Food safety concern, help wanted.

lownslow · Aug 19, 2010

I am reaching out to all you experienced sausage makers. I am making some carne salada as per Len Poli's receipie which can be found here.

I have made this receipe with elk and it was amazing. I am doing a 1/2 batch so I could have messed up a conversion but if I did err it was on the side of adding too much of something rather than too little.

My concern is the little bubbles in the bag. It looks as though there is some kind of fermentation or other biological process happening. I think the salt and cure should be preventing this, I don't remember this happening last round. The meat was put in the brine 6 days ago.

tlzimmerman · Aug 19, 2010

Are you flipping/agitating the bag at all, or is it doing this all on its own?

I have never seen that, but the soluble fats that are in the meat I would think could cause bubbles if it has liquid thats agitated.

Bearcarver · Aug 19, 2010

I guess since you're only on your sixth day of brining, you didn't add the white wine yet.

If I were you, I wouldn't panic. I would wait until the time is up to add the wine (12 days?). Then open it up & take a smell of it. See what's up.

I can't think of anything bad with the bubbles. Did you flip or shake it a little?

Hopefully somebody else can help more than I have.

Bearcarver

lownslow · Aug 19, 2010

It gets flipped once a day but the bubbles are there waiting when I go to flip it. On advise of folks at another forum I opened it up and took a whiff. It smelled good and the brine may have a slight sour note but not much.

Bearcarver · Aug 19, 2010

lownslow said:
It gets flipped once a day but the bubbles are there waiting when I go to flip it. On advise of folks at another forum I opened it up and took a whiff. It smelled good and the brine may have a slight sour note but not much.

Those bubbles are probably there from the day before. I wouldn't worry about it unless it smells bad, or has some other problem.

This is what you're talking about---right?

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/CarneSalada.pdf

Bear

lownslow · Aug 19, 2010

yes that was the right link bearcarver. Looking closely I'm pretty sure I can see tiny bubbles form in the brine and float up. I will verify this in the morning.

Bearcarver · Aug 20, 2010

lownslow said:
yes that was the right link bearcarver. Looking closely I'm pretty sure I can see tiny bubbles form in the brine and float up. I will verify this in the morning.

OK, but look don't look too close. I used to sit in the woods so long, I developed the ability to actually grow deer horns on does!

bbally · Aug 20, 2010

What cure did you use? and how much? What does the meat weigh?

lownslow · Aug 20, 2010

instacure #1 instructions say 1t per 5lbs, I had 2 lbs meat and used little shy of 1/2 t. If I made a mistake it would have been using little shy of 1t instead. Not sure I did this but it would be the only way I would have mixed up the cure.

bbally · Aug 20, 2010

Your product will be fine. Bubbles are probably the Nitrite breaking down to the NO2 and then the O3 mixing with some protein so you are seeing them.

Bearcarver · Aug 21, 2010

bbally said:
Your product will be fine. Bubbles are probably the Nitrite breaking down to the NO2 and then the O3 mixing with some protein so you are seeing them.

What he said.

lownslow · Aug 27, 2010

Well I just rode it out to the end and ate some and it seems fine. But if I don't post for a while then it went bad.......

Bearcarver · Aug 27, 2010

lownslow said:
Well I just rode it out to the end and ate some and it seems fine. But if I don't post for a while then it went bad.......

Stick your head in here now & then, so we don't worry about you.

It should be fine!

Tiny Bubbles----In the wine----Makes me happy----Makes me feeeeeelllll fi n..................e.................

Bear

chainsaw · Aug 27, 2010

Always have several dogs or other test subjects to feed samples for quality control of the finished product

beer-b-q · Aug 27, 2010

chainsaw said:
Always have several dogs or other test subjects to feed samples for quality control of the finished product

Dang, I always wondered why the wife always gave me the new stuff to try first... http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/pkcdirect/emoticons/?action=view&current=anim_burp.gif

Bearcarver · Aug 28, 2010

chainsaw said:
Always have several dogs or other test subjects to feed samples for quality control of the finished product

My Lab was a people food begger (my son't fault!). Well anyway, when we had steak, I'd always save him little bitty pieces of my steak, not much, just enough so he'd know I didn't forget him. Here's the good part----I never gave him any of the fat, because it wasn't good for him----I ate the fat myself!

Bear

scarbelly · Aug 28, 2010

Bearcarver said:
My Lab was a people food begger (my son't fault!). Well anyway, when we had steak, I'd always save him little bitty pieces of my steak, not much, just enough so he'd know I didn't forget him. Here's the good part----I never gave him any of the fat, because it wasn't good for him----I ate the fat myself!

Bear

Bear

Thanks for taking one for the team on that fat issue

lownslow · Aug 28, 2010

Still here and it is delicious

DanMcG · Aug 29, 2010

Hey Low, glad to hear it was good.

I'll have to give that recipe a try sometime.

Bearcarver · Aug 29, 2010

lownslow said:
Still here and it is delicious

Great---That's 24 hours---Looks like we were right. Delicious too---A Bonus!

Bear

Food safety concern, help wanted.

Smoke Blower

Meat Mopper

Gone but not forgotten RIP

Smoke Blower

Gone but not forgotten RIP

Smoke Blower

Gone but not forgotten RIP

Master of the Pit

Smoke Blower

Master of the Pit

Gone but not forgotten RIP

Smoke Blower

Gone but not forgotten RIP

Smoking Fanatic

Gone but not forgotten. RIP

Gone but not forgotten RIP

Gone but not forgotten. RIP

Smoke Blower

Smoking Guru

Gone but not forgotten RIP

Similar threads

Hot Threads

Featured A couple thick strips please!