Fermented sausage spoilage

[el Ducko]

Bleaching everything you can get your hands (or a sprayer) on is a good idea! Can you force spray up into wherever it is you can't scrub? Bleach is used worldwide in water purification. (We run our local Water Supply Corporation's plant at 2 ppm or a bit less free chlorine.) Use a cap-full or two of home bleach (NOT the "lemon fresh" kind!) in a gallon of water, spraying liberally so you can reach into everywhere (hopefully), then follow with a pure water spray rinse.

Regarding Jan's suggestion, potassium meta-bisulfite is a material used worldwide in wine production to prevent all sorts of nasties from growing in the product, and similarly in beer production. Good choice, Jan! However, it too is delivered in water solution or by spray. This may be a problem if delivering bleach was difficult. Using it may be belt and suspenders approach.

If you want to try it, though, I suggest you go by one of the home brewing stores in Colorado (I got my home brewing start in Denver, back in 1971) and ask for the stuff, also known by the British as Campden tablets. (Most home brew supplies were sold by the British, in those days.) It's food grade, which might make you feel better about the whole business than bleach spraying does. (However, bleach is used in water purification, worldwide, so I wouldn't worry.)

Ask for advice, too. If you don't live near one of the major cities there, you can mail order it. There are lots of home brew forums (fora?) on the internet, too, on which you can get usage advice.

Potassium meta-bisulfite is used in solution. Commercial winemaking equipment is sanitized by spraying with a 1% SO2 (2 tsp potassium metabisulfite per L) solution. Being inorganic, it's not going to vaporize very well, but maybe you can use a spray bottle to spray/access those hard-to-reach spots. (It decomposes at 190 deg.C to give SO2 gas and solid potassium oxide, but I hope you won't heat your equipment THAT hot!)

There's a nice writeup at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_metabisulfite if you are interested. Good luck!

[el Ducko]

Thinking about this overnight... (always dangerous!)...

What you want is something that's toxic to bacteria but not significantly so to slightly bigger critters (such as humans). That seems to be how pesticides are designed. So..... after all your other efforts, maybe you could smoke as long and as hard (and, at the end, as hot) as your equipment can muster. Maybe that'll fix the little beasties.

[crustyo44]

bkamp,
The Duck is right, chlorine and meta-bisulphite work well. All home brewers and distillers use either method. It's really a personal preference.
Just clean your cabinet real well and than either spray with the chlorine mix or spray with the meta-bisulphite mix. The fumes of the latter do all the sterilizing, don't sniff it too much and keep the cabinet door closed.
Jan.

[Baconologist]

bkamp,

The salt % in the above recipe is an unsafe amount, too low.

For best results, reduce the curing temperature to 50 degrees F, relative humidity no more than 79%.
Most importantly, get rid of the bare wood and get an accurate calibratable hygrometer.

[workingpoor]

Just my two cents but you might want to look at your air flow. Initially I had issues with mold in my chamber because I was not getting enough air flow or green air into the chamber. Since then, I resolved the issues with the addition of a timed internal fan and a fan mounted externally that draws green air through the door.

This may not be the solution but it something that you may want to just check.

[Baconologist]

The salt % in the above recipe is an unsafe amount, too low.

You seem to be quite the critical fellow. I doubt, however, that El Ducko is wrong with his above recipe. You see, I happen to know him and his name is Doctor Russ Lambert - a retired chemical engineer with more letters behind his name than you have in your entire name. Funny things - those "pot shots" eh?... they just always ricochet around and hit ya' right in the butt.

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about!
I don't see a recipe in this thread that has been posted by El Ducko, in fact, El Ducko doesn't even mention the word salt in this thread.

My comment has absolutely nothing to do with El Ducko or anything he has posted!!!

I was commenting on the recipe posted by bkamp, who asked for help.
He said it's his recipe "Here is my recipe."

Here is my recipe

7 lb pork shoulder
3 lb pork fat
77 g salt
23 g dextose
25 g red pepper flake
10 g fennel
12 g cure #2
7 g white pepper
2.5 g ascrobic acid
.5 g t-spx culture

tap water ice added when mixing

The recipe says incubate for 24 hrs, 90% rh, 85 degrees. I place in sun covered for 3 hrs, then moved to 60 degree cooler, humidified. Dont know what humidity level is, no meter.
But with problems im having could i be over humidifing?

Thanks, bkamp

My comment wasn't intended to be a criticism, my intent was to prevent someone from getting very sick or worse by pointing out a level of salt in the recipe, approximately 1.95%, that's considered unsafe.

Food safety is a critical issue, I'm shocked that you consider my above comment a criticism!

[el Ducko]

My comment wasn't intended to be a criticism, my intent was to prevent someone from getting very sick or worse by pointing out a level of salt in the recipe, approximately 1.95%, that's considered unsafe.

Food safety is a critical issue, I'm shocked that you consider my above comment a criticism!

I hope some of the following can help.

