Sugars in Dry Cured Sausages

[STICKSTRING]

Hello to all,
I have been reading and learning day in and day out trying to gather as much information on how to assemble my own ingredients for dry cured sausages.

The sugars are where I get confused. I know how sugar will help drop the PH levels during fermentation to a stable and safe sausage. But why do I see so many recipes with such a wide range of sugar amounts in different forms of "sugar"?

I would like to create my own cacciatori style salami. I feel confident in my cure and salt ratio's although am having a hard time deciding on the sugar.

I would like a traditional slow fermented sausage using T-SPX

Salt- 2.5%
Cure#2- .25%
Glucose (dextrose)- .3%

These are the numbers I have read, learned and felt they will produce a safe sausage fermented at 68-70F for 72hrs.

Why do I read recipes which also contain additional sugar in the recipe? Is that simply for flavor? or is it added for additional safety (ph)?

Thank you
Nick-

[redzed]

Hi Nick,

Your proportions for a mild traditional salami look OK. You also might want to consider using sucrose instead of dextrose, since it acts slower in dropping the pH. Or you could go with 2g dextrose and 2g sucrose per 1kg.

The mystery of the sugars is unravelled in Stanley Marianski's book The Art of making Fermented Sausages. Take a look at pages 75-79. And it's a good textbook to have around.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=3uzSvCd ... ar&f=false

[STICKSTRING]

Thank you redzed,
I do have Stans book, infact I have all of his books, and have read it, and although I do understand u guess it still raised questions.

The sugar ratio you suggested above (correct me if I'm wrong for learning purposes) is at .4%, .2 percent dextrose for fast acidification and ph drop, then sucrose is slower, and will allow the oh to stay where it needs to be longer Into the fermenting and drying phase as the sausages are losing their water content.

I read that the more sugar that is added the more "tangy" or "acidic" the final outcome of the dry sausage will be. Knowing I will be using T-spx which I understand is used for less "tangy" dry sausages, will adding the extra .1% make a difference with the end result? Or would using 2g dextrose and 1g sucrose per 1kg be a better option leaving me with .3% total sugar instead of .4%

Thank you for helping me, I am just trying to fully understand each ingredient so I can safely make my own recipes.

[Bob K]

The sugars are where I get confused. I know how sugar will help drop the PH levels during fermentation to a stable and safe sausage. But why do I see so many recipes with such a wide range of sugar amounts in different forms of "sugar"?

I would like to create my own cacciatori style salami. I feel confident in my cure and salt ratio's although am having a hard time deciding on the sugar.

Yea it gets kind of confusing but some food for thought:

Different recipes use different cultures...all like dextrose some like T-SPX will work with both dextrose and sucrose. If you were supplied with the Product data sheet with the culture it will list which sugars will work best, they are also available on the Chr Hansen website.


Think of dextrose as the fast fermenting sugar (quick Ph drop)and Sucrose for the long haul.

Temp will affect Ph drop a lot faster than sugar amount.

For an in depth explanation see the book The Art of making Fermented Sausages. As recommended by Redzed...much more detail than can be included here!

[Bob K]

Knowing I will be using T-spx which I understand is used for less "tangy" dry sausages, will adding the extra .1% make a difference with the end result? Or would using 2g dextrose and 1g sucrose per 1kg be a better option leaving me with .3% total sugar instead of .4%

As long as you are keeping your fermentation temps in the 68-74f range and using T-SPX
if your total sugar amount is .7% or below you will not have a problem with the salami being tangy.

[STICKSTRING]

Thank you bob,
I guess this leads me to my (hopefully) last question. What makes someone choose .3% or .5% or .7% for a particular dry sausage? For instance, I read in Stans book that .3% sucrose with tspx is suffice for a traditional italian style salami. I also understand adding dextrose and sucrose will both aid in keeping the sausage at stable levels longer. But what are the reasons behind knowing when to add .4% versus .3%, or even .7%?

The reason I am asking this is because a lot of our locals make a venison salamenti which turns out great. They use "less then by the book" methods for producing these traditional italian salami's. I would like to create my own personal version but I would like to fully understand when and why to add .4% versus .6% sugar to whichever recipe I come up with. Does the meat, and spices affect this sugar percentage? Or is it strictly the culture being used? If I decide to stick with T-spx, will .4% @ 2g dextrose and 2g sucrose per 1kg always give me a safe reliable dry sausage?

I have seen recipes by the same producer using different percentages of sugar while using the same culture (t-spx). So I guess this leads me back to the same question. Why did he choose to use different amounts of sugar when the culture, salt %, and amount of meat are the same?

Thank you again, and I hope these questions are not "stupid". I just hope to fully understand before I begin "trying" to make these dry fermented sausages.

[Bob K]

Nick-

I hope these questions are not "stupid". I just hope to fully understand before I begin "trying" to make these dry fermented sausages.

