I am having a problem with my fresh breakfast sausage. I get great protein extraction but when I stuff into a poly bag to freeze, if it’s not eaten in about 6 months it develops and off flavor, like it’s old or border line bad. Has anyone ran into this before or know how to fix this problem with perhaps and additive?
davesdeer well the first thing I would say is that you do not need protein extraction for a fresh breakfast sausage. Bulk breakfast sausage stuffed in a poly meat mag should last at least a year or more before the flavor would start to change. I do not add any additives to my breakfast sausage. What flavor and brand of seasoning are you using?
davesdeer the first question that comes to mind for me is What kind of freezer are you using and where is it stored in there? If you have a newer upright, frostfree model than you might be stacking the meat chubs along the back wall. These types of freezers have a heating element and periodically heat up to melt frost that accumulates on the coil. To get best longevity, use a chest type freezer.
We have a few freezers, one upright which has mostly veggies and more frequently used meat items. One large chest freezer with the bigger things like hams, whole turkeys, etc. One small chest freezer which has freezer bags of ground pork, brat links, and brat patties. One more very small (treasure) chest which has extra pork fat, and bacons.
davesdeer how much are you making at a time? Are you spreading them out well in your freezer? Chub bags take some time to freeze and can stay unfrozen in the center for days if all stacked together. That would be my first thought, that it isn’t freezing quite fast enough due to poor air circulation
Ridley Acres you got to be the only guy with more freezers than me
Tex_77 I use Walton’s breakfast seasoning gs and I don’t add anything extra just thinking about what this problem could be
Deepwoodsbutcher that could be the problem because if I vac seal then they are fine
davesdeer
Which breakfast sausage seasoning? Waltons has 16, some with quite different ingredients.
Edit… I see you added some more info that is kinda critical, the fact vacuum sealing solves issue. So, something is being oxidized. In addition to ingredients, does it look like it has gotten freezer burn, or have ice crystals come out of sausage onto bag?
Without more info, your problem is already kinda solved… the poly bag is letting sausage oxidize, just like happens to any poorly sealed meat in freezer. Vacuum seal it, done deal 
Thx
gus4416 I have 4 also, lol.
mrobisr I only have 3
gus4416 Mine are smaller though, we had a really large one that went out and we lost a whole hog and lamb and since then I figure that with 4 smaller ones if one goes out I will only lose 25% of my food.
gus4416 The kind of freezers I use are way cheaper than what they hold. Every time I get a bunch of beef I think I’m going to end up buying a third one. Been able to manage without it. Worth the money if you got the product to put in it though.
davesdeer Everything in my 2 ref/freezer combos and the 2 chest deep freezers is vac sealed.
Dave in AZ I use the holy seasoning. I don’t add anything but the seasonings and water. It is possible that it’s not freezing fast enough. I’m gonna try a few experiments and see
Dave in AZ also I am not noticing any type of freezer burn on the meat
davesdeer hope it is a simple fix like that
davesdeer not sure if it is the same issue but here is my experience. I had the same issue with my dehydrated ground jerky strips. I assumed it was due to poor process and ingredients. I haven’t tried it since I found Walton’s. The bacon I have done from my processor will turn funky if they are not put in vacuum sealed packages. So basically even though being frozen if air gets to them it will have a reaction.
You can try food-grade rosemary extract for an antioxidant. They use that in commercial frozen breakfast sausage chubs to improve shelf life, maybe around 300 ppm in the formula. I did a quick check on the internet & it’s available. Real roughly, if a 10 lb batch with everything mixed in weighs 13 lbs, 300 ppm would be 13 x 0.000300 = .0039 lbs (1.76 grams). If it’s a 5% solution (one I saw), it would be about 35 grams or 0.08 lbs. Some are oil-soluble, but some are water soluble and if you had one of those, you could mix it in a little more water to help get it spread out in a batch. At that level, you shouldn’t taste any rosemary.
TimC 0 interesting and good calculations! Thx
From my experience the inclusion rate of rosemary is .05-.1% and unless you love rosemary stick with the very bottom of the scale. If you are like me and want the minimum of rosemary stick with tocopherol better known as vitamin E oil. You can go with the minimum of rosemary extract and maximize the vit E or even go with straight vit E. Whatever antioxidants you add you do not want to exceed .12% according to the USDA. Grape extract and oregano are also very good antioxidants, so depending on your product you can choose accordingly.
Visit waltons.com to find everything for meat processing.
Walton's - Everything But The Meat!
