Homemade Sausage Making

Hi from Hungary!

A newbie here. Can you please help me?! I've just made some chorizos and I measured the pH with a freshly calibrated pH meter. The raw meat was at 5.8 pH which seemed ok for me, however after stuffing the mince into the casings it shows already 5.28. (Little leftover sample from the tube - before fermentation!)
Whaaat happened during this time? Where did I mess up? Is it saveable?

My thoughts/concerns:
- The meat was around 40-45 fahrenheit / 4-7 Celsius during the whole process - a bit high I know, but Im wondering if any unwanted bacteria could multiply within this time at this temp that must be an Alien... Or not?
- I used non rinse, acid base sanitizer. Maybe it (acid) penetrates the meat from the grinder's surface resulting lower pH?
- the fat I used... Well I'm not a 100% sure about its freshness cause I bought it from a grocery store...

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the Forum!
Its not likely that the Ph drop was from fermentation but from the ingredients added. Did your recipe include Wine? In any case your chorizo should be fine just keep monitoring the Ph untill the desired level is reached.

Hi Bob! Thank you!

Well, it didn't include wine, only cayenne, paprika, garlic powder, so basically just regular dried spices.
I just left it ferment for 36 hours and the pH dropped from 5.28 to 4.67 during that time. I used T-SPX so probably I have killed the staphilo bacteria, but at least it's gonna be safe to eat after drying. Or am I wrong?

It'll definitely be safe. Check the flavour once you have reached your target weight. If you find it too sour, either reduce fermentation time/temperature next time, or reduce the amount of starter culture.

Chances are that it'll come out delicious, regardless

Thank you Michi! I will post when it's ready

A pH of 4.67 is about as low as you can go. How much sugar did you add?

It was 3 g / 1000 g of mince (dextrose)

How much cayenne and paprika? Both contain a fair amount of sugars which will contribute to fermentation. I don't even add any sugars any more when I make calabrian sopressata... the peppers have enough sugars in them to support fermentation to below pH5.2.

8 g of Cayenne and 17 g of paprika / 1000g mince.

Cayenne has about 15% sugars; paprika has about 10% sugars. So that's about 1.2g sugars for the cayenne and 1.7g for the paprika. Roughly 2.9g total from the peppers. That would have been enough sugar to push the pH below 5.3 if starting pH is around 5.75~5.8...

Oh wow! Then I definitely added too much sugar... it's good to know, thanks!
Do you guys think that my rapid pH drop (5.8 to 5.28 in about 10 minutes) happened because of the sugars/paprika???

No. Fermentation does not happen that rapidly....especially at 40-45 f

Bob K wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 18, 2022 14:46

No. Fermentation does not happen that rapidly....especially at 40-45 f

Agreed. The part with the pH dropping almost immediately to 5.28 is a bit of a mystery. If anything, the reading was possibly wrong. But the final pH of 4.67 after fermentation is understandable when taking into account all the sugars that were added. Just accept this as an anomaly as I don't think it will happen again.

Ok, I accept that and waiting curiously. Thanks for your feedback!

Ah, you are correct Bob K, I missed that. Thank you for pointing it out.

@redzed- good point as well. I have really focused on cleaning my pH meter meat probe properly after use to ensure correct readings.