Chorizo disaster...ughhh!!!

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harleykids
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Chorizo disaster...ughhh!!!

Post by harleykids » Wed Jan 27, 2016 04:58

Guys,

I made my first batch of chorizo, and one of the links hit 35% weight loss today so I decided to try it. Absolutely horrible!

Texture was good, still a bit soft in the middle, but nothing another 10% drying wouldn't cure.
Color was great, fat chunks looked great, mold was great on the outside.
Taste was horrible!

Tasted very "chemically" and had a faint ammonia taste and smell. Not super strong smell, but enough to be noticeable and very unappetizing. I ate a piece just to see, and it was chemically and ammonia-like.

Here is the recipe I used:

70%/30% pork butt and hard pork back fat
2.5 % sea salt
0.25% cure #2
0.3% Demerara sugar
0.4% dextrose
2.0% pimenton de la Vera sweet
0.5% pimenton de la Vera hot
1.0% Coluccio hot pepper paste
0.5% smoked paprika
1.0% fresh garlic purée
0.2% dried oregano
5.0% dry white wine
0.022% B-LC-007 starter
25-30mm hog casings

Fermented @ 19C at 85% RH for 48hrs, then dry at 13C @ 82% RH
No PH readings taken (ran out of strips, and no meter...will be remedy that soon!)
Sprayed with M600 at 24hr mark.
35% WL after 20 days.

I know my fermentation was on the low end of the temp for the-007, should have been at 22C.
I think fermentation humidity was fine.

Any ideas what may have gone wrong?

My sopressatta turned out great, same exact fermentation. Only real difference was the high sugar I used in my sopressatta (1.3% dextrose + 0.15% Demerara, plus whatever was in the sweet pepper paste and pepper powder)
This is weird as I was told that sugar shouldn't exceed 0.7% total (like my chorizo), but my high sugar on the sopressatta ended up ok and great tasting???

I used 5.0% wine in the sopressatta as well, same I did in the chorizo above.

Sopressatta came out great, chorizo was horrible!

Any ideas?

My recipe was fairly close to the Daily Brine recipe for chorizo, so not sure what happened.
I am thinking the chemical and ammonia were caused by the botched fermentation.
I really need a PH meter so that I am not guessing every time. Maybe next month...bought a used Berkel 808 slicer this month so I have to wait.

And does anyone have a really good tried and true chorizo recipe that they wouldn't mind sharing?

I think I have enough pimenton hot and sweet left to make one more 8-10 lb batch, and would hate to waste it. And I have both Salumi and Charcuterie by Ruhlman, and Internet access, but would prefer a forum members time tested best recipe to attempt again.

Thanks for the help. Felt like sh*t when I threw 8 lbs of bad chorizo away...all that time nurturing those little babies. But I won't give up!
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Bob K
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Post by Bob K » Wed Jan 27, 2016 15:46

Jason-

That's to bad :cry:

The recipe you used really sounds like it would be tasty!

Changes you could make

Instead of the pepper paste and fresh garlic, use dried and cut the amounts in half to compensate for the moisture.
Using dried herbs - spices cuts way back on the risk of unwanted bacterial contamination.

Cut the wine amount in half or eliminate it altogether. Alcohol and ph can affect things.

If you have other product in your curing chamber most of the time, consider using a separate fermenting chamber, it can be a simple as a cooler with temp control, or a smoker cabinet. If you use your curing chamber disable the fans, you don't want the surface of the sausage to dry during the fermentation stage. Let them sweat and drip.

I'm pretty sure Redzed ferments in a cooler.

Changing a lot of the little details that could possibly cause problems can only help.

Did you take any pics of the Chorizo when you cut it?
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Post by harleykids » Wed Jan 27, 2016 18:06

Yes I did. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. There was some darkening around the edge, but not from case hardening, maybe a color change from the outer mold or the fermentation or something, as the outer dark edge was not hard like case hardening.

