Sodium Ascorbate

[wallie]

I recently read a book in my local library on making fresh sausages and quite a few of the recipes among the ingredients was sodium ascorbate,supposedly to improve the colour.
I would like to know if this is correct and if so what proportion would be used per kilo of meat.
I knew about it in cured products but had never come across it in fresh sausage.

Cheers
wallie

[wheels]

Wallie

I believe it's used commercially as an antioxidant.

I'd guess that the usage is around 500PPM? I can't see much point in using it in home-made fresh sausage though?

Phil

[Oddley]

Hi wallie,

I use ascorbic acid in some of my sausages. It helps keep the meat pink, also as it is an antioxidant, it helps stop rancidity. Changes the flavour of the meat, making it taste fresher. I use it in minute amounts 200 mg/Kg.

If you have it, you can use sodium ascorbate, in place of ascorbic acid. I have not tried this, so if you do, let us know how you get on.

[wheels]

Oddley

Do you find that it stops the changes to the flavour of sausage after freezing?

Which sorts of sausage do you use it in?

Phil

[Oddley]

Hi wheels,

These days, I don't make big enough batches to freeze, I mince the pork and vac pak it in ½ and 1 Kg bags, then freeze them, I then can make small amounts of sausage, just by defrosting the amount of minced pork I need that day. I much prefer fresh unfrozen sausages. I have not tried it in frozen sausages.

Ascorbic acid does in my opinion improve the flavour and appearance of fresh sausages. I use it mainly in fresh British type sausages that are lightly spiced, as you can taste the improvement.

I have not really tried it in the heavily spiced sausages, as I don't believe it would make much difference to the taste. I could be wrong. I'll leave it to someone else to try that.

[wheels]

Many thanks Oddley I have never really thought about using it - your comments/advice make me think I should re-visit my view.

I think that your way of freezing the meat and then making the sausage freshly each time is the ideal way to go. However, how it would fit with my life-style is another matter!

Phil

[Zulululu]

Hi Wheels,
Acsorbic is vit.C a white powder.I use it in my brats because it has a cure. In the past I would get blotches on the sausages where they were touching in the fridge overnight now they have a more even colour.It is also used to speed up curing.I get some from a health shop, expensive but goes a long way.

[wheels]

I use sodium ascorbate in my bacon cures which is a similar VitC salt. I note that commercially it seems to be ascorbic acid that's used in sausage - is there any reason for this, other than cost?

My (newly revived ) interest is if it will prevent the flavour of the sausage changing when frozen.

Whilst I would love to be organised enough to always have fresh, like Oddley does, I just can't see it happening for me!

Phil

[Zulululu]

There is some good info on Len's site, have a look I think it was under "Introduction."