Your questions are not "stupid" but they sure get complicated as there are so many variables!

Your best bet is to start with a recipe from a trusted source and go on from there.

If you have a recipe you want to try - post it, and folks here will do their best to point out if anything is out of line.

If you have never made fermented sausage before there is a learning curve. I have had a lot more screwups than I care to admit.



Are you all set up with equipment ad ready to go?

[STICKSTRING]

Bob,
Yes I am equipped and ready to go.

http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... ami-milano

http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... cacciatore

These two recipes contain the exact same amount of T-spx, everything seems to be the same except for the amount of sugar (and obviously spices). Now with everything I have learned from reading stan's book, If I had to guess why sucrose was added into the Milano recipe to make the total .5% I would have to guess that the casings are so much bigger, causing dry time to also be longer, and the extra sucrose breaking down slower ensures salami stays at safer PH level for the extended drying time.

The cacciatori being stuffed in smaller casings dry much quicker not needing to break down the slower sucrose, so simply .3% dextrose is suffice to ensure safe stable sausage while drying.

Am I on the right path with this?
The salamenti's I plan on making will be stuffed into smaller 40mm casings resulting in a small pocket siE salami like the cacciatori. So I would assume, .3% dextrose would be suffice, although adding .2% dextrose to quickly drop ph to stable level and then having an additional .2% sucrose as "extra insurance" during the drying process although not needed but helpful to maintain safe/stable PH levels during the drying process....

Am I way off or am I begining to understand

[Bob K]

Nick-
You are right on track....just don't try to overthink things. Try to follow a tested recipe

These two recipes contain the exact same amount of T-spx,

Also as far as cultures go.... feel free to add more than called for in the Marainski recipes. I would start with a minimum of 3 grams per 5-10 lbs (2-4 kg).

[STICKSTRING]

Bob,
Thank you. I have learned a lot today. I do plan on trying some tested known good recipes, but just like anything, someone can do all my homework for me, but come test day I will surely fail if I don't understand why and how each ingredient affects the outcome. Measuring ingredients and mixing meat is the easy part. I just wanted to understand WHY the ingredients were used and how they are important parts of the process. I do now have a better understanding.
Thank you

One last question, when you add a "pinch" of sucrose to the culture while its "waking up", does that sugar count as part of the sugar in your recipe? Or would that amount be useless to even consider?

[Bob K]

I just add the culture to water to activate it. A pinch of sugar won't make any difference in the recipe.

And I agree, about knowing the hows and whys

[redzed]

Nick, I really appreciate your attention to detail! As Bob mentioned, the temperature during the fermentation process is the most critical aspect and if you want that mild traditional flavour, don't let the pH fall below 5.2. We had a discussion on sugars in the fermentation process a while ago here and Igor Dunczyk our professional expert noted that you should not go over 5g of sugars per kg of meat if you don't want a sourly flavour.

And I know that many recipes are confusing with the amounts of sugars in fermenting but that might be because the authors like tangy or sour flavours. For example, Len Poli uses larger amounts of sugar even in the traditional Italian style salamis. I like many of his formulations but always reduce the sugars.

[STICKSTRING]

Redzed, thank you for your post

[Igor Duńczyk]

Hi Nick,

After having been absent quite some time from this entertaining and enjoyable forum I just wonder if you, now as almost one Month has passed since your last posting, got on with the job and in best case have some results and experiences to share with us?

Being absulutely on par with all of Bob´s and Chris´ advice on sugar dosage/blends etc. I just want to add that quality of raw material and proportions between fat and meat are also factors to take into consideration. The larger proportion of meat you use the more residue glycogen there may be present in the meat fibres which of course will also be metabolized by the starter culture.

To give you an example; I have customrs here in Croatia who produce a popular regional speciality where the meat/backfat ratio is 80/20 (sometimes even 90/10) and with a good quantity of paprika is added (usually 2%) and for this product only 0,1 to 0,15% dextrose is needed to bring pH down to 5,1 or 5,05 with a slow/traditional starter culture of the T-SPX type, as there is pleny of both glycogene in the meat as well as fermentable fruit sugar in the paprika.

For a standard salami with meat/fat proportions of 70/30 or thereabouts and with no excess amounts of paprika added I will surely stick to the 0,3% dextrose. Or the 0,2+0,2% dextrose/sugar blend as suggested by Chris.

For hog casings or 40 mm collagene casings 0,3% should be enough and I might even try with a 0,15+0,15% mix as long as fermentation temperature is kept within the safe 70 to 75 F range. When reducing the sugar amount it is important that at least the tempertature is high enough to allow the acidifying strain its needed activity.
The lower the temperature the slower the fermentation and even if this sounds quite compelling just remember that there may be competing indigenous psychrotrophic bacteria in the mince that may start joining the game and end up in a conflict with the otherwise sturdy Pediococcus pentosaeceus, and we don´t really want this to happen...