Shrink and water activity comparison (Aw)

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Bob K
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Post by Bob K » Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:04

Butterbean wrote:Bob, that looks like what I was seeing on the molded salami. What was the shrink when the photo was taken?
I am not sure as I go by feel rather that weight :shock:
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Post by Fingers » Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:44

Butterbean wrote:Before slicing they appear. The angel tears are the little drops of liquid fat that first begin to appear usually at ends of the salami but they can be anywhere. I think its less pronounced on molded salami - last molded salami I did just showed wet spots or streaks. I think it comes from the compression of the soft fat but I don't know.
I have just posted about my concerns about this I have just spotted my 6 week old 50% loss "un moldy" salami are doing.

Pleased to hear this is normal and not spoiling. :)
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Post by Butterbean » Tue Apr 19, 2016 14:19

Bob K wrote:
Butterbean wrote:Bob, that looks like what I was seeing on the molded salami. What was the shrink when the photo was taken?
I am not sure as I go by feel rather that weight :shock:
You are surely going to die then! Just kidding. It would be interesting to know if this is consistent. It must be fairly consistent with sope though.

Generally speaking, from what I'm seeing its "safe" much sooner than I once thought. Much much sooner as long as common sense and good sanitation practices are used. I also see the importance of the use of starter cultures. Seeing and being able to prove this has been very reassuring to me. It removed some of the mystery. I find myself backing up and looking at metka. If you think about it, metka is "safe" when its far from the texture we strive for in our salami so all we are doing from that point on is drying.

Again, this is just how I see it today and hopefully tomorrow I'll have a better understanding than I do today. I just find it interesting but again it don't take much to enthrall me. :oops:
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Post by Butterbean » Tue Apr 19, 2016 14:39

Fingers wrote:
Butterbean wrote:Before slicing they appear. The angel tears are the little drops of liquid fat that first begin to appear usually at ends of the salami but they can be anywhere. I think its less pronounced on molded salami - last molded salami I did just showed wet spots or streaks. I think it comes from the compression of the soft fat but I don't know.
I have just posted about my concerns about this I have just spotted my 6 week old 50% loss "un moldy" salami are doing.

Pleased to hear this is normal and not spoiling. :)
To be safe you should just send it to me so I can dispose of it properly! :grin:

So you are seeing the tears now at 50%? I wonder if you cut into it if it would cry like Bob mentioned previously.

Out of curiosity, do you prick your sausages after stuffing? When I say prick, I don't just mean to remove air pockets but with the intent is to punch a bunch of holes in the casing to aid in the drying. We both do this and the timing of the tears seem fairly consistent. Of course I don't know what his shrink is - nor does he for that matter. He just says its ready when this happens but I've eaten his salami and it wasn't too dry although it is not as good as Marianski's recipe.

I'm asking this because I noticed on some unpricked collagen casings I didn't see the tears but later observed what looked like damp spots forming so I'm curious if its something to do with the pricking or the type sausage.
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Post by Fingers » Tue Apr 19, 2016 16:55

Hi Butterbean

Yes I had pricked them with a needle quite a bit after stuffing, I have done this will all mine. The tears are only happening with the salami without mold. Maybe the mold closes up these pin pricks?
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Post by Butterbean » Tue Apr 19, 2016 17:33

Could be. I never paid much attention to it till I charted this drying cycle but i do know I see the wet spots on my molded salami but never bothered to weigh them and see if this has any correlation to the 30% mark. I think its coming from the contraction of the meat pressing the softer fats. My friend doesn't weigh anything, he just looks for the tears and when he sees that he says they are done. I just thought it interesting it coincided with the 30% on this drying but just cause you hang a dead snake on the fence and it rains the next day don't mean it will rain the next time you do it. But I think I'll keep a closer eye on things and see if there isn't some consistency in this because if it is then it would be nice.

Another mystery. Don't you just love this?!
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Post by Fingers » Tue Apr 19, 2016 22:35

As a novice to this all I can only go with my sense of common. I thought this might be a sign of hopefully, over ripening. But not having any reference?

Interesting that the older salami, with mold, is not crying, must tell a tail. It does feel and look like oil.
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Post by Butterbean » Wed Apr 20, 2016 01:15

Fingers, I'm not saying it is a sign one way or another However, if you talked to my friend he would swear by this because that is how they have always done it. Right or wrong I don't know. The jury is still out in my mind but i do think it interesting how the tears showed up right at the time the shrink got at the 30% point.

If you look at the picture I posted of the molded salami you will see that not all of them are showing signs either but some are. My hunch is it has to do with the amount of soft fat in the stick and when the salami constricts it simply squeezing this soft fat out. Same thing happens when you vac seal them with too much vacuum.

Whatever is the case I'll definitely be watching this more closely in the future.
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Post by Fingers » Thu Apr 21, 2016 11:42

Further update

Putting into the fridge is not stopping the tears, so its not brought on by an increase in temperature as I thought.

Maybe the mold feeds off this, hence there's no tears with the moldy salami? However the rate its coming out they would have to be greedy. All I can say is all of my salami without mold has tears, none of the moldy salami does.
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Re: Shrink and water activity comparison (Aw)

Post by fordtruckbeast » Fri Feb 25, 2022 17:12

Noob question but does 4-1 denote april 1st? So it took you about 2 weeks to reach .83 aw?
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