I am a little confused about the amount of F-RM-52 that I should be using in the recipe for Pepperoni per Rhulman. In the text he states that you should use a minimum of 1/4 of the package (.25*25grams~7 grams) of how small a batch of meat that you are making but then states that you should use 20grams for a 5lbs recipe. I am missing something?? Could/Should I use less or is this going to effect the flavor due to the reduced (assuming I use less) bacteria present? Also, if I do cut back should there also be a reduction of the dextrose?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance
buhy-smkr
Welcome to the forum. I have never used it before but here is some info that I have found on it.
Here is a link to a good pdf file from Sausage Maker. It describes it fairly well.
http://www.sausagemaker.com/productdocs/Bactoferm_F-RM-52.pdf
Allied Kenco has this description:
Here's their site http://www.alliedkenco.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/934/products_id/3201
Bactoferm ™ FRM-52 - Lactobacillus Sakei & Staphylococcus Carnosus
For medium fast acidification. This culture causes the meat's ph to drop to under 5.0 in about 4 days. Use for medium sized salamis 1" to 3" dia. A medium fast culture targeted for short fermentation at temperatures 70°F-90°F. Needing around 1 month to fully complete (including drying)
How to use: Dilute with 1 cup of chlorine free water and let sit for 20 minutes to "Wake Up" the bacteria. When using a cure (# 1 or # 2) mix the cure with this culture. Mix all seasoning and spices into meat, then add this culture at a rate of 25 g to 200 lb of meat.
For small batches dilute 1/2 tsp. of culture into 1/2 cup of chlorine free water.
Use 25g for 220 lb.
Meat packet weight: 25g
Mike
Hi buht-smkr,
Welcome to the forum.
My copy is out on loan, so I don't have my book with me to refer to, but 25g for 5 pounds of meat is overkill.
I have used Bactoferm F-RM-52, and used a few fermented sausage recipes form Rhulman's book, with good results. He recommends using at least a quarter of a package because what you receive in the package is a very small amount of culture, most of it is filler to help you measure. Rather then risk not getting enough of the bacteria when you use the standard measurement of 1/2 teaspoon for 10 pounds of meat. His rational is that it is better to put too much in, then not have enough.
The growth of the bacteria is controlled by the amount of dextrose (glucose) you add in your recipe. No matter how much bacteria you use, DO NOT change the amount of dextrose the recipe calls for. If you add more dextrose it may come out too tangy, if you use less dextrose or do not have enough starter bacteria you may get very little tang or none at all and your pH may remain too high. Once the dextrose is consumed the bacteria stops growing so adding more bacteria will not ruin the sausage.
I know it is expensive, but once the package is opened the shelf life really drops, so I figure I may as well us up all the product, unless you make a lot of dry cured sausage, and will use the open package up in a short period of time. I generally make 15 - 20 pounds at a time, and if I'm making 15 pounds I use 1/3 package for each 5 pounds, 20 pounds I use 1/4 package per 5 pounds.
Make sure the water is chlorine free. If you don't have well water, then use distilled bottle water. If you use regular bottle water, that water may have traces of chlorine, because most bottle water is from municipal water sources.
Walleye, thanks for the links.
Hab, that makes sense. I guess I wasn't putting the pieces of the puzzle together, (recipe is controlled by the dextrose). I am putting the final touches on my drying cabinet and wanted to do a short turn around recipe to get my feet wet. I think I am going to proceed with 10 lbs of the Rhulman pepperoni and go with 1/2 package of the F-RM-52 per 5 lbs. Depending on timing, I may go ahead and try smoking about 5 lbs.
As for the cabinet, I followed your development and used your experience as guidance on my project, so thanks for that. Quick synopsis of the cabinet:
Main components:
1ea - 25 cuft fridge
1 ea - cool humidifier
1 ea - dehumidifier
2ea - 60w waterfproof silicone enclosure heaters with a dimmer switch (max operating temp is ~325 so the dimmer helps to make that manageable). We'll see how these work on mainting temps, may need to increase the count
2ea - waterproof computer fans with variable speed control
Controls:
2ea - Love Humidity switches with internal 8A SPDT switch
1ea - Auber PID with internal SPST switch
1ea - Auber PID with external 25A SPST switch
Anyways, thanks again for the info
Sounds like a nice set up.
Where did you purchase the 60w waterfproof silicone enclosure heaters. That sounds like something I would like to add to my setup? Do they heat by convection or radiant heat?
