How am I doing so far?

bocephus

PaPaSmokes They Look very good. The only way I know to counteract the salt is use less package seasoning or look and see if you can find low sodium. If you use less, you can add your own seasonings to enhance the package seasoning.

processhead

PaPaSmokes said in How am I doing so far?:

It’s a bit salty for my taste but the family ate them up. My question is…is there anything you can add to counteract the saltiness besides developing your own ingredients? !

Add more meat or less seasoning. Those are about your only options.
They look great.

PapaSop

PaPaSmokes
Look great. Like the “mouth feel” analyses.

twilliams

PaPaSmokes they are salty because you added cure to them, as if I recall you did not smoke these, you left them as a fresh bratwurst, correct?

Dave in AZ

twilliams said in How am I doing so far?:

PaPaSmokes they are salty because you added cure to them, as if I recall you did not smoke these, you left them as a fresh bratwurst, correct?

PaPaSmokes , I think twilliams is onto it here. Normal cure1 use is 2.5g/1000g meat, so 0.25%. It is 93.75% salt, so if your brat was 1.8% salt, the cure bumps it to 2.04%, which would taste salty. Normal range is usually 1.7 to 1.9%, some folks less.

Oh, by the way, they look great!! Glad you had some victory! And I don’t think your salt is an error, as Johnsonville cheddar brats are 2.13% salt, and I love those!

Denny O

Dave maybe this answers the question? I still think he needed cure to stay safe because he was smoking for near 4 hours and looking like he was not going to stay within the safety net (To keep novices close to safe)

Dave in AZ said in How am I doing so far?:

twilliams said in How am I doing so far?:

PaPaSmokes they are salty because you added cure to them, as if I recall you did not smoke these, you left them as a fresh bratwurst, correct?

PaPaSmokes , I think twilliams is onto it here. Normal cure1 use is 2.5g/1000g meat, so 0.25%. It is 93.75% salt, so if your brat was 1.8% salt, the cure bumps it to 2.04%, which would taste salty. Normal range is usually 1.7 to 1.9%, some folks less.

Oh, by the way, they look great!! Glad you had some victory! And I don’t think your salt is an error, as Johnsonville cheddar brats are 2.13% salt, and I love those!

PaPaSmokes said in How am I doing so far?:

Denny O it went in the smoker at 35° and didn’t get above 140° for nearly 3 hours or more.

bocephus

PapaSop Should always reference Jonathon when talking about mouth feel.

PaPaSmokes

twilliams the cure was in the mix from PS seasonings all pre mixed.

PaPaSmokes

@Denny- my other taste testers say it tasted great and no saltiness to them. Maybe it’s just me as I do not use much salt myself.

PaPaSmokes

Denny O to keep novices… I assume the time factors are more subjective. Although all the big sausage guys I follow say the same thing. Makes me wonder about the real tone factors. I, too am a lifer in the construction world as a commercial builder and General contractor for over 40 years. I’m wanting this new bbq business to be my retirement years spending money…

twilliams

Denny O there is two different topics going on in this thread. The one you responded to is where he added the cure to a different batch of sausage to smoke, but then after the first batch goof up got a little gun shy and decided to keep them as fresh bratwurst instead of smoking them into sausage.

twilliams

PaPaSmokes I do not believe so, all seasoning mixes that are formulated to be a smoked sausage come with a separate cure packet to my knowledge. Perhaps you bought seasoning that are intended to be a fresh bratwurst. I have bought PS Seasonings, Excalibur Seasonings, and other store bought brands, they all come with a separate cure packet if it is designed to be cured and smoked. If you want to use a fresh meat seasoning flavor but decide you want to smoke then you would have to add cure yourself since it would not come with it. I know the ingredients may say it has cure in it but it is not the four or proper amount of cure that you would need to go through a smoking cycle.

PaPaSmokes

twilliams you are absolutely right, the 12.5 lbs i did in the cheesy brats did not have cure as the packet was just their brat flavoring, so my sense of just freezing and immediately cooking was right. so back to the point of salinity, the only thing i can do is either use less prepackaged spices, thus taking out other flavor too, or add more meat. luckily, im told its just me as a couple of other taste testers we use as our guinea pigs say its great.

PaPaSmokes

twilliams you did raise my curiosity with the cure that comes in the mixes from PS and Bearded Butchers. you say its not enough cure to meet the stepped slow smoking method? how do you tell this and what can one do if this is true? i wonder why they dont put enough in the mix to send.

Dave in AZ

PaPaSmokes
As twilliams said, cure1 seems to always be a separate packet. Why? Because just like you, people don’t use their seasonings in the same way, nor always as intended.

This darn cure thing can be really confusing, as you’re finding out… do I use it, when, how much, is water weight included, etc. So I’m going to write a few sentences here that I hope will help clarify it for you, and be helpful

You should always read the ingredients to understand if nitrite is included, it is required to be on food labels.
Cure1 is something you MUST understand correct amount usage of, and add yourself for whatever you are doing. Those seasonings you used, I looked them up on BB a few days ago, are bratwurst seasonings… so intended for FRESH sausage, unsmoked, so no cure required.

Buy yourself a pound or so of cure1 (93.75% salt, 6.25% NaNO2, pink dye). Add as needed to comply with max allowed amounts:

156ppm for sausage, which is 2.5g/kg meat; or 1oz per 25lbs meat; or 0.25% of meat and water weight, however you want to express it.
120ppm for bacon, 1.9g/kg meat and water.
Higher amounts for dry-rubbed Country Ham style curing, not in a bag, and exposed to air, so almost never seen in home production. Does not apply for equilibrium curing inside a sealed bag according to FSIS.

Waltons includes a bag of cure1 in an orange packet, for mixes intended to be smoked, like kielbasa, summer sausage, etc. But not for bratwurst seasonings. They call it SureCure, a branding name, but it is same cure1 i.e. prague1 mixture.

P.s. eeeeveryone has forgotten to add their cure1 at some point. Last time I did it, I squeezed all the meat out of my sausage chubb, like 4"×24", and mixed cure1 with some water to disperse, mixed it in, and restuffed… HUGE mess lol!

twilliams

PaPaSmokes here is what you bought from the one company, I will look up the other but I guarantee it’s gonna be the same concept. These are “FRESH” bratwurst seasonings. You typically do not smoke your finished product with this style of seasoning. So as you see, this seasoning did not come with the 1 oz cure packet due for the simple fact that it is designed to be made into “FRESH” bratwurst, not cured and smoked.

PaPaSmokes

So when a product labeled maple cure says in the ingredients that it has nitrite in it then it’s the correct amount for the mix you need for a given poundage of meat.

PaPaSmokes

If I wanted to take some of the fresh best recipes and do the steppes Smoke plan then is it ok to add the right amount of cure and continue on? Are their recipes that are not advised to add cure snd slow smoke?

PaPaSmokes

Dave in AZ I appreciate the post, I have cure on hand for all the bacon I sell. I am going to look into this eco cure I just learned of.

processhead

PaPaSmokes Your questions about specific seasonings and curing might be best directed to the manufacturer or their authorized distributor.
They will have the most authoritative information on their specific seasoning line and the various processing options that are available .
You might find someone here that has been there and done that, but I always prefer to go to the vendor for recommendations like that.