Bologna with Bactoferm

[Igor Duńczyk]

Jeff - you are setting some standards here!
Boy does it look good what you are turning out from that private delicatessen workshop of yours

I am SO much on par with your preference of home grinding over ready grinded meat from the supermarket and I hope that all of you out there remember that grinding leaves a wast surface for wild bacteria to romp around -and they multiply with lightning speed! Especially at summertime (...where is the puke-emoticon when I need it the most )

A comment:

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...

Yes - with the grotesque overpricing of starter cultures for private customers I understand you very well. And if I dared to mention the average b-to-b prices I´d probably become an accomplice to murder when you run out to lynch the guys who charge you THAT much.

Personally I think it is like punishing the little guy who strives to make his own healthy fermented meat products free of those unnecessary chemical additives that are used unsparingly by the industrial molochs. (Oops... now I start sounding like Aschenbrand or Michael Moore I promise to cut (out) the baloney from now on )

Jokes apart, I´ll not the one to promote "micro-dosage" by merely scaling down the 25 gr. intended for 222 lb. so that you will a.e. use only 1,25 gr. culture for 11 lb. of meat.
For me it is a matter of product safety: If making small amounts (22 lb and less) I recommend overdosing by at least 50 - 100% to be sure that carrier don´t dominate over bacteria UNLESS you count yourself among those who really keep high hygienic standards in both choice and handling of raw material and during the process.
If you keep such pristine standards there will also be a lower count of indigenous bacteria for the starter culture to overtake and dominate. In that case even a low dosage of starter culture will suffice.

Rick - If you like tang with a vengance you could use a starter culture with a somewhat more agressive acidity profile instead of the milder acidifying T-SPX.
It could be Bactoferm F-RM-52 providing that you increase the dextrose/dry glycose amount to at least 5 gr pr 2,2 lb. The ´52 doesn´t ferment sugar (sucrose) and the Lebanon Bologna recipe calls for only 3 gr. dextrose which is enough to activate the culture but might be insufficient for producing enough acidity with real tang.

Otherwise try to look up a distributor of the italian SACCO starter cultures (feel free to accuse me of feathering my own nest ) and ask for Lyocarni SHI-24 or Lyocarni VBL-97.
I don´t know about their pricing policy on the US market - but please don´t lynch their distributor if they turn out to be just as expensive as the CH´stuff

[Chuckwagon]

Jeff, are you using Photobucket?

[Cabonaia]

Jeff, are you using Photobucket?

I used image shack. But now the photos seem to be working?

[Rick]

Igor,
Thank you for the comments and suggestions on the culture usage. I'll look into it. I'll do some research, as I don't believe Butcher-Packer in Detroit carry those two types you referenced.
I currently have a package of LHP in the freezer for my experiment.

[Cabonaia]

Hey Igor - thanks for the compliment. You have made my day!

Re:

If you keep such pristine standards there will also be a lower count of indigenous bacteria for the starter culture to overtake and dominate. In that case even a low dosage of starter culture will suffice.

I am encouraged by this. I don't mind overdosing 50 - 100% because I can't use up a packet of inoculant fast enough anyway. I just don't want to use 1/4 packet! If I had that kind of money I'd play golf! I suppose it would be ideal to be able to throw so much money at each batch just to be safe, but it also wouldn't hurt to make every batch with a cleanliness standard that assumed you had no inoculant at all, like in the olden days (and modern day Panama by the looks of Redzed's photos ).

Thanks for all your good advice.

Jeff

[Igor Duńczyk]

Jeff - your latest sopressata pics´just add up to the impression of your skills and set my mouth watering
So it´s my pleasure if I have made your Saturday too

Reg. the below postings I also want to refresh what I have said in an earlier thread, that another reason for overdosing, or rather; for not keeping the starter cultures ad infinitum before you have used it up, is the hazards to which you expose the bacteria by every thawing - freezing process. Because for each time you get a little closer to unintentionally activating them as the carrier (usually dextrose) may absorb a little moisture and make the bacteria start rocking and rollin´in that little sachet before you´ve re-sealed it and put it safely back in the freezer until the next thawing - freezing takes place. So by overdosing you (at least theoretically) compensate for the decreased activity that may have taken place after (say) one month after the first opening.