I really liked the pepperoni recipe, but I now use 32 - 35 mm hog casings. Using the sheep casings, by the time they finish air drying the are too small in diameter for my use. Using larger casings you do have to extend the dry curing time.
I found the enclosure heaters here:
http://www.omega.com/pptst/SREH.html (http://www.omega.com/pptst/SREH.html)
Looking back I should have purchased the 2x120W, small price incresae with double the output. They are simple radiant heat elements, I then purchased a inline dimmer control used for lighting.
Good to know about the pepperoni. I may try to do some of both the sheep and hog, get a little variety.
Thanks for the link. I'll take a look at it later.
Two 60 watts should be plenty of heat for your cabinet. At this time I can't think of any starter culture that requires an incubation temperature higher then 95°F (but then it's pretty early in the morning :) ).
Fill us in on the outcome, and how well the heaters worked.
Quick update. Ran the heaters Tuesday night. had the PID set for 95 degrees. Hit that temp with ease, didn't get a chance to time how long (kids distracted me) for the initial temp rise. After about 3-4 hours went down to check how things were going, opened the door, everything looked good.At that point temp dropped down to low 80's and recovered within about 5 minutes. More details regarding the heaters, I had JB welded them to their own respective bricks to act as heat sinks and the JB weld to act as a thermal paste, seemed to work fairly well. Next step is to run a batch of sausage and keep my fingers crossed. I'll try to give updates as things develop.
Thanks for the update. The heat sinks should also convert some of the radiant heat to convection heat.
So made my first run of the Peperone per Ruhlman & Polcyn. Well, during the mixing process (i was making 2 ea @ 5# beef) first one went well but got hung up loading the sheep casings onto the stuffer (what a pain plus they kept breaking). All in all it took me about 2 hours till the next batch. Long sotry short, when I ran the first batch i hydrated both measurements of the F-RM-52. Didn't really thing about it until after about 1.5-2 hours later. When it dawned on ey, I then started mixing the cultures into the meat. I guess the reason i didn't really think about it, is because the write up was still with the packing slip attached to the shipping box. Found them today as I was getting ready to throw out the box and found them, they recommend no longer than 45 minutes of being hydrated due to the bacteria dying. So far I have tested the pH of both batches and they are similar at about 4.4-4.5 (based on reading from a Hanna meter).
So, it seems that the bacteria made it into at least one area of one sausage, just wondering what i should do with the rest. Should I test every sausage in the second batch to ensure they were all inoculated properly or is there still the risk of there being voids of bacteria (places were the bacteria was not distributed good) so that a reading on one part of the sausage would not be indicative of the entire thing.
Next, thing was when I was going through the hog casings I noticed some portions that were discolored. I cut the discolored portion out and proceeded. Should this be of concern?? They were well packed in salt, I have had them for about 3-4 months, always refrigerated and after every use I have added kosher salt. Sorry if these questions seem benign but being a noob a little unsure of some of these things and would rather be safe than sorry.
Thanks in advance for any help.
You are doing well. As I am reading your post, it reminded me of the first time I used sheep casings, but I still use them for smaller diameter sausages.
I'm not sure about the discolored sections of your hog casings. Can you describe the color? Hog casings you may see white-yellowish cloudy areas, that is alright. As long as casings have been salted with either kosher or pickling (pure) salt they have an almost indefinite self life in the refrigerator. If left unrefrigerated too long, they will develop an odor, but after refrigeration this odor should disappear.
As for the bacteria, as long as you thoroughly mixed it into the meat, testing one sausage per batch should be enough. One member gave me a tip. You know when you always have that odd short sausage when you come to the end of your casings. Use that as the test sausage.
I have a question about your Hanna meter. Which model did you purchase? Does it have a probe, or do you need to mix a portion of the meat into distilled water to test the pH? I'm looking for a meter that has a probe at a reasonable price.
The casing had a bit of a yellowish tint to it on a small portion. I figured that it couldn't have posed to big of a hazard but thought I better ask to make sure instead of being sorry later. With the amount of salt that was in the bag, I couldn't imagine anything growing in there to begin with.