Marianski Guidance: Here`s some help from our ol` buddy, Stan Marianski, from his book, "Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages," p.23, topic "Salt Curing:"
"When added to meat it provides us with the following benefits:
● adds flavor (feels pleasant when applied between 2-3%)"
● ...
"Salt does not kill bacteria, it simply prevents or slows down their development. To be effective the salt concentration has to be 10% or higher. Salt concentration of 6% prevents Clostridium botulinum spores from becoming toxins though they may be active when smoking at low temperatures. Adding sodium nitrite (Cure #1) eliminates that danger."

My note: Adding 10% or higher salt would be using a different technique than bkamp`s fermented sausage. It would become salt-cured. ...also, unpalatable unless soaked in several changes of fresh water. ...ever eaten bacalao (salted cod, a popular Brazilian dish)? Even when prepared correctly, it tastes very salty, and is not to everyone`s liking.

More Marianski: But enough of my speculation. Have a look at some of the sausage recipes in Stan`s book, "The Art of Making Fermented Sausages. The kabanosy recipe on page 178 calls for a salt content of 2%. Three recipes on pages 200-202 call for 2% salt. Most recipes range in the 2.3% to 3% range. This is well below the 6% to 10% range cited above. Protection is furnished, in all cases, by cure #1 or cure #2.

Rytek Kutas: A quote from the late Rytek Kutas is always well-received. On page 156 of his "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" book, 4th edition, he says in part:
"As a preservative, it takes extremely high levels of salt, in the 6-7% range, to preserve meat. Normally, most sausage is made using 3% or less salt and has to be refrigerated to maintain its freshness. There is little information regarding the extra preservation qualities salt would give to a product..."

Conclusion: These days, salt is applied as part of the flavor profile rather than as a curing agent. We rely on Cure #1 and/or Cure #2 for the cure function. Looks to me like bkamp is doing fine in salt level, and at 160 ppm nitrite and about 100 ppm nitrate, has a good low salt recipe with more than adequate curing. Salt is a concern in our family, too. Although some have disagreed, I for one am glad to see others embracing that approach.

[Baconologist]

When they mention "salt concentration has to be 10% or higher" they are referring to an internal salt brine concentration of 10%, not simply 10% added salt.
Internal brine concentration is calculated as 100 times the salt concentration divided by the sum of the salt and water concentrations.
PERCENT BRINE = 100 × [SALT] / ([SALT] + [WATER])

The kabanosy recipe and the recipe on page 202 in Stan`s book, "The Art of Making Fermented Sausages" are cooked sausages, a totally different deal. See Stan's recipes for Pepperoni on pages 198 and 199 (3% and 2.5% salt) rather than the commercial pepperoni examples with other safety precautions on page 200.

From Stan.....

On page 359 of "Home Production Of Quality Meats And Sausages", he writes:

"When making fermented sausages use between 2.5 - 3.5% salt as this combined with nitrite, is your first line of defense against undesirable bacteria. Almost all regular sausage recipes (fresh, smoked, cooked etc.) contain 1.5 - 2% salt which is added to obtain a good flavor. These amounts are not high enough to provide safety against bacteria and there is no room for compromise. When adding salt to fermented sausages, try to think of salt as a barrier against undesirable bacteria. Use 3.0 - 3.5% salt when making traditionally fermented dry sausages without starter cultures. For all other types use 2.5% common non-iodized salt. Starter cultures assure proper fermentation but to inhibit undesirable bacteria in the beginning of the process, the salt level should remain high (2.5 - 3%)."

"At least 2.5 % salt (25 g salt/1 kg of meat) should be added which will help to lower water activity and inhibit the growth of bacteria."

Source: http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-ty ... ed-sausage

[el Ducko]

Good citation, Bob. No doubt going to 2.5% salt would add a margin of safety to bkamp's recipe.

The two pepperoni recipes on "The Art of Making Fermented Sausages," page 200, are fermented sausages which contain only 2% salt. Are they exceptions to the rule? Probably not- - the discussion there is about control of E.Coli in sausages containing beef. (The bkamp recipe contains only pork.) Why the academics who wrote the papers didn't follow "the rules for salt in fermented sausages" remains unknown. (Maybe, like me, they didn't know any better and didn't research deeply enough.)

In the end, let's all take a deep breath, say "Thanks, Baconologist, for providing the citation, and let's add another 23 grams of salt to the recipe."

I hope that will cure the basic problem, "grey / green mold on the exterior surface," which we shouldn't lose sight of, but it may not. What further thoughts do you (plural, folks, as in y'all or youse guys) have? Molds aren't bacteria.

[Baconologist]

The commercial pepperoni recipes on page 200 contain closer to ~2.25% salt along with a fast starter culture (8.0 log10 cfu/g of batter.)
The safety hurdles used by commercial producers are described in the book.

Molds aren't bacteria.

There's no doubt about that!



Stay safe everyone!