Idea for PH testing sausage during ferment
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 17:35
This may have been covered already - but will put it there for my fellow noobs.
If you are going to have electronic PH testing tool, the full professional models typically have a stabbing sheaf protecting the probe, to allow penetration of denser organic material without damaging the probe itself (ie you sausage skin to get into the meat) . Down market from this are contact probes.
The penetration probes I don't think are great for dry cured sausage as multiple testing will leave gaping holes (open for infection) in the sausage skin.
The work around from what I read is to take part of the original sausage mix (not stuffed) and put it in a small container and place alongside the fermenting hangs, and test this as a proxy for what is happening inside the sausage. But I don't think the mix outside the sausage skin is an accurate proxy for what is going on inside. I did a couple of random tests using sample masa put in a bowl placed in the fermenting space, vs extracting masa from inside an actual sausage. I found the PH readings were out by between .4 and .5.
In any event my good wife keeps a bunch of plastic 'packet 'clips'. My last run (first actually) was in a thin diameter casing and I made a big bunch so had the luxury of making a mini sausage as tester. Rather than tying off the bottom end - I clipped it. See picture below. When I want to test PH I pull my sacrificial wiener , unclipped the clip, and squeezed a bit out, and reclip and re-hang. As noted above- I have been testing the masa inside the skin against a sample kept outside the skin, and there is a material difference, more accurate and hassle free!
If you are going to have electronic PH testing tool, the full professional models typically have a stabbing sheaf protecting the probe, to allow penetration of denser organic material without damaging the probe itself (ie you sausage skin to get into the meat) . Down market from this are contact probes.
The penetration probes I don't think are great for dry cured sausage as multiple testing will leave gaping holes (open for infection) in the sausage skin.
The work around from what I read is to take part of the original sausage mix (not stuffed) and put it in a small container and place alongside the fermenting hangs, and test this as a proxy for what is happening inside the sausage. But I don't think the mix outside the sausage skin is an accurate proxy for what is going on inside. I did a couple of random tests using sample masa put in a bowl placed in the fermenting space, vs extracting masa from inside an actual sausage. I found the PH readings were out by between .4 and .5.
In any event my good wife keeps a bunch of plastic 'packet 'clips'. My last run (first actually) was in a thin diameter casing and I made a big bunch so had the luxury of making a mini sausage as tester. Rather than tying off the bottom end - I clipped it. See picture below. When I want to test PH I pull my sacrificial wiener , unclipped the clip, and squeezed a bit out, and reclip and re-hang. As noted above- I have been testing the masa inside the skin against a sample kept outside the skin, and there is a material difference, more accurate and hassle free!