Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

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Indaswamp
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Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

Post by Indaswamp » Fri Aug 28, 2020 00:57

Gearing up for the Calabrian soppressata and Nduja tomorrow...

Getting the recipe formulated... I will be using the homemade pepper sauce I made last week with red ripe bell pepper and Calabrian pepper paste. But this poses the issue of how much dextrose I will need for fermentation since the peppers will add sugars to the meat paste. Been doing research and found that ripe red bell peppers contain 5-6g of carbs per 100g of peppers. Roughly half the carbs are fructose and glucose, but I do not know the percentage of glucose to fructose. Glucose (dextrose) is fermentable by the Flavor of italy starter culture I will be using, while fructose is not for the most part.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fo ... #nutrition

I have an Italian recipe that uses 400g. pepper paste per 1400g. meat paste. I may go with that. Any insights appreciate. Thanks in advance!
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Re: Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

Post by Indaswamp » Fri Aug 28, 2020 04:24

Update:
Got some info from a chef on another forum, thought I would post it here..

119g red ripe bell pepper contains 2.3g glucose and 2.7g fructose.

I won't need to add any dextrose to my Calabrian soppressata or the Nduja.
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Re: Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

Post by redzed » Fri Aug 28, 2020 06:53

Probably more than enough sugar in the paste to feed the bacteria. What does stand out in your recipe is the whopping proportion of the paste. 400g of paste combined with 1400g of meat? If the paste was dehydrated what would you have left? 40 grams, 50 grams of peppers? So you are adding 350 grams of water (probably part of that is also olive oil). The foundation of salami making is removing the moisture from the meat tissue in a controlled way, and not adding it. I would double check that recipe. Calabrese is often made with dried Calabrian peppers, and if a paste is used, 50g per kilogram is the max amount.
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Re: Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

Post by Indaswamp » Sat Aug 29, 2020 16:04

Thank you for the reply redzed. After much research into it, you are correct that red rip bell peppers have 90% water. I am new to salami making so I don't know what I don't know.....

Are you saying that 50g is the MAX. added moisture you should add into a kg. of meat for salami?
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Re: Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

Post by Indaswamp » Sat Aug 29, 2020 16:10

I added 900g. bell pepper paste to 5kg. of meat paste. I did achieve fermentation. When I checked the pH this morning it was 5.11...I used the Flavor of Italy culture. All pork mince- no beef. 19 hours fermentation @ 75*F.

How will that amount of pepper paste affect my salami? Take longer to dry? Will it affect and safety hurdles?

Again-thanks in advance, much appreciated.
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Re: Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

Post by Indaswamp » Sat Aug 29, 2020 17:27

Thinking on your post Redzed... I diluted the salt concentration when I added the pepper paste. I used 3% salt in the mix. I did reduce the paste down by simmering for about an hour to remove some water, but for the sake of calculations,assuming the pepper paste is all water, if I added 180g of water to the mix, then 3g divided by 1180g equals 2.54%.

I am somewhere above that level as far as salt goes, but less than 3%...
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Re: Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

Post by redzed » Sun Aug 30, 2020 17:45

Indaswamp wrote:
Sat Aug 29, 2020 16:10
I added 900g. bell pepper paste to 5kg.
You added way too much moisture to your salami batter. Essentially what you should have done is add 50g/kg of the calabrase pepper paste, and if you wanted to use your red bell peppers, the appropriate thing to do was to dry the peppers, grind them to a powder or flakes and then add them to the salami. What you did might work in a fresh sausage that you are going to throw on the grill, but not in a salami. The large amount of water in this instance will take a long time evaporate, increasing the risk of contamination by spoilage bacteria. I also suspect that the end product will dry unevenly, lose shape, have voids inside, and will be quite deformed.

As to the salt, you are Ok, but that is the least of the issues here.
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Re: Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

Post by Indaswamp » Mon Aug 31, 2020 15:42

Thank you for the education redzed. Much appreciated.
I should note here that I did simmer the pepper paste down and removed some water. I did keep track of the weights. I used 3# of ripe red bell peppers and a 205ml jar of Calabrian pepper paste. I did weigh the final paste, and after some calculations, I added 10.54% water to the salami meat paste.
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Re: Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

Post by IskraTS11 » Mon Aug 31, 2020 16:55

Okay, thanks, I was looking to do salami myself as well and ran into conflicting info regarding the proportions of everything, especially with the different sorts of peppers being used.
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Re: Fermentable Sugars in Pepper paste

Post by redzed » Mon Aug 31, 2020 17:02

Other than the small amount of purified water used to hydrate the starter, water is not added in the salami making process.
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