. 50% deer, 50% pork butt. If you put the deer and elk burger side by side, their pretty much identical. The grinds are a little defferent, but that shouldn’t matter much. The sous vide and smoking process were near identical. So to me, the three major differences would be, seasoning,beet juice, and smooth acid. The pizza seasoning is kind of a brownish color, the pepperoni seasoning was kind of a brownish red color, not really too red, you wouldn’t think enough to make that big of difference. Now the beet juice was red, not REALLY RED, just red. Now the smooth acid. Looking at Jonathons summer sausage with smooth acid, and a nice pink color, and my pepperoni with a pinkish red color, I think its the smooth acid giving it most of it’s color. My meat block had more red meat than Jonathons did too which could have made it a little darker.

[Denny O]

salmonmaster Thankx, I have a package in my drawer, I made snack sticks out of it 2 years ago.

[tarp]

Yup. nice job and post. I guess I’m still thinking about this “smooth acid”, as I’m going to be making some pepperoni very soon. Think using the beet juice might be a good ideal. What does the smooth acid do for the finished product? Guessing there is no flavor change.

[tarp]

I see the smooth acid still gives product a tang and an accelerator , I’m not looking for a tang as my family is not not fond of it,and sometimes going straight to cooking makes for a longer day. will have to study this more.
Gland your turned out the way you wanted.

[Grimpuppy]

Nice job. Glad everything worked out for you this time.

[salmonmaster]

tarp I don’t think it changed the actual flavor of the product, it just enhance it. It gave it the tang that a lot of cured sausages, and pepperoni are suppose to have. When I first started reading about the acidic tang in pepperoni, and sausages I wasn’t sure what people were talking about, so I went to the store and bought me some pepperoni and dry cured salami and tasted it. The pepperoni said it had citric acid in the ingredients, the salami had a lactic acid starter added. After tasting the tang in the pepperoni and salami, thats the taste that my sausages were suppose to have, to make them taste real good. The smooth acid made it taste like a store bought product, I don’t think I will make another cured sausage without it. As far as what it did for final product, I THINK lt gave the pepperoni a more cured color, and maybe made it firmer.

[salmonmaster]

Grimpuppy thanks, and thanks for the help on the last project.

[tarp]

salmonmaster
One more thing , can I hold my product overnight without worry that it could be changed somewhat by the cure accelerator if it breaks loose and starts working ? I never try to do it all in one day it’s just to much for me. I’m starting to be convinced that this less tang might be OK compared to ECA, which we don’t care far.
Thanks

[salmonmaster]

tarp some of the guy’s on here have said they hold it over night without a problem, I believe the official rule is mix, stuff, then smoke right away. And I agree, doing it all in one day is quite a chore. What I did was grind my meat, put it in the refer. With no seasoning, or anything, And got everything else ready, pre measured ingredients etc. And mixed, and stuffed and smoked the next day. I would say if your going to try to hold it over night, just be real gentle when you mix in the smooth acid to try not to break the coating.

[Dave in AZ]

tarp said in Smooth acid in pepperoni:

salmonmaster
One more thing , can I hold my product overnight without worry that it could be changed somewhat by the cure accelerator if it breaks loose and starts working ? I never try to do it all in one day it’s just to much for me. I’m starting to be convinced that this less tang might be OK compared to ECA, which we don’t care far.
Thanks

tarp, salmon’s plan above is decent for timing. Don’t think of ECA or this smooth acid ECA/Encapsulated Lactic Acid blend as cure accelerators… that is just incidental to them being acids, and the fact that acid leaks a lot from the palm oil encapsulation. It is that leaking acid you’re worried about. It can make your texture crumbly. Of course it is EXACTLY why the acid was Encapsulated to begin with, so you can carefully mix and quickly cook BEFORE the acid crumblifies your meat!

So putting a lot of mental effort into figuring out how you can leave the acid sit on your meat overnight, increasing the risk that it was specifically engineered to reduce, is kinda at-odds with using it in the first place. We already know the encapsulation breaks easy, melts, and leaks, which is why we are so careful mixing, and why the stuff acts as an accelerator also.

If you have to put a time delay in there, best thing is to leave meat overnight without acid mixed in. Next day, add a bit of water to the acid powder so it can be uniformly spread and mixed, and also because your meat will have set up and need it. Spread acid evenly, mix lightly with hands. Stuff and cook.

Lastly, a few folks HAVE left it sit overnight mixed in and said they didn’t see a texture loss. Maybe it was mrobisr. So it may work… but not a “best practice” if you can avoid.

Hope that is helpful! I think you would like this more mellow tang, and can figure out a waybto add it to your process