Definitely doesn't smell appetizing, smells like chemicals and ammonia. So I threw them out and will try again.

Thanks for the tips Bob, I think I will use them on my next batch.

Does anyone have a TESTED good chorizo recipe that they like? Looking for a recipe that someone has made a few times before and really likes?

Thanks
Jason

Image

Image

and here is one in particular that has the darkening around the edge, but exhibited no case hardening...ugly compared to the rest of them that were like the above!



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redzed
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Post by redzed » Thu Jan 28, 2016 01:22

Your ingredients are essentially spot on. The only exception is that I think there is too much paprika in there and then you also added the hot pepper paste. Jeffrey Weiss in Charcuteria uses 2% paprika in almost all his recipes. And he uses 3g. dextrose and 3g sucrose, so your sugar should have been enough. And it is a possibility that you might have had a bit too much moisture in the farce. I know that Kyle used 50ml/kg of wine and so do the recipes in Weiss' book but most other recommendations for wine use 25ml/kg. And if you are following the Butchers' Pantry instructions:
To disperse evenly we recommend hydrating the culture for 25 minutes in 60 mL of distilled water. For every 5# of meat use 30mL of distilled water to hydrate and disperse the culture. It is best to add the culture when spiced meat is in chunks, mix around, then grind to desired particle size. Mix evenly after grinding.

So if you added the 60ml to hydrate your culture then another 30ml/kg of water and wine at 50ml/kg, you have way too much water. The wine addition should be considered as a substitution for it.

Having said that, while the heavy handedness with paprika might have something to do with the taste, and additional moisture for the slow rate of drying, nether have anything to do with the ammonia smell. The primary cause of this is overactive proteolysis. It's beyond me to describe in length and detail what proteolysis is, but in a nutshell, it is the breakdown of proteins into smaller peptide chains and amino acids. This is accomplished by enzymes that reduce proteins into smaller amino acids. When this breakdown goes beyond this stage and goes on to also breakdown those same amino acids, ammonia is released as a by-product. Ammonia is produced by deamidation and dehydrogenation of protein by deamidase and deaminase enzymes secreted by both cocci strains of bacteria and molds and yeasts. In your situation the culprits are Staphylococcus carnosus and Staphylococcus xylosus in the B-LC-007 and the mould in Bactoferm 600. Moulds produce the ammonia odor caused by their high rate of proteolytic activity in the final stages of ripening

So in layman's language, proteolysis is good, it contributes to flavour, aroma, colour and texture, but when it's excessive, it needs to be railed in. Moulds are also desirable but when allowed to bloom uncontrollably, they too can be responsible for developing undesirable characteristics in the sausage. So a while some ammonia by-product is normal for a short period of time, too much of it can spoil your sausage.

Read Marianski, The Art of Making Fermented Sausages, pp.32-37. A detailed explanation of proteolysis is available in Toldra, Dry Cured Meat Products, pp.122-130

The way to slow the proteolytic activity is to lower the temperature and humidity. It also might be a good idea to brush off some of the mould.

And I wish you had not tossed the chorizo! Those odours will have gone away, and who knows, the flavour might have changed. There is nothing wrong with it from the visual perspective. I have had my curing chamber smelling like cat piss numerous times and never threw any out. And I don't even like cats. :lol:
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Post by harleykids » Thu Jan 28, 2016 02:26

Thanks Red. I am curious to why I didn't get anything but nice aroma from my sopressatta?
No ammonia smell, etc.

I am wondering if the low fermenting temp maybe spelled doom for me this time, and I just got lucky with my sopressatta.

Without a PH meter I have no way of knowing.

I found a small bit of PH and stuck it strip against the cut part of the chorizo, just for fun.
Read 5.5 which is way out of line, but might be the cause.

