Anyhow, this is a concoction I came up with which I have called Chihuahua Sticks because it has a nice beefy taste to it but with a tiny bite at the end just to be sure you are paying attention.
I've prepared a pretty detailed account of what I did. Some of it has reason and some doesn't. In the end, it turned out very good I think but they don't have as much acid bite to them as I expected but this might be because my culture was several months old or I may not have let the meat ferment as long as I should have. Either way it was still good but I would have preferred more acidity. Just a touch.
Meat - Beef Chuck
Salt 2.1%
Cure 1 0.25%
2.35%
Spices
Ginger 0.10%
Celery Seed 0.12%
Onion Powder 0.15%
Mustard Powder 0.15%
Black Pepper 0.75%
Chili Powder 0.50%
Paprika 0.60%
Corn syrup solids 1.2%
Ice Water 10.0%
NFD milk 1.0%
Soy Protein Blend 1.0%
Culture F-RM-52 1/2 tsp to 1/2 cup water for every 10 lbs meat.
Procedure
Trim meat of any silver skin and any hard fat.
Cut into chunks.
Add seasonings to the ice water and add to the chunked meat.
Grind meat through 3/8`s inch plate.
Mix well adding F-RM-52 as you mix.
Put in freezer again if necessary. Needs to be real cold else you`ll get a poor grind and pay for it at stuffing time.
When real cold grind again through fine plate.
Stuff into 15 mm collagen casings and hang in smokehouse.
Ambient Temperature 72F and humidity 84%
After a day hanging the pH has dropped to 5.2 and the weight dropped from 143g to 125g or a loss of 12.5%
Morning of day 2 so in 1.5 days pH is 5.14 with a weight of 117 gr or weight loss of 18.2%
Began laying cold smoke on meat at 9:00 a.m. After an hour, turned heat up to 100 F
At 10:00 a.m increased heat to 125F and apply heavy smoke for an hour.
11:30 a.m gradually increased the heat to 175F and keep supplying heavy smoke.
1:15 pm Internal temp reached 152F turned off heat but continued to apply heavy smoke.
Pulled a control stick and it weighed 92 grams showing a 35.7% shrink. pH is 5.12. Water Activity = 0.94
According to AURI:
To be considered shelf stable, meat products must achieve the following:
*** pH of less than 5.0 or
*** Water activity of less than 0.91; or
*** pH of less than 5.2 and a water activity of less than 0.95
http://www.auri.org/wp-content/assets/l ... 0Meats.pdf
Which this makes these sausages shelf stable when vac-packed at this point but I decided to let them hang in the smokehouse to cool till they reach ambient temperature and this should cause them to dry more and take on a little more smoke flavor.
Cold smoked sticks in heavy pecan smoke till 5:30 pm. Water activity had dropped to 0.91.
Final Shrink 42.48% shrink and Aw = .91 and pH 5.17
Though these should be shelf stable as they are, they are still plenty moist so I plan on letting them rest at room temp till morning and maybe they will dry a little more since I'd feel a little better if the pH was a point lower and not so close to the threshold. If it the water activity will drop to .90 I'll feel much better since the pH is close to the 5.2 mark.
Overall, I think this is a pretty good tasting stick. The flavor of the beef isn't overwhelmed by spices yet their is a small bite toward the end from the black pepper. Just a nip. The collagen bound to the meat very well even on sticks that weren't packed very tight so I think my hunch may have been right about the usefulness of a binder. I had assumed I'd have gotten more tang but this could be from the use of old culture. Am going to have to purchase some more to be sure and would be interested in any suggestions on other cultures. I just used what I had on hand.
Oh and upon request I made some stocking stuffers for three children. Just hope they have long stockings because these are every bit of four feet long.
