Gyulai

[gabstero]

PPM Nitrite 141.725
PPM Nitrate 90.700
Total Salt in Sausage % 2.657

Phil, sorry for my ignorance - what is PPM?

So that total includes my 2.7% Salt from the recipe? Not sure if I get it...

thanks!
Gabi.

[culinairezaken]

parts per million

[gabstero]

Thanks a lot!!

Gabi.

[wheels]

...just showing that your recipe is doing what you wanted!

You have safe levels of nitrite and nitrate and a salt level of 2.657% in the total sausage - the 2.7% in your recipe is a percentage of the meat - not the total sausage ingredients - either way it's fine and dandy!

Please let us know how they turn out.

Phil :

[grisell]

Thanks for the conversion of the recipe! I hope you will be satisfied, otherwise I'll feel a little guilty. Although it wasn't my recipe from the start, I've fiddled with the seasoning and method. Good luck and keep me (us) updated!

[grisell]

My next batch has been hanging 10 days and is now down 31 % of weight, so it will be ready this weekend. Then I'll move it to the kitchen for a quick maturing (12-24 hours) and returned to the curing chamber. I could leave it in the kitchen, but it has a tendency to dry out and harden rather quickly.



This was made with the modified seasoning, and I tasted it today. Simply put: much better. I think you will be satisfied with the result, Gabi.

A recommendation is to be patient. A couple of weeks extra maturing in the curing chamber or refrigerator (not too dry!) improves it a lot.

Cheers

André

[wheels]

Ah, patience, but someone's had a little bit off the one on the right!!



Phil

[grisell]

That was only a recommendation...

[gabstero]

Ooooo Grisell - you are posting those pics of your lovely Gyulai only to tempt me! What a sight and I am sure what a taste!


Phil: Makes sense. Would you recommend increasing the salt to 3% instead?
Also is this the "normal" way of writing a recipe with percentages? or rather the total sausage ingredients as you mentioned.

thanks!
GABI.

[grisell]

Gabi: You should clarify if the percentages are by volume or weight. E.g. paprika has a different density than salt.

[gabstero]

Good point, Grisell -

They are by weight. I went on and measured then weighted each component to get the correct grams for each of them. I had a kitchen scale that's quite precise.

I was going to ask - the pepper, was ground or whole? I suspected whole, but might be wrong.

Thanks
Gabi.

[wheels]

Gabi

I reckon your recipe will be fine as it is.

As you may have seen recipes are written in a variety of ways. My own preference is for grams rather than teaspoons etc (weight rather than volume), I feel it is more accurate and easier to replicate. Many forum members use percentages. Calculating as a percentage of the meat quantity means that recipes can be scaled up or down easily and is preferred by many. When formulating recipes though I find that calculating as a percentage of the overall sausage is easier.

My spreadsheet handles most ways but the one that baffles me is when people use a mixture of weights and volumes in the same recipe.

HTH

Phil

[grisell]

I used ground pepper; I think this is the way I remember it from Hungary too. Actually, I don't think it matters.

[gabstero]

Phil:

I also prefer weight as opposed to volume. I am backing all sorts of bread quite often and all the more serious recipes I am coming across are using percentages where they start as a percent of the flour (i.e. flour is always 100%).

I never tried calculating a recipe as a percentage of the total mix. If I understand correctly in that case (for instance) meat is 97% and all the rest of the ingredients add up to a total 100%.

I like the scalability of a recipe related to the percentage of meat since I always have a different piece of meat to start with and calculating the weight using percentages comes in wasy.

I should probably make an Xcell file that can be used as a template for many recipes, where you just plop the meat & fat to total 100% on the first row, then add your other ingredients to your heart's delight. Maybe having the salt and curing salt as a set percentage would be helpful also, since they are important, unlike the other spices.

Grisell: ground pepper sounds good to me! Love the smell when I crush it!

Cheers folks!
Gabi.

PS: I am almost done with my cold-smoke contraption!!

[wheels]

Gabi

I always work bread recipes in 'baker's percentages' - when using grams it's so simple.

Phil