PH Quandaries

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Leesel
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PH Quandaries

Post by Leesel » Wed Jun 23, 2021 19:03

Hey All,

I made a batch of Finochiona last week, the last batch I allowed the PH to drop too far, so it ended up being quite tangy. So this time I was absolutely meticulous with my process in an attempt make the “perfect” or at least less tangy Finochiona. I measured PH before and after and also took temperatures to make sure my meat was still cool during the process. I re calibrated my PH meter just in case which is a Hanna Instruments HI-981036

The recipe was from The art of making fermented sausages but I did lower the salt as the last batch were also a little salty for my liking and drop the dextrose by 0.05% from the original recipe.

Pork lean to fat 70/30
Salt 2.25%
Cure 2 0.25%
Dextrose 0.2%
Sugar 0.2%
White pepper 0.2%
Black Peppercorns 0.5%
Whole fennel 0.3%
Garlic Powder 0.2%
Red wine 2.4%

PH Meat - 5.64
PH Mix - 5.76
PH End of fermentation - 5.18
PH After a week - 5.04

Temp Meat - -2.4
Temp after Grind - -1.5
Temp after Mix - -0.9

It was fermented at 21.5c 95% RH for 38 hours, I then reduced the temp/humidity of my chamber to 12c 78RH. My assumption was once the temp was reduced the salami would stop fermenting, so I left my test piece in to monitor whether this was correct.
As you can see it continued more than I was expecting.
I suppose what I am asking is should I undershoot the PH knowing it will continue fermenting. Is there something wrong with my process, ie too high fermenting temp, too much dextrose.

Any Help would be really appreciated I’m not a fan of overly tangy salami and my other concern is that the PH drops too far for the flavour aroma bacteria to be active.

Many thanks
Lee
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Albertaed
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Re: PH Quandaries

Post by Albertaed » Thu Jun 24, 2021 13:01

Ph will drop as long as there is food for bacteria to feed on. I would eliminate the table sugar and go with .2% dextrose.
Leesel
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Re: PH Quandaries

Post by Leesel » Thu Jun 24, 2021 18:27

Albertaed wrote:
Thu Jun 24, 2021 13:01
Ph will drop as long as there is food for bacteria to feed on. I would eliminate the table sugar and go with .2% dextrose.
Brilliant thanks Ed
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redzed
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Re: PH Quandaries

Post by redzed » Sat Jun 26, 2021 05:31

Hi Lee, 5.04 is a good pH reading. if you don't want a distinct tang, you're OK as long as you don't drop under 5. Eventually the pH will rise, almost the same level as you started with. As to calculating how much sugar to add, try adding 0.6g of dextrose or dextrose/sucrose combination for every 0.10 pH point you want to ferment down to. so if your starting pH was 5.76 and you wanted it to drop to 5.1 then 4g of sugar was almost spot on. And yes, fermentation will continue after you place it lower the temp, but it will be slower.

I'm a little baffled at the difference in the reading between you unseasoned and seasoned/prepared meat. If anything, the prepared farce should have had a lower reading because of the wine addition. Did you test each sample thee times in three different places and then record the average? Which starter culture did you use?
Leesel
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Re: PH Quandaries

Post by Leesel » Sat Jun 26, 2021 18:40

Thanks Red,

That’s a great tip for working out how much sugar to use, I’ll definitely try that next time.

I was also baffled by the lack of PH drop after adding red wine to the meat but no I didn’t use an average of readings, so perhaps my readings were skewed because of this. I’ll definitely do this next time as well.

I used TSPX starter culture, the only other that I seem to be able to get in my area is flavour of Italy. Reading up on them TSPX seemed like it would produce a milder or less tangy salami.
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Mmmm Meat
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Re: PH Quandaries

Post by Mmmm Meat » Sun Jun 27, 2021 21:12

I just finished up a Finocchiona myself - I posted it on a different website/forum today: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threa ... st-2233290

I find that when I use wine in the recipe, I get a pretty wide variation in pH of the meat after mixing. That may indicate that I'm not mixing enough, though that seems unlikely. I think something else is causing the variation in pH that I'm not understanding. Regardless, the fermentations seem to work out well with T-SPX. In this case, I stopped the ferment at pH 4.96 - (60hours @ 69 degrees F) and put them in the chamber. There is no perceptable tang due to high acid at this level.

All in all, it sounds like you're methods are working out well. To my knowledge, repeating the same salami recipe twice will likely never produce identical results, espeically when you're comparing pH levels of meats (and other products like wines) from different sources. Good luck!
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Re: PH Quandaries

Post by Leesel » Fri Jul 02, 2021 19:04

Mmmm Meat wrote:
Sun Jun 27, 2021 21:12
I just finished up a Finocchiona myself - I posted it on a different website/forum today: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threa ... st-2233290

I find that when I use wine in the recipe, I get a pretty wide variation in pH of the meat after mixing. That may indicate that I'm not mixing enough, though that seems unlikely. I think something else is causing the variation in pH that I'm not understanding. Regardless, the fermentations seem to work out well with T-SPX. In this case, I stopped the ferment at pH 4.96 - (60hours @ 69 degrees F) and put them in the chamber. There is no perceptable tang due to high acid at this level.

All in all, it sounds like you're methods are working out well. To my knowledge, repeating the same salami recipe twice will likely never produce identical results, espeically when you're comparing pH levels of meats (and other products like wines) from different sources. Good luck!
Thanks Mmmm meat for you info much appreciated
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