Why does my summer sausage taste like chlorine?
Why does my summer sausage taste like chlorine?
So I basically followed Stan and Adam's recipe for summer sausages, although I used a lot of dried chile powders instead of their suggested spices. Texture, Aw and color was good, but had a strong chlorine taste. What is the cause of this?
Todd-
Welcome to our forum!
Did you use this recipe, keeping the sugar and dextrose levels the same, using F-LC , and just changing the spice mix?
http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... er-sausage
Welcome to our forum!
Did you use this recipe, keeping the sugar and dextrose levels the same, using F-LC , and just changing the spice mix?
http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... er-sausage
-
- Forum Enthusiast
- Posts: 573
- Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2015 23:35
- Location: Chicago
Hey Todd! Well your sausage is not exactly "summer sausage" since you used a totally different spice blend. However, that is not the issue here. I suspect that the reason for the chlorine taste probably could be traced to the meat. In some plants chlorinated water is used to wash carcasses and even cuts of meat to prevent e. coli poisoning. Two other possible reasons that come to mind, are an unseasoned smoker, that is it was not brought to a high temperature for at least an hour if it was not used for a long time, and the the other might have been the type of wood you used for smoking.
Redzed
Thanks! Interesting. I know for sure the meat is not washed in chlorinated water. I kinda suspected it may have something to do with the smoker/smoke. What type of wood do you recommend?
Could it also be a result of under-fermentation/high ph? I have ph strips but not exactly sure they are giving an accurate reading.
Thanks! Interesting. I know for sure the meat is not washed in chlorinated water. I kinda suspected it may have something to do with the smoker/smoke. What type of wood do you recommend?
Could it also be a result of under-fermentation/high ph? I have ph strips but not exactly sure they are giving an accurate reading.
Todd-
Are you sure its an alkaline taste like chlorine or could it be an acidic/sour taste ?
Usually with that much sugar per kilo (1.5%) and the high fermentation temp 30° C (86° F) it has a low Ph, below 4.5.
That's the experience I had with that recipe, I thought it was way too sour, on the other hand other folks liked it
Other than that I would go with the off taste you get with an unseasoned/ unused in a while smoker that Redzed mentioned.
Are you sure its an alkaline taste like chlorine or could it be an acidic/sour taste ?
Usually with that much sugar per kilo (1.5%) and the high fermentation temp 30° C (86° F) it has a low Ph, below 4.5.
That's the experience I had with that recipe, I thought it was way too sour, on the other hand other folks liked it
Other than that I would go with the off taste you get with an unseasoned/ unused in a while smoker that Redzed mentioned.
Hi Bob
Most definitely a chlorine taste. A friend said exactly the same thing when I gave him a try. I didn't think they were that sour. Maybe under-fermented?
I'll give a try on seasoning the smoker and reduce the initial smoke time. Hard to believe it would be the wood chips. They're hickory chips from the US.
Most definitely a chlorine taste. A friend said exactly the same thing when I gave him a try. I didn't think they were that sour. Maybe under-fermented?
I'll give a try on seasoning the smoker and reduce the initial smoke time. Hard to believe it would be the wood chips. They're hickory chips from the US.
The only way to know for certain was to check the ph.Todd wrote:Maybe under-fermented?
Its not necessarily the chips. Try pre-heating your smoker on high for an hour or so. It burns off the stale smell that causes an off tasteTodd wrote:Hard to believe it would be the wood chips. They're hickory chips from the US.