That is why some starter culture producers (SACCO is one of them ) find it a bit wiser to use corn starch as carrier because the water activity is lower and because the bacteria don´t feed on starch. What one miss by this procedure is to provide the bacteria some nurishment to wake them when they are dispersed into water. But you can always make up for that by adding a pinch of dextrose to the water.

And please also know that trying to avoid the freeze - thaw hazards by opening the sachet as quickly as possible after taking it out of the freezer won´t do you any good because the temperature difference may cause ambience moisture to be literally sucked into the sachet.
So it´s always safest for the bacteria if you leave the sachet resting a little until it has lost it´s frozen look and approaches room temperature.

[Cabonaia]

Igor - thank you! I never knew this before. I wish there was a way I could test the starter akin to how we test yeast. But I pestered you about that before. From now on I will overdose (sounds like The Druggie's Prayer), and never remove a sachet from the freezer. I'll reach in, open it, take a bit out, and promptly reseal. That will surely introduce a certain amount of moisture into the packet, but not so much as taking out the whole thing and setting it on the counter while I get other stuff ready, as I've always done before.

How nice it would be to buy a strip of tiny packets, each with 5 lb. doses. I don't suppose there is a big enough market to make that profitable, but it would have the limited benefit of keeping our tiny market segment alive.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Igor Duńczyk]

I'll reach in, open it, take a bit out, and promptly reseal. That will surely introduce a certain amount of moisture into the packet...

and perhaps it will, but nowhere critical as your previous method. And as said:If you leave the sachet to defrost lightly before you (re)open and pour out what you need the possible moisture migration won´t be as bad as if you open straight after taking out. Just think of it as a measure to avoid exposing the bacteria to a temperature shock.

As for the 5 lb. dose dream I have already raised the issue with SACCO´s application manager. The main obstacle seems to be the rather uniform per-unit-cost regardless of how much you fill into the sachets. So even if price would be somewhat lower it is not likely that it will get down to one tenth just because you fill the sachets with only 2 grams instead of 20 grams. (...I hope I didn´t ruin your Sunday by telling you this )

[Cabonaia]

So even if price would be somewhat lower it is not likely that it will get down to one tenth just because you fill the sachets with only 2 grams instead of 20 grams. (...I hope I didn´t ruin your Sunday by telling you this )

Naw - I realize that there are lower limits to the economy of scale.

There are probably better packaging methods than foil packets for scooping out what we need for small batches. How about putting the powder into dosed gel capsules that we could dissolve in water? Hey wait a minute - I could do that myself!

[Igor Duńczyk]

...putting the powder into dosed gel capsules that we could dissolve in water?

Jeff - If you want to leave in a patent application then better be quick´cause I´ll pass it on to the R&D department even before I put my socks on tomorrow morning
But I could imagine there may be specific reasons why this has not been launched by any of the major producers yet (as far as I know).
Chr.Hansen do a lot within encapsulated colors so they should be the first to know

Actually there IS a cheaper way -but that´s only strictly b-to-b: Frozen starter culture pellets. By omitting the freeze drying process you can really save on production costs but customers have to deal with a big con in terms of rigoristic demands to the storage temperature which must be permanently below minus 22 (Fahrenheit - not Celcius!)

[Cabonaia]

That's funny. I thought of 3 ways - pellets, capsules, and a simple kind of squeeze bottle similar to the ones used for 2-cycle engine oil, whereby you express a small amount of the contents from a lower into an upper chamber in the bottle, with measuring lines for different sized doses. But I erased the other two because it seemed capsules were so much simpler.

I can't figure out why pellets would need to be kept at -22F, but what do I know? Couldn't you add a binder to the freeze dried stuff in order to form the pellets?

I don't think putting something in a capsule is novel enough to patent - so go for it! If they use it I would like a picture of my mortadella in their lobby.

Cheers,
Jeff