As for the sausage, thanks for the reassurance. Again, I kind of assumed that since the one from the second batch had reach approximately the same pH as the first batch, that I should be ok. I imagine that they state the 45 minutes for a maximum hydration time as an lower bound of the actual die off rate, since I was using such a large amount to begin with (essentially 22 times the recommended amount) I had some leeway with the 45 minute value. If I was making 220#, the outcome would probably be different. I also assume since there is nitrate in the product there is still a level of safety being provided though if the lactic bacteria did not activate the taste will most definitely be off.
As for the ph meter, it was my first time using this. Never tried anything else, so I cannot give a good comparison between different methods. I will say that having to cut up a sample, dilute with distilled water and using the strips seemed like a pain and left a lot of room for error (too much water/too little water). The meter I have is the one recommended(or at least mentioned) in the Ruhlman/polcyn and Marianksi book (I believe), it is the Hanna 99163 for meat applications. I would recommend checking out http://www.eseasongear.com/ (http://www.eseasongear.com/) for a good place for the meter and supplies. Easy enough to use, simply poke the probe into the sample and you get instantaneous readings along with temp. The only down side is there is more maintenance than I originally thought there would be. After each use, I would rinse with the storage solution to clean off the probe. Before putting away you need to soak in the acid solution for meat grease, rinse with distilled and store in the storage solution, then re-calibrate before the next use. It made me reflect back to my days in chemistry lab. They do make it pretty easy with all of the 20ml packs they sell for single use application.
On another note, the peprone is looking pretty good, though I think i need to reevaluate my heater placement. I noticed on some of the sausages there seems to be some case hardening on the face that, I have to assume, was facing the heater, almost like they have a sun burn, the backsides still look soft, casings look opaque and are soft to the touch though a good 1/3 of the diameter looks slightly dry. I do not think this is going to pose any huge problems with drying due to the small diameter and the fact the meat can still get the moisture out, just may take a little longer to dry, I guess more similar to a larger diameter salami. Please correct me if I am wrong, like i said this is my first time and I am making a lot of assumptions. Any guidance is appreciated.
What temperature and humidity are you dry curing the sausage? After the initial incubation period, which for that bacteria is 8 - 12 hours; I keep the cabinet temperature around 55°F - 65°F with an RH of ≈60% - 65%. It sounds like the sausage is beginning to cook - that you don't want. Also the casings are hardening to fast and unevenly. I've never came across this, but this may pose a problem with them drying evenly. I would turn off the heat and if your PID can control a cooling device set it for 60°F and plug the refrigerator into it. If you PID can't control a cooling device, set your refrigerator thermostat to it's lowest level (but not off), that should keep the refrigerator close to 60°F.
The Hanna 99163 pH meter is a little too expensive for me, as are the other pH meters with a probe. Most meters (not only the strips) require a prepared solution in order to measure the pH level. With the probe you can test as many as you like and not have to ruin any sausages.
The yellowish tint is common in hog casings. Using some vinegar in the water the last 10 - 15 minutes of soaking will clear most of that up.
As for the sausage, the nitrite and nitrates will provide protection during the dry cure time, but for long term storage the low pH and lack of water preserves the meat.
I have the pid set to on/off cooling and hooked up to the fridge, temp is set to 60 degrees +/-5, so I am running 55 to 65. Humidity is running a bit higher than I would like, between 70-80%. Living in San Francisco, the relative humidity has been around 55-65 percent, temp also never gets too hot (mid 70's on a warm day) so I wouldn't think they could possibly dry out too fast even in open air. I have had the dehumidifier running non-stop (puts out a small bit of heat) and the heat has been off since uncubation. The only thing I could fathom was the heater, when it was heating, was putting off heat (it was located in the front near the door) and set up a convection current going across the front side of the sausage possibly drying the front sides during incubation. During incubation I had humidity set to 85%. I noticed it(the drying) shortly after the incubation had finished. That was one of my concerns with using those heaters to begin with, locally they get very hot. Using the bricks I tried sheilding the sausage from direct heat but that may not have worked. I think I now how I need to adress the heat issue in the future but more pressing is the current run. Say the sausage did get too hot during incubation, what should be my concerns?
Edit: Another thing dawned on me while i was driving home today. There was one other plausabile explanation. There is a humidity control on the fridge that i initially had turned on, I turned it off after the first day of cooling because it was making a wierd sound. I intially thought it would help keep th humidity down. This may explain why the front part was dried on not the back, it seems like it was blowing from the top front down toward the back. If it was blowing dry air over the front this may help to explain why even the very back row had some subtle signs of this drying effect on one side only. There is no way a 60W heater could put of that much heat and created such a convection that they were able to dry out a sausage that was hanging more than 30-36" away.
