Hi,
Have any members used this new-fangled cultured celery powder as a substitute in smoked and cured sausages.
Bolzano Meats uses it to make all sorts of wonderful charcuterie products.
As a bit of a health freak, I prefer to use this natural cure compared to the industrial
produced one.
Regards,
Jan.
cure substitute
Isn't celery one of the veggies with a very high nitrate content? The problem with going all natural is knowing whether or not you are getting enough nitrite/nitrate to effect a true cure. Synthetic does not mean artificial, it means that it is the same as but instead of being nature made it is man made.
Ross- tightwad home cook
For anyone who is interested in using natural cures based on celery products, some excellent work has been done by Prof. Joe Sebranek in the Dept. of Meat Science at Iowa State University.
A forewarning - the references noted below are academic in nature and are not the easiest reading (lots of $50 words). While there is no practical "how to" for the home curing enthusiast, they do treat well the issues and concerns that anyone pursuing this kind of curing will face and should know about.
The first is a pdf of a power point presentation (slides).
http://fri.wisc.edu/docs/pdf/J_Sebranek ... 5_4_10.pdf
A very important conclusion in that presentation (page 10),
It appears that natural and organic "uncured"
RTE processed meat products will permit
greater growth of L. monocytogenes and Cl.
perfringens and earlier toxin production by Cl.
botulinum than conventionally cured
products.
Next is a very full and complete paper that I highly encourage anyone contemplating using celery juice products as a nitrate/nitrite source to thoroughly read.
http://www.meatscience.org/WorkArea/lin ... temID=5260
While the paper should be read in it's entirety, a section I would like to emphasize is Ingredients Used For Natural and Organic Cured Meats that begins on page 6. On the next page in that section a very key point is made,
A critical ingredient for processed meats with natural nitrate
sources is a nitrate-reducing bacterial culture, if typical cured meat
properties are the final objective.
Finally, a recent survey (analysis) that tested and compared natural and organic bacon with traditionally cured bacon
http://www.ans.iastate.edu/report/air/2009pdf/R2392.pdf
In that work you can see the analytical results for things like residual nitrite, salt, etc. On average the amount of residual nitrite is a bit lower in the natural/organic products but not greatly so (5.4 vs 7.1 ppm). In the discussion of the results the following was noted,
It appears that natural and organic bacon products are more variable than traditionaly-cured bacon for the quality characteristics measured in this study.
If you want to use celery juice products instead of traditional curing agents, hopefully these references will help get you on the right path, even though they aren't easy reading.
A forewarning - the references noted below are academic in nature and are not the easiest reading (lots of $50 words). While there is no practical "how to" for the home curing enthusiast, they do treat well the issues and concerns that anyone pursuing this kind of curing will face and should know about.
The first is a pdf of a power point presentation (slides).
http://fri.wisc.edu/docs/pdf/J_Sebranek ... 5_4_10.pdf
A very important conclusion in that presentation (page 10),
It appears that natural and organic "uncured"
RTE processed meat products will permit
greater growth of L. monocytogenes and Cl.
perfringens and earlier toxin production by Cl.
botulinum than conventionally cured
products.
Next is a very full and complete paper that I highly encourage anyone contemplating using celery juice products as a nitrate/nitrite source to thoroughly read.
http://www.meatscience.org/WorkArea/lin ... temID=5260
While the paper should be read in it's entirety, a section I would like to emphasize is Ingredients Used For Natural and Organic Cured Meats that begins on page 6. On the next page in that section a very key point is made,
A critical ingredient for processed meats with natural nitrate
sources is a nitrate-reducing bacterial culture, if typical cured meat
properties are the final objective.
Finally, a recent survey (analysis) that tested and compared natural and organic bacon with traditionally cured bacon
http://www.ans.iastate.edu/report/air/2009pdf/R2392.pdf
In that work you can see the analytical results for things like residual nitrite, salt, etc. On average the amount of residual nitrite is a bit lower in the natural/organic products but not greatly so (5.4 vs 7.1 ppm). In the discussion of the results the following was noted,
It appears that natural and organic bacon products are more variable than traditionaly-cured bacon for the quality characteristics measured in this study.
If you want to use celery juice products instead of traditional curing agents, hopefully these references will help get you on the right path, even though they aren't easy reading.
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