I'm a bologna lover at heart, and not so much into the "hard" sausages which I understand do use the cultures. Thus, I have zero experience with any type of Bactoferm culture.
I was wondering if any of you might have a recipe you could post for bologna that uses a fast acting Bactoferm in place of the Fermento, that would result in a good quality authentic tang to the finished product.
Many thanks in advance for the recipe.
Bologna with Bactoferm
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Butterbean
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I've considered using the acid, but I'm wondering if the bacteria culture would give me a more true form of fermentation taste, and one that I could adjust by the type of culture used, than just adding a chemical?
I realize that the art of fermented sausage making is a whole separate art from making fresh sausage. The hard sausages, although I've never made them, are something that doesn't have a big following in my home, and its for that reason that I've never gotten into making them. We're more of a lunch meat and fresh type of sausage family I guess! LOL
I know that there are some very dedicated culture users on this forum as well as formulation developers, and thought that maybe someone might have developed a tangy bologna recipe they'd be willing to share that does indeed use a fast acting culture.
I've read also that in order to make fermented sausage, it involves controlled humidity and temperature cabinets etc. which some folks have gone to great lengths to make and use.
As for my equipment, the best I have would be a 3'x3'x 2' tall Styrofoam box that contains a light bulb on a dimmer switch and a pan of boiling water for humidity. This I use for my bread dough.
I realize that the art of fermented sausage making is a whole separate art from making fresh sausage. The hard sausages, although I've never made them, are something that doesn't have a big following in my home, and its for that reason that I've never gotten into making them. We're more of a lunch meat and fresh type of sausage family I guess! LOL
I know that there are some very dedicated culture users on this forum as well as formulation developers, and thought that maybe someone might have developed a tangy bologna recipe they'd be willing to share that does indeed use a fast acting culture.
I've read also that in order to make fermented sausage, it involves controlled humidity and temperature cabinets etc. which some folks have gone to great lengths to make and use.
As for my equipment, the best I have would be a 3'x3'x 2' tall Styrofoam box that contains a light bulb on a dimmer switch and a pan of boiling water for humidity. This I use for my bread dough.
Rick have you seen this recipe?
http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... na-culture
http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... na-culture
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Butterbean
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- Location: South Georgia
Bob, when I reviewed the recipe, it stated to use .12 g. of culture. I'm not sure my scale would even register one-tenth of a gram.
Now in reviewing the article on starter cultures found at http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... e/cultures down at the very bottom in the notes, I see they suggest 1/2 teaspoon of culture per 10# of meat dissolved in 1/2 C. of distilled water. The 1/2 t. is doable for me.
What are your thoughts on the amount of culture used in a recipe?
Now in reviewing the article on starter cultures found at http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... e/cultures down at the very bottom in the notes, I see they suggest 1/2 teaspoon of culture per 10# of meat dissolved in 1/2 C. of distilled water. The 1/2 t. is doable for me.
What are your thoughts on the amount of culture used in a recipe?
Rick I am by no means an expert.
1/4th of a packet would be a safe bet.
I refer you to this post:
For safety reasons better keep the culture inside the original packaging dividing it into not more than four portions. I know it might sound like a producers way of prompting you guys into buying more culture than you need - but there IS a sound reason:
As I´ve stated before the bacteria strain is actually mixed with some kind of carrier.
Often it is dextrose, sometimes starch, in order to add some volumen, otherwise the sachets would appear almost empty.
And because the bacteria strains are only mixed with the carrier you won´t be able to tell after transport if the mix is still even or if the two components started "choosing side" within the sachet. Well - you can shake the sachet but the smaller the divided portions you make the less security you have that there is actually as many bacteria in that little portion as you´d hope for. The majority of it may well be carrier with less bacteria than ideal...
By sticking to four portions you remain on the safe side.
http://www.wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopi ... torder=asc&
start=15
P.S.
Your bread fermenting chamber should work just fine..if you can keep the humidity and temp in the ballpark...as long as you are going to smoke/cook them to a safe temp. to finish.
1/4th of a packet would be a safe bet.
I refer you to this post:
For safety reasons better keep the culture inside the original packaging dividing it into not more than four portions. I know it might sound like a producers way of prompting you guys into buying more culture than you need - but there IS a sound reason:
As I´ve stated before the bacteria strain is actually mixed with some kind of carrier.
Often it is dextrose, sometimes starch, in order to add some volumen, otherwise the sachets would appear almost empty.
And because the bacteria strains are only mixed with the carrier you won´t be able to tell after transport if the mix is still even or if the two components started "choosing side" within the sachet. Well - you can shake the sachet but the smaller the divided portions you make the less security you have that there is actually as many bacteria in that little portion as you´d hope for. The majority of it may well be carrier with less bacteria than ideal...
By sticking to four portions you remain on the safe side.
http://www.wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopi ... torder=asc&
start=15
P.S.
Your bread fermenting chamber should work just fine..if you can keep the humidity and temp in the ballpark...as long as you are going to smoke/cook them to a safe temp. to finish.
Bob K - I've made the Marianski Lebanon bologna with culture a couple times. It comes out quite tangy so if you like tang you're gonna love this one! It is on the right in this photo - sorry for the bad slicing job, which makes it look downright furry...it really does look better than that! Too lazy to get out the slicer, let alone clean it. I use the amount of culture called for in the recipe. I can't see using a quarter packet for one recipe - it's far too expensive for that when you are making 5 or 10 lb batches.
