Liver sausage

toolmann
User
User
Posts: 54
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 23:11
Location: aurora

Post by toolmann » Fri Jan 14, 2011 15:03

hi chuckwagon !
i agree with you on the cure for raw cured sausages , the liversausage is a cooked sausage wich dont need curing , the only thing the cure does is the brighter colour , with salt its a more grey colour , for some not apetizing looking , thats all . i have some other liverwurst recepies that use the cure . and the smoking is only for taste not for curing .

this is what i have learned from some butchers from europe

regards siggi
Siara
Frequent User
Frequent User
Posts: 138
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 18:45
Location: Belgia/Płock

Post by Siara » Fri Jan 14, 2011 15:09

toolmann wrote:the only thing the cure does is the brighter colour
Not 100% true toolmann, indeed it does influence color, but also is antyseptic and kills bacteria.
Read about curing here:
http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-making/curing
"W życiu piękne są tylko chwile"
Pozdrawiam
Siara
toolmann
User
User
Posts: 54
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 23:11
Location: aurora

Post by toolmann » Fri Jan 14, 2011 15:57

ok thanks , will do !!
User avatar
Chuckwagon
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 4494
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 04:51
Location: Rocky Mountains

Post by Chuckwagon » Sat Jan 15, 2011 00:56

Siara,
This is the best part:
Well, there are two approaches:

Like an amateur - collecting hundreds of recipes and relying blindly on each of them. You lose a recipe and you don`t know what to do. And how do you know they contain the right amount of cure?
Like a professional - taking matters in your own hands and applying cures according to the USA Government requirements.
Gotta love it, eh? :wink:
Best wishes, Chuckwagon
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
User avatar
Chuckwagon
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 4494
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 04:51
Location: Rocky Mountains

Post by Chuckwagon » Sat Jan 15, 2011 12:40

Nitrates and nitrites have gotten a bad rap. During the mid 1970`s, I remember a series of articles published by an attention-seeking reporter trying to establish a name for himself - he was a sensationalist. Indeed, he stirred up and excited the American public, putting fear of nitrates and nitrites into the average consumer. The fact remains, the National Academy of Sciences (Research Council) states that when used in proper concentration (established legal limits), nitrite does nothing to directly harm consumers. Did you know that vegetables contain more nitrites than sausage? In fact, vegetables contain higher concentrations of nitrate than any other foods in our diet. Spinach, lettuce, and beets, are full of the stuff.

Nitrate in itself is not successful in producing the curing reaction. Sodium nitrate must be reduced by lactic acid bacteria (micrococcaceae species), or other natural means, to be effective. In other words, nitrate breaks down into nitrite - and nitrite breaks down into nitric oxide - the substance that actually cures meat. Modern science has not produced a substitute for sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite used as agents to preserve meat and destroy clostridium botulinum.

Nitrates and nitrites must be used with caution. Both are considered toxic in larger amounts and for that reason, strict limits on their use have been established by the USDA. In the United States, the amount of added sodium nitrite lies within the range of 50-200 mg. per kilogram, and sodium nitrate in the range of 200 to 600 mg. per kg. How much is lethal? A fatal dose of potassium nitrate is about 30 grams (two tablespoons). Merely 1 gram of sodium nitrite (about 22 milligrams per kilogram of body weight) will cancel your clock! That`s only about 1/3 of a teaspoon! It takes a little more for sodium nitrate to keep you permanently horizontal - one full teaspoon will do the trick!

It is important to note that in various countries, the formulas for nitrate and nitrite cures vary greatly. The strength of nitrates and nitrites themselves do not vary. It is the amount added to a salt carrier that makes a cure stronger or weaker in comparison to others. For instance, In Poland, the nitrite and salt cure called Peklosol is available at only 0.6% nitrite. In Germany, it is called Pokelsalz and contains the same 0.6% nitrite content in salt. In Sweden, folks call their product Colorazo at 0.6% nitrite. In France, it`s Sel nitrite` at 0.6% nitrite. These cures contain only six-hundredths of one percent nitrite. Note the placement of the decimal point folks! Although the cure is not pink in color (it is white), a consumer would find a product much too salty to be palatable if it were to contain ominous amounts of nitrite. In America, Cure #1 contains 6.25% sodium nitrite, and 93.75% salt - ten and a half times stronger than most European cures, with the exception of some of those in the UK containing 5.88% sodium nitrite.

On the other hand, Australian cures are stronger than those used in America. In Australia, Cure #1 is known as Glow #1. It contains a whopping 7.8% sodium nitrite and is used in cooked sausages. It is added to meat at the rate of 1.6 grams of cure per one kilogram of meat OR one level metric teaspoon (5.6 grams) per 3.5 kilograms of meat.