I will try to research this. Everything I have read states you want the sausage to dry evenly. I have had casings begin to dry too quickly, but not unevenly as you are experiencing. If I catch the problem soon enough, the premature hard casings will begin to soften.
I try to stick with heaters that produce convection heat with a minimum radiant heat. I don't understand radiant heat that well, but to me it like being in the sun. Objects that are struck by the sunlight get much hotter then the air temperature. I know you used some bricks to shield the sausage, and that should help produce some convection heat. I use a small 900/1500 watt hot air heater that has a fan so as it heats the air it circulate the heat.
Too much air circulation can cause case hardening also. I've had that happen even when the humidity was in the high 80% range. Generally if you catch the problem in time the premature case hardening will soften again, but it seems your casings are still partially hard, so it may be that there is something that is still causing this problem.
I notice you have fans. Are you using them? If so how often? How fast are you circulating the air? You may want to reduce the speed of the fans, and/or use them intermittently or stop using them.
As for the humidifier and dehumidifier; were are they located? Are they located in the front or back? Which direction are they moving the air?
After looking everything over, I am not sure if it is the heaters that caused this problem or not. I will take some pictures of the layout tonight, but this is even showing up on the items in the furthest part of the cabinet away from the heaters. The fans are blowing air down and they are located aproximately 12-15" away(lateral), so they are not blowing directly onto the product. Humidifier/dehumidifier are directly below the fans. Fans have been on about 50%, which equates to about 30cfm in a 20cu ft fridge. I turned off the fans and the humidifier this morning in an attempt to see if anything changes.
I do know for future mods I am going to be changing the heater layout so that they act more in convection, basically using a fan to distribute heat only when the heaters are on and placing baffles within the cabinet to help control the air flow (no direct airflow over the sausage). I am also thinking about adding more heaters and tapering down the temp output, less intense heat but more overall output.
Sorry so far I have not found anything on this problem. Pictures will help.
I have a 16.7 cubic foot refrigerator. I'm looking for a smaller convection heater with a fan. The 900/1500 watt heater was the lowest BTU I could find. It works fairly well. Once the cabinet gets up to the set temperature it stays there for a while, so the heater doesn't cycle on/off too frequently during an 8 - 12 hour incubation period, and the Ranco does a good job maintaining the right temperature. When I first turn the heater on I just need to set the Ranco 10° lower then what I want the actual cabinet temperature to be. After the initial warm up period, I then adjust the Ranco to shut off 5°, prior to reaching the set temperature. That is to compensate for the residual heat that is given off from the heater once it is shut off.
I like your idea. I've been thinking of purchasing a portable DC car heater, and experiment with that to see it that will provide enough heat.
Well, Here are the pictures, Don't have much time right now but I think you can get the idea. i placed the dehumidifier on top of the humidifier two days ago to try and get it further away from the sausage. Also, it is hard to see in the picture but on the left portion of the sausage you can see is dried out while the right hand side is still moist. I left off the dehumidifier yesterday along with the fans. When I got home humidity was in the 90's. Seemed to help a bit on the less severe ones, though I would say about 70% show some slight signs of dryness, and the other 30% have noticeable dryness. Also, noticed a little white fuzzy mold starting to form, washed it off with some red wine (something I used to watch my grandfather do with his coppa).
After doing a bit of thinking and reading and looking over my layout yesterday, I made some observations and I came up with a hypothesis. First, the humidifier has a built in humidistat, while testing it would bring up the humidity well beyond 90%. This was from a dry condition to a humidified condition. Well, i tried it again yesterday and it was kicking off at around 80% (value registered at my humidistat), which is not horribly low but this compounded with another fact. One thing that I was unaware of and was counter to my belief is that humid air is less dense than dry air. All of my measurement devices are located in the upper region. This would explain why the bottoms seemed much more dry than the tops. So in reality the value at the humidifier is probably in the 70's. My hypothesis is that, the heat from the heater, coupled with humidity lower than 80% created a drying effect on the face of the sausages. I believe Marianksi (if i remember correctly) states that you want to have humidity in the 90's!!
The modifications that I am going to be making are as follows:
-Override built in humidistat in humidifier to allow higher than 70's%
-Create a baffle system with fans to allow heating without any direct exposure.
