Wittdog's Pepperoni - conversion - help wanted please

[wheels]

A big ask, I know, but could someone check my conversion of Wittdog's Pepperoni recipe please. I have converted it for use with products available in the UK, and to metric amounts/percentages.
The corn syrup solids have been replaced by increasing the Dextrose?
Fermento replaced with LS 25 Starter?
Instacure with Cure #2?
Soy Protein adjusted to the usage rate for Scobies Empro Soya Plus 10 (2%) - I calculated Wittdog's usage at about 200gm/3.62%?

My UK conversion is on the left. My % figures are as a % of the whole sausage - not as a % of the meat.



Wittdog has already told me:
The corn syrup solids help to maintain the fermentation process...I didn't use them last time...I just used the dextrose
As for the pork to beef ratio I think I went with 7lbs of beef to 3lbs of pork...
Can you get powdered buttermilk?....you can substitute that for the fermento... (My answer to this is No - unless anyone has a UK source?)

The questions are:
Are my substitutions sensible ones?
Are my teaspoon/tablespoon conversions to gm about right?
Should I just have left the corn syrup solids out or is it sensible to increase the dextrose to compensate (as I have done above).
Have I got about the correct levels of Dextrose, LS 25, Soy Protein, and Cure #2?

Phil

[wittdog]

Dam Yankees

[Seminole]

Wheels,

Your recipe fits into semi-dry type of pepperoni. I have no idea whether you want it to dry after fermentation or cook as is normally done by commercial processors.

1. Pepperoni can be made from beef, pork or a combination such as 30% beef and 70% pork, so your choice of materials is fine.

2. 50 g dextrose is fine, this will drop your pH one full point. Were you making dry sausage, you will use no more than half of it.

3. Salt is added at about 2.5%, so you just little below.
Dry sausage will require 3%.

4. Fermento does not do much and I don't believe is used by professionals.

I don't know about buttermilk powder, but Non-Fat-Dry-Milk is commonly used in manufacture of fermented sausages. The reason is that it contains about 50% lactose (milk sugar). Most lactic acid bacteria process lactose very slowly and some of the sweetness will remain in the sausage. This offsets some of the acidity that was created by fermentation (bacteria matabolizing dextrose).

5. As a rule Cure #2 will be used for dry sausage, but it makes very little difference as both cures contain 6.25% sodium nitrite. Cure #2 contains also 4% sodium nitrate. Some of this nitrate will be used up by color forming bacteria during fermentation, the rest will dissipate during drying. Once the sausage becomes acidic enough, those curing bacteria are not effective in working with nitrate. Cooking will also kill them. It does not really matter much.

6. I don't know what LS 25 is, I hope it is a starter culture. Culture is highly recommended. I believe that the American Distributor - The Sausage Maker www.sausagemaker.com is also in England. They have recently added Charles-Hansen starter cultures to their line.

7. You may check this link as it provides good information about fermented sausages:

http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/fermented-sausages.htm

[wheels]

Seminole - thanks for taking the time to look at this, I intend to dry the sausage:

1. Pepperoni can be made from beef, pork or a combination such as 30% beef and 70% pork, so your choice of materials is fine.

I will make some at 30/70 beef to pork and some at 70/30 (as per Wittdog). It'll be interesting to see how they differ. The small snack ones here have just pork.

2. 50 g dextrose is fine, this will drop your pH one full point. Were you making dry sausage, you will use no more than half of it.

Thanks for confirming this increase in Dextrose to account for the lack of Corn Syrup solids in this 'neck of the woods'.

3. Salt is added at about 2.5%, so you just little below.
Dry sausage will require 3%.

I will increase the salt to 3%. Won't it be very salty after drying (and presumably the salt % will therefore increase)?

4. Fermento does not do much and I don't believe is used by professionals.

My take on this is that fermento is used instead of a starter culture.

5. As a rule Cure #2 will be used for dry sausage...

I will probably actually use cure #1 and saltpetre to achieve the same/similar levels of Nitrite and Nitrate. The question is are these levels the 'best' ones given that I can adjust the levels independently of one another. I was wondering whether to go for around 150PPM of both?

I don't know about buttermilk powder, but Non-Fat-Dry-Milk is commonly used in manufacture of fermented sausages...

I reduced the amount of soy (estimated at about 3.6% in Wittdog's recipe) to around the 2% recommended by my soy supplier. Would I be sensible replace the other 1.6% with NFDM.

6. I don't know what LS 25 is, I hope it is a starter culture. Culture is highly recommended. I believe that the American Distributor - The Sausage Maker www.sausagemaker.com is also in England. They have recently added Charles-Hansen starter cultures to their line.

LS 25 is the starter culture sold on this forum owner's shop site. I am not aware of sausagemaker.com operating in the UK - anyone else heard of this? Is 0.2% the correct usage rate?

7. You may check this link as it provides good information about fermented sausages:
http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/fermented-sausages.htm

It's worth repeating this link - 'twas I that started the topic about it on the forum.

Can anyone also check my teaspoon/tablespoon conversions to gm please?

Whilst I appear to be going to unnecessary lengths for accuracy, the reason for this is that I can only make a small amount of dried sausage at a time and so any inaccuracies become very apparent.

Thanks again for your help.

Phil

[lemonD]

Phil,
Checked a few of your teaspoon/tablespoon conversions using http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/ppmCalcula ... ulator.htm
and http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ , they checkout OK.

LD

[wheels]

Big Thanks LD.

I used Rytek Kutas's but was a little unsure.

Phil

[Iamarealbigdog]

Careful on that salt, the amount requires is 3.2% for drying the sausage but that is not including the weight for the fat content. if you are running 30% fat you need to reduce the salt accordingly, we had a big issue with this, check ou this link

The Black Pig's Genoa Salami

We found that 3.25% was way too much, if you look down at the comments it was calculated based on out fat content 2.5% would have been better

[wheels]

Big Dog

Thanks for that. I will increase the salt to 2.5% overall (including salt from cure).

Phil

[wheels]

Taking on board the comments made - here's where it's at:



Final tweaks please:-

1. Is 0.2% LS-25 starter (sold on the main site) the correct usage rate?
2. Are the Nitrite (137PPM) and Nitrate (88PPM) levels for cure #2 OK?
3. In reality I will probably use Cure #1 and Saltpetre at 150PPM each (current EU levels) does this seem about right?
4. Have I missed anything obvious that should altered or added to make up the items I have removed/altered?

Thanks for all your help.

Phil