The other one is mortadella made with NorCalKid's recipe from the Members' Recipe Index. Not tangy at all, which is actually what I prefer. You can tell I like peppercorns.
That recipe is a huge favorite around here.
If you like making lunch meats, you might try Len Poli's recipe for cotto salami. I've made this but without the dried milk or ascorbic acid. Came out good, though not tangy. I suppose it you used the ascorbic acid you'd get some tang?
http://www.lpoli.50webs.com/index_files ... to%201.pdf
Cheers,
Jeff
The other one is mortadella made with NorCalKid's recipe from the Members' Recipe Index. Not tangy at all, which is actually what I prefer. You can tell I like peppercorns.
That recipe is a huge favorite around here. If you like making lunch meats, you might try Len Poli's recipe for cotto salami. I've made this but without the dried milk or ascorbic acid. Came out good, though not tangy. I suppose it you used the ascorbic acid you'd get some tang?
http://www.lpoli.50webs.com/index_files ... to%201.pdf
Cheers,
Jeff
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Chuckwagon
- Veteran
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- Location: Rocky Mountains
Wow Jeff those are some tasty looking cold cuts!!!Cabonaia wrote:Bob K - I've made the Marianski Lebanon bologna with culture a couple times. It comes out quite tangy so if you like tang you're gonna love this one! It is on the right in this photo - sorry for the bad slicing job, which makes it look downright furry...it really does look better than that! Too lazy to get out the slicer, let alone clean it. I use the amount of culture called for in the recipe. I can't see using a quarter packet for one recipe - it's far too expensive for that when you are making 5 or 10 lb batches.
The other one is mortadella made with NorCalKid's recipe from the Members' Recipe Index. Not tangy at all, which is actually what I prefer. You can tell I like peppercorns.
If you like making lunch meats, you might try Len Poli's recipe for cotto salami. I've made this but without the dried milk or ascorbic acid. Came out good, though not tangy. I suppose it you used the ascorbic acid you'd get some tang?
http://www.lpoli.50webs.com/index_files ... to%201.pdf
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[url=http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x60 ... 7/cd97.jpg]Image[/URL]
Cheers,
Jeff
It was Rick who was looking for the recipes...... but your efforts have spurned my interest!
Hey Carpster - Lebanon bologna has a couple of important steps that hopefully you are set up for. Seems if you have made summer sausage these steps should be a snap for you. But I'll blab on about them for the sake of anybody else who hasn't made summer sausage but might be interested in making Lebanon bologna.
1. You need to keep it warm and moist for 72 hours: "Ferment at 24° C (75° F) for 72 hours, 90-85% humidity." For this I use a typical ultrasonic humidifier, in this case made by Crane and the type you put in your kids' room when they are sick. It is attached to a humidistat set to 88 relative humidity in an old refrigerator. To heat it, I use a ceramic bulb in a clip light. The fridge is plugged into a temperature controller that kicks on the fridge whenever the heat tries to go above 75. If you don't have a setup like this and would like more detail about the equipment I use, just let me know. There are lots of simple designs like this posted on this forum.
2. It is cold smoked: "Cold smoke for 2 days at < 22° C 72° F, 85% humidity." I use an "A-Maze-N" smoker and smoke at night when it is more humid out. But I don't monitor or worry about the humidity for cold smoking since I don't have a way to control it anyway. It is much more important to keep the humidity up during fermentation, in my opinion. BTW, 2 days of cold smoking means smoke it for a while one day, then put it in the fridge till the next day, and smoke it again the next day (or night). It doesn't mean smoke continuously for 2 days.
Here's my cold smoking setup. Lighting the A-Maze-N with a blow torch:
The A-Maze-N at work, smoking some kabanosy. It goes for maybe 10 hours. I'm not sure, because I light it, forget about it, and check pull the sausage out in the morning.
Something not mentioned in the recipe, but important to me. I grind my beef for this recipe. I don't trust ground beef from the supermarket for something I am going to ferment.
Cheers,
Jeff
1. You need to keep it warm and moist for 72 hours: "Ferment at 24° C (75° F) for 72 hours, 90-85% humidity." For this I use a typical ultrasonic humidifier, in this case made by Crane and the type you put in your kids' room when they are sick. It is attached to a humidistat set to 88 relative humidity in an old refrigerator. To heat it, I use a ceramic bulb in a clip light. The fridge is plugged into a temperature controller that kicks on the fridge whenever the heat tries to go above 75. If you don't have a setup like this and would like more detail about the equipment I use, just let me know. There are lots of simple designs like this posted on this forum.
2. It is cold smoked: "Cold smoke for 2 days at < 22° C 72° F, 85% humidity." I use an "A-Maze-N" smoker and smoke at night when it is more humid out. But I don't monitor or worry about the humidity for cold smoking since I don't have a way to control it anyway. It is much more important to keep the humidity up during fermentation, in my opinion. BTW, 2 days of cold smoking means smoke it for a while one day, then put it in the fridge till the next day, and smoke it again the next day (or night). It doesn't mean smoke continuously for 2 days.
Here's my cold smoking setup. Lighting the A-Maze-N with a blow torch:
The A-Maze-N at work, smoking some kabanosy. It goes for maybe 10 hours. I'm not sure, because I light it, forget about it, and check pull the sausage out in the morning.
Something not mentioned in the recipe, but important to me. I grind my beef for this recipe. I don't trust ground beef from the supermarket for something I am going to ferment.
Cheers,
Jeff
Sorry about that!
