Self Checkup
Circle Y or N (yes or no)
Y N 1. Is there such a thing as a "universal brine"?
Y N 2. Seawater averages 3.5% salt. When evaporated, would it yield about 5 pounds of salt?
Y N 3. Does increased salinity develop increased buoyancy?
Y N 4. In Europe and especially in Poland, the mixing of the primary bind for kabanosy is very light. Is this to discourage the development of the proteins actin and myosin?
Y N 5. Are all four of the following statements correct? Collagen casings cannot be linked by twisting. They also must be stuffed while dry. They will accept smoke very well. Collagen is synthetic.
Supply the correct word or words:
6. Because kabanosy is so thin, it cooks ________ than larger sausages.
7. Spinach, lettuce, and beets contain more _______ than sausages.
8. Sodium nitrate must be reduced by________to become _________.
9. Nitrite breaks down into _________- the substance that actually cures meat.
10. Sodium nitrate is put into Cure #2 and is slowly breaks down. Potassium nitrate is called ________.
11. When you mix charcoal and sulfur together with potassium nitrate, you get _________.
12. It is your responsibility to mix exactly four ounces of Prague Powder with _________ pounds of meat.
13. Two level teaspoons of Cure #1 will cure _________ pounds of meat.
14. Cure #________ is used to cure all meats that require cooking, smoking, and canning.
15. In the United States, Cure #1 is manufactured using one ounce of sodium_______ added to each one pound of salt.
16. Cure #_______ does NOT contain sodium nitrate.
17. Cure #_______ contains both sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite.
18. Sodium nitrate is still used by many dry-cured (air-dried) sausage manufacturers because sodium nitrate (NaNO3) serves as a long time _________ of sodium nitrite (NaNO2).
19. Potassium ________ is thought to produce cancer-causing nitrosamines when cooked at higher temperatures.
20. Purified salt is simply salt that has been processed to have all _________removed.
True or False
T F 21. The letters Aw is an abbreviation for water activity. This is a measure of acidity.
T F 22. Colored mold on the surface of a sausage should be boiled off.
T T 23. El Ducko is nuts!
T F 24. Salt forces water to evaporate
T F 25. Salt destroys bacteria.
T F 26. Kabanosy is a "dry-cured" product
T F 27. Two level teaspoons of Cure #1 will produce a "pickup" of 156 parts per million in ten pounds of comminuted sausage.
T F 28. When stuffing sausages, air bubbles should be lanced with a needle to prevent the possibility of mold forming.
T F 29. Collagen casings are made from the hides of cattle and need no lubrication to be placed on a stuffing horn.
T F 30. There is an old conventional and generally accepted rule that recommends using enough brine water to equal fifty percent of the meat`s weight. In other words, for a 12 pound ham, six pounds of brine water will suffice.
T F 31. Nitrite simply breaks down too quickly to be of value over an extended period of time. In other words, in salamis requiring three or more months to cure, a certain amount of sodium nitrate must be added to break down into yet more nitrite over time. This is the reason Cure #2 contains both nitrate and nitrite.
Answers:
1.N 2.N 3.Y 4.Y 5.N 6. Faster 7. Nitrates 8. Lactic acid bacteria / nitrite 9. Nitric oxide 10. Saltpeter 11. Gunpowder 12 one hundred.
13. Ten 14. One 15. Nitrite 16. One 17. Two 18. "reservoir" 19. Nitrate 20. trace elements or impurities 21.F 22.F 23.T 24.F 25.F 26.F 27.T 28.T 30.T 31.T