Smooth acid in pepperoni

[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

[salmonmaster]

Dave in AZ well said

[tarp]

Dave in AZ
Kinda of what I thought, the more info you get from all y’all is just helping all of us to be better at our projects. So Thanks everyone!!!
( all y’all cause there’s more than one ) lol

[cdavis]

salmonmaster man that pepperoni looks great congrats

[cdavis]

tarp said in Smooth acid in pepperoni:

Dave in AZ
Kinda of what I thought, the more info you get from all y’all is just helping all of us to be better at our projects. So Thanks everyone!!!
( all y’all cause there’s more than one ) lol

Well said. I feel the same way.

[salmonmaster]

cdavis thanks, it did turn out pretty good, needed more fennel, and paprika added. Already purchased the spices for the next go around with the pepperoni. Just received my box from waltons with some cotto salami mix, H summer sausage mix, and some sure gel. I’m fix’en to make up the two kinds of sausage, and some buckboard bacon in the next couple day’s. Its going to get busy very shortly.

[cdavis]

salmonmaster good luck on your meat ventures and share those pictures.

[salmonmaster]

cdavis I’m going to need a little luck! Up to my armpits in stuff, busy day. Real busy tommoro.

[cdavis]

salmonmaster wish I was there to help out but I bet you have it under control.

[salmonmaster]

cdavis control…maybe today seasoned up 8 lbs. Buckboard bacon, ground 10 pounds of pork, made 2-4 lb. Chubs, and 2-1 lb. Chubs of cotto salami, in refer. Tommoro mixing and stuffing 4 -1lb. H summer, and 10- 1/2 pounders with cheese, and smooth acid. And 10-1/2 lb. Cotto salami with cheese and smooth acid, into smoker with it all, then sous vide in two shifts. Now that I have it all written here, I’m tired just reading it.

[cdavis]

salmonmaster now I’m wore out. Man are you going to be busy