Kabanosy Revisited
Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 20:58
A couple weeks ago I made some Kabanosy and after seeing varying textures of the finished product on Google images I asked the question as to whether or not the sausage should have a smooth finish or be crinkly or more rough. The general consensus is it should be rough. Not to pick on BobK, but Bob made the statement how he didn't see how you could smoke them and they not finish with a rougher texture due to the shrinkage. However, what Bob didn't take in consideration was the depths of my incompetency because mine finished smooth.
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Of course, Bob was correct, and had I followed the proper procedure I would have ended up finishing the sausages at a much higher temperature (190F/90C) however I was also smoking some other things and I had to compromise and use a lower heat which resulted in a very flavorful but smooth skinned Kabanosy which was far from being shelf stable.
Since one of the things that interests me considerably about this craft is the ability to prepare shelf stable meats. Maybe its just me but to me this is cool business so I thought I'd conduct an experiment for the heck of it.
Since the temperature in the shop has been around 60F with humidity in the 70's I simply hung a sausage in the kitchen and put the rest in the cooler where temperature is in the low 40's and humidity is 77% and let them sit a week.
After a couple days drying the sausages in the kitchen would have been shelf stable if vac-sealed and deprived of oxygen. After a week, the sausages in the cooler had a water activity of 0.86 just 1/100 from being shelf stable but if the pH had been 5.3 or less they would have been. (I didn't check pH) However, the sausages hanging in the kitchen in the 60F range had a water activity of 0.80 which is 5/100's beneath whats required to be considered shelf stable without regard to pH. Also, these sausages were weeping what I call angel tears which I'm beginning to believe is a good sign your sausage is shelf stable.
Here is a picture. The Kabanosy on the left is the one's that were in the cooler and that on the right has been just hanging in the shop.
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If you look close you can see the sweat of the fats coming through the sausage on the right where the other one has little if any noticeable oil on the skin.
I don't know if this will be useful to anyone but it is interesting to me and I've concluded that if you are aiming for a shelf stable Kabanosy you'd be better served finishing the sausages at the high end of the temperature range as this should speed the drying. I also wonder if I had cured the meat in the fridge for two or three days if the natural bacteria wouldn't have done some work on the sausages and lowered pH to 5.3. Had it done this and had I finished the sausages at a higher temp I feel the sausages would have been shelf stable as shortly after they came out of the smokehouse. But then again, just hanging them in the kitchen seemed to work by itself.
I think I'll experiment some more only maybe next time I'll go 100% old school and monitor the pH as I go.
As for the angel tears, my Italian friend gave that term to me and the jury is out on that but it does seem to be a good sign.
I'd appreciate any thoughts on this.
[/img]
Of course, Bob was correct, and had I followed the proper procedure I would have ended up finishing the sausages at a much higher temperature (190F/90C) however I was also smoking some other things and I had to compromise and use a lower heat which resulted in a very flavorful but smooth skinned Kabanosy which was far from being shelf stable.
Since one of the things that interests me considerably about this craft is the ability to prepare shelf stable meats. Maybe its just me but to me this is cool business so I thought I'd conduct an experiment for the heck of it.
Since the temperature in the shop has been around 60F with humidity in the 70's I simply hung a sausage in the kitchen and put the rest in the cooler where temperature is in the low 40's and humidity is 77% and let them sit a week.
After a couple days drying the sausages in the kitchen would have been shelf stable if vac-sealed and deprived of oxygen. After a week, the sausages in the cooler had a water activity of 0.86 just 1/100 from being shelf stable but if the pH had been 5.3 or less they would have been. (I didn't check pH) However, the sausages hanging in the kitchen in the 60F range had a water activity of 0.80 which is 5/100's beneath whats required to be considered shelf stable without regard to pH. Also, these sausages were weeping what I call angel tears which I'm beginning to believe is a good sign your sausage is shelf stable.
Here is a picture. The Kabanosy on the left is the one's that were in the cooler and that on the right has been just hanging in the shop.
[/img]
If you look close you can see the sweat of the fats coming through the sausage on the right where the other one has little if any noticeable oil on the skin.
I don't know if this will be useful to anyone but it is interesting to me and I've concluded that if you are aiming for a shelf stable Kabanosy you'd be better served finishing the sausages at the high end of the temperature range as this should speed the drying. I also wonder if I had cured the meat in the fridge for two or three days if the natural bacteria wouldn't have done some work on the sausages and lowered pH to 5.3. Had it done this and had I finished the sausages at a higher temp I feel the sausages would have been shelf stable as shortly after they came out of the smokehouse. But then again, just hanging them in the kitchen seemed to work by itself.
I think I'll experiment some more only maybe next time I'll go 100% old school and monitor the pH as I go.
As for the angel tears, my Italian friend gave that term to me and the jury is out on that but it does seem to be a good sign.
I'd appreciate any thoughts on this.