-Locate humidistat sensor in the lower portion of the cabinet
We'll see if any of this stuff turns out, since the damage is pretty much done, I am keeping my fingers crossed for maybe a 50% turn out. Not what I really wanted for my first run but nonetheless, it has been a learning experience.
(http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy7/jlevent/IMG_0510.jpg)
(http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy7/jlevent/IMG_0509.jpg)
Thanks for the pictures and update. I'm going to have to look at them later. I not sure if it is the forum, or my ISP; but this particular site is extremely slow this afternoon, so I believe the site is giving me problems.
I'm logging off but will take a look at your information and pictures tomorrow.
I'm going to copy your reply and give you a better response later. This site is still agonizingly slow. I believe I can see the drying effect on the sausage in your first photo. I'll place the picture in one of my graphic programs and study it further.
For your first run, you took on an ambitious project. The cabinet is so small that I am surprised there is a significant variance from top to bottom in such a small space; especially with the use of fans. It there is a variance, then the warmer air will be at the top. Warmer air does hold more moisture, so the humidity will be higher towards the ceiling. Marianksi does recommend the higher humidity, but that is when I have the greatest problem with mold; I have better control using 60% - 65% with no problems of the casings hardening prematurely. Many other sources will state 55% - 60% RH. By the way using red wine to wash is a good/unique idea.
Well, hindsight being what it is. I should have run a test run using 1 or 2#'s of ground beef and sheep casings, cycle through the hole process to make sure there is no missteps or problems. i can't remember where i read it but somewhere it said that if you cannot tolerate things not turning out this is the wrong thing to be doing. As much as I am disappointed, it has been a learning experience. As for the sausage that I have in there now, i think I may be able to get something to at least try. As far as I am aware of, there are no health or safety concerns with trying any of this sausage. The nitrates should have me covered correct? obviously if it doesn't taste good, I am not going to force feed myself but at the same time, if I take a bite and it taste OK I should not be at risk of anything. Is this correct?
Twenty pounds for the first time is quite a bit to take on, but I don't think that 1 or 2 pounds of ground meat in sheep's casings would have caught this problem. My first batch I made 10 pounds of sausage, and I was ready to throw out, but I held out long enough and all my sausages survived.
I studied the pictures, and I have never had the problem of partial drying. If the humidity is too low, my casing harden evenly. I'm not sure if you are using a separate humidistat to control the humidity. I have a Line Voltage Humidistat to control my humidifier or dehumidifier and place it about center height along the wall opposite of the humidifier or dehumidifier. You can't depend on the built in humidistat for either device on accuracy. I also found that I didn't need to turn on my humidifier, since the moisture for the sausage alone would keep my cabinet in the 90's, in turn was creating a mold problem. When hanging you sausage, get a box of large plastic coated paper clips and fasten them into hooks. That way you can hang each sausage individually, which makes it easier to take them out to wash, or to move around for better drying. The uncoated paper clips will rust.
I don't believe your problem is being caused by low humidity. If by chance the radiant heat cooked the front part of the sausage, then the protein structure has been altered and it is not going to rehydrate. If you are going to stay with the radiant heat, then a baffle system should work. Or the problem could be cause by the way the refrigerator flow cold air throw the cabinet, and the air movement is drying the sausages on the front side.
I can't give you a definite answer if the sausage in it's current state is safe to eat. Do you have any idea of how much weight the sausages have lost? If you have a 30% weight lost in you sausages, then they are fully cured. I like to go to 35% - 40%, because I like a firmer sausage. You can not always go by taste, if there is any spoilage the meat will begin to turn greenish; usually from the center out. If there are any signs of spoilage, that whole sausage needs to be thrown away.
As far as being safe to eat depends on several factors, pH level, water activity level, how long they have been curing. Nitrite and nitrates will protect you from most harmful bacteria for a period of time. It is the low pH level and low level of active water that provides long term protection. If there is no spoilage, and I don't believe there would be any for the time you had been dry curing, and they haven't fully cured, then they won't have too long of a self life with or without refrigeration, and they must be kept refrigerated or frozen until ready to use.
I won't be logging back on until Sunday morning or evening. This evening I will do some research on the safety question you have asked.
I haven't found any information about safety concerns on tasting the sausage before it is fully dried (30% Weight loss). All the safety concerns have to do with, before, during and after dry curing. If there are no signs of meat spoilage, and the pH level is low then it should be safe to taste.