One curing agent must never be confused with the other within any recipe and one certainly must not be substituted for the other. Moreover, both cures are never used together in the same recipe. Notice that formula #1 contains only nitrite while formula #2 contains both nitrite and nitrate. If you mix, cure, and smoke sausage, it becomes your responsibility to follow directions mixing exactly four ounces of Prague Powder with one hundred pounds of meat, or for us home consumers, precisely two level teaspoons mixed with a little water for even distribution, for each ten pound batch of sausage. If you are mixing only five pounds of sausage, add just one level teaspoon of curing salt. For dry-curing whole pieces of meat muscle, we multiply the amount of cure by 4. This allows a "pick up" of about ten percent or approximately 156 parts per million in the final product. Please measure carefully and remember that any recklessness in mixing these salts may potentially injure someone.

Best wishes,
Chuckwagon
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
ssorllih
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 4331
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 19:32
Location: maryland

Post by ssorllih » Thu Mar 03, 2011 04:14

I am a home canner and as such have considerable interest in food safety. One incident of botulism poisoning involved sauteed onions at a grill in a park. It was reported that the onions had been sliced and sauteed and placed in a tub on the back of the grill for use when called for. Coated with fat and kept warm but not hot they grew a deadly culture in just a few hours. Just a little lemon juice can lower the pH enough to reduce the risk somewhat but not entirely.
In another case a man had boiled some eggs and placed them in a pickle solution and set them in the window in his kitchen. He might have been safe except that he pierced each egg with a toothpick in the hope that the pickle solution would penetrate the egg. It didn't but he did manage to inoculate the eggs with bacteria that the pickle solution couldn't reach.
Ross- tightwad home cook
User avatar
Chuckwagon
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 4494
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 04:51
Location: Rocky Mountains

Post by Chuckwagon » Thu Mar 03, 2011 06:16

Ross, the toothpick in the egg is just about as weird and unusual as the case in Europe where a deer hunter's bullet grazed a tree on its way to the targeted animal. Scraping a few toxic spores from the bark, the stuff thrived in the warm meat and blood long enough to be "preserved" in bottled meat. The hunter's son actually survived when treated at a hospital but it took authorities six months to figure out what had happened. Deadly stuff!

Best Wishes,
Chucwagon
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
ssorllih
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 4331
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 19:32
Location: maryland

Post by ssorllih » Thu Mar 03, 2011 17:22

Pressure canning has proven to be safe with glass jars but the precautions must be adhered to with an almost religous fervor. http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can5_meat.html
This link is the best I have found.
Ross- tightwad home cook
crustyo44
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 1089
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2011 06:21
Location: Brisbane

Post by crustyo44 » Thu Jun 16, 2011 06:21

Hi,
As a Dutch born but naturalised Australian all these pictures bring back fond memories from long ago.
To make them here, you must kill your own animals as blood in not available as far as I know and the offal is snapped up by the manufacturers.
Regards,
Jan.
Brisbane.
pasomare
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 01:23
Location: Pennsylvania

Post by pasomare » Fri Nov 11, 2011 02:31

thanks for that info on Botulism, I had no idea it was so easy to produce!!
Do not meddle in the affair of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
ssorllih
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 4331
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 19:32
Location: maryland

Post by ssorllih » Fri Nov 11, 2011 03:17

Actually botulinium closdtridium is rather difficult to produce and grow but you only get one chance at getting it wrong. Most of us have been in the presence of the spores because they are everywhere. Usually we succeed in distroying the toxens by cooking. Cooking in an open pot won't kill the bacteria but it will distroy the toxen. So you could bring a pot to a boil and eat the soup and slip the pot to the back of the stove and let is sit at 80 degrees F for the day. Then come home and pick it up sniff it and taste it cold and poison yourself. the next person could bring it back to a boil, distroy the toxens and enjoy the soup in good health
Ross- tightwad home cook
User avatar
Bubba
Passionate
Passionate
Posts: 481
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2011 21:07
Location: Aiken, SC

Post by Bubba » Sat Nov 12, 2011 01:33

ssorllih wrote:One incident of botulism poisoning involved sauteed onions at a grill in a park. It was reported that the onions had been sliced and sauteed and placed in a tub on the back of the grill for use when called for. Coated with fat and kept warm but not hot they grew a deadly culture in just a few hours. Just a little lemon juice can lower the pH enough to reduce the risk somewhat but not entirely.
Hi Ross,

This is very interesting, and please keep in mind I ask my question because I'm trying to learn more about these safety cautions.
The sautéed onions had to be in contact with the meat (even so indirectly while grilling) and that caused the bacteria to grow along with the lack of sufficient heat?
Then how does one relate adding the lemon juice, thus lowering the PH, to maybe reducing the risk of bacteria growth?
As a rule I never sauté onions in the same area as the meat being cooked, they are always done in a clean and separate pan.
Ron
ssorllih
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 4331
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 19:32
Location: maryland

Post by ssorllih » Sat Nov 12, 2011 01:39

In the case of the onions the fat created tha anerobic conditions and the toxins developed in the onions. The toxins are distroyed when heated to about 180 F. The meat in this case was not the vector.
Ross- tightwad home cook
User avatar
Bubba
Passionate
Passionate
Posts: 481
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2011 21:07
Location: Aiken, SC

Post by Bubba » Sat Nov 12, 2011 01:43

ssorllih wrote:the fat created the anerobic conditions and the toxins developed in the onions
Ok, thank you! As said, very interesting.
Ron
Post Reply