I am wondering if I didn't ferment long enough and at a high enough temp, and the extra pepper sauce and wine and low sugar amount (compared to my sopressatta) might have cause the PH to remain elevated (or not as fast to lower PH) and never come down to safe levels.
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Post by redzed » Thu Jan 28, 2016 02:45

Actually 5.5 pH is not out of line. Ammonia neutralizes the lactic acids which raises the pH and makes the the salami less tangy with that mellow Southern European flavour. This happens later on in the ripening stage so by then then the water activity has been reduced to a safe level, making the higher pH also safe.
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Post by Bob K » Thu Jan 28, 2016 16:03

harleykids wrote:There was some darkening around the edge, but not from case hardening, maybe a color change from the outer mold or the fermentation or something, as the outer dark edge was not hard like case hardening.
I get that dark maroon color using only .8% Hungarian paprika in my pepperoni. It darkens that way as the sausage dries.

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Post by harleykids » Fri Jan 29, 2016 02:59

that pepperoni looks great Bob! Care to share the recipe? Is is cold smoked, or just hung and cured?

Thanks
Jason
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Post by Bob K » Fri Jan 29, 2016 20:08

Jason-

Its a lot different than the US fast fermented variety :mrgreen:
We use this on Pizza
Not smoked, Dry Cured

Pork 60%
Beef 25%
Back fat 15%

Per 1000 gram (1 kilo)

Salt 25 grams
Cure #2 2.5 gr
Dextrose 4 gr
Sugar 3 gr
Black Pepper 3 gr
White Pepper 1 gr
Hungarian Paprika 8 gr
Fennel 3 gr
Anise 2 gr
55k Cayenne 2 gr

Tspx or Culture of choice
50-55mm Beef middles
Note: All spices are Ground

Use the directions on the Marianski site http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... peroni-dry
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Last edited by Bob K on Sat Jan 30, 2016 16:08, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by harleykids » Fri Jan 29, 2016 21:38

Thanks Bob!

For beef, can I use eye of round since it's lean?

And I will probably use the rest of my B-LC-007 for the culture.

Do you have a good spanish dry cured chorizo recipe as well?

Thx
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Post by Bob K » Fri Jan 29, 2016 22:06

Sure, Eye round would work fine. I use any lean cut that is on sale, usually top round in this area.

Cant help with the chorizo recipe. I have never made it!
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Post by el Ducko » Mon Feb 01, 2016 01:44

Regarding Harleykids' chorizo with the discoloration ring- - I'm just guessing, but I recall making naturally-fermented summer sausage a while back that had a similar problem. I had stuffed the things by hand with a wide mouth funnel rather than using my sausage stuffer with a large tube. The result was a lot of air inclusions. I tried massaging the thing to work them out, but was not completely successful. I pricked casing where the visible bubbles were, but unfortunately I neglected to sterilize the pricking fork.

Days later, everywhere I had pricked, there was a dark black/green mold growing outside as well as inside the casing. I cut it out as best I could, but months later, there was a dark ring on the outer rim of the sausages which you could see when you cut them (cross-section). Perhaps my summer sausage did not have as extensive a problem because I had cooked it to 150 degF IMT. Perhaps it had become re-infected during its time hanging in the refrigerator, drying. Perhaps this is all coincidence. Perhaps the Cubs will win the pennant one day. What do I know?

...only that here's one possibility. Did you hand pack your chorizo, or somehow have significant air bubbles? ...just a thought.

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Post by harleykids » Mon Feb 01, 2016 03:04

Thanks for the suggestion elDucko!

I stuffed with a Kitchener crank stuffer, no air pockets, and I always sterilize my sausage picker with a propane torch until the needle tips are red hot.

Every chorizo looked good except that one.
But the real problem was the strong chemical taste...very unappetizing.

No rancidity or rot, just a chemical taste and faint ammonia smell.

VERY different than my sopressatta even though the ingredients were similar.
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Post by harleykids » Mon Feb 01, 2016 03:06

Bob,

I went ahead and used your recipe today and made a batch of your pepperoni.

I detailed the process in a new post.

Thanks again for sharing your recipe!

Thanks
Jason
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