Adding MSG to recipes

[DougE]

...unless you scald and scrape them.

Around here, you pretty much have to do it yourself if you want the skin left on. There aren't that many who even kill hogs left around here, and all of them skin rather than scald and scrape.

 

[slavikborisov]

Around here, you pretty much have to do it yourself if you want the skin left on. There aren't that many who even kill hogs left around here, and all of them skin rather than scald and scrape.

DougE indaswamp yeah my mom said they used to scald and scrape hogs back in their country as no part of the hog was wasted. But being my first time and being very fortunate enough in the USA to do stuff like this as a hobby not out of necessity I figured id try skinning

 

[slavikborisov]

...unless you scald and scrape them. Not hard as long as you keep the water 140-150*F. This will loosen the hair enough to scrape it off, but any hotter ant it will set in tight. Then. once clean, you can split in half with a sawsall (9"blade) down the spine in half with skin on. I prefer skin on with domestic hogs and have some experienced people I can call on to be there for the slaughter an butchering. Many hand make light work.....I did not get a hog this year though, I was given 4 wild ones and got 148# of meat from them. Did not need any more pork!!!LOL!!!

i did use a sawsall as well and got a little of track lol but luckily a lot of the meat was for sausage and i kept the loin for Canadian bacon

 

[indaswamp]

Well....I'm just old school cajun. if I'm butchering a domestic pig the Italian way for salumi and salami-I will scald and scrape. We skin all the wild ones though.

 

[indaswamp]

One more tip after the kill...especially if ya got 'em in the truck bed... Car wash. Or a pressure washer A good power wash will clean them up right...especially the feet and butt area.

 

[slavikborisov]

One more tip after the kill...especially if ya got 'em in the truck bed... Car wash. Or a pressure washer A good power was will clean them up right...especially the feet and butt area.

Ahh thank you!!! Pressure washer would’ve worked better than my garden hose lol

 

[SLR65]

.25% is a little low from what's usually recommended, isn't it? From what I found on the net usually 1/2 tsp per pound is recommended and a half a tsp weighs just under 4 grams. Figures to 8.8 grams per kg, or .88%? Is .88% more of a maximum and lesser amounts sometimes work better?

 

[DailyLunatic]

.25% is a little low from what's usually recommended, isn't it? From what I found on the net usually 1/2 tsp per pound is recommended and a half a tsp weighs just under 4 grams. Figures to 8.8 grams per kg, or .88%? Is .88% more of a maximum and lesser amounts sometimes work better?

Started off trying to state that I believed the weights/tsp given were inaccurate. I.E, are you sure you meant 4g/0.5tsp, and not 4g/tsp? I was in the process of measuring all my spices for a spreadsheet I'm working on and, coincidentally, just measured my MSG today. It was the only reason I spotted what I had 'at first' believed to be an error. (Apparently it's not. Apologies to SLR65 for my poor thinking.)

I measured a leveled 1tsp of MSG at 3.92g. Accuracy on my (albeit budget) unit is 0.01g.

I measured a tsp of water to check accuracy and got 4.76g/tsp. A bit off as text shows water at 4.92892g/tsp, but close enough for government work. (Also, water tension is a b*tch to work with at these small measurements.) I can get a range of measurements depending on how much I want to 'heap' the teaspoon. lol. So I upped to Tbsp (3x tsp) and got 14.62. (Again, a bit low, but not as much. (I suspect either my method is off, or the scale.)

That said, I doubt I'm off by a factor of 2x. So, like you did, I checked what the internet had to say. ...and wattayaknow... Different sites list MSG at different weights/tsp.
ScienceDirect.com at 'just under' 4g/tsp
HowMany.wiki at 7.98g/tsp
Answers.com at 4g/tsp
ModernistPantry.com at 4.9/tsp

Frankly, I'm not surprised there was a variance, so much as how great the variance was. WOW!

Long story short - This is an excellent example why you should only trust recipes in weight/percent, and not volumetric. Even if your scale is off, it will be roughly off the same for all measurements. If you do want to use a recipe with volumetric units, be sure to taste test, adjust, and record all ingredients as weights.

 

[DougE]

I was in the process of measuring all my spices for a spreadsheet I'm working on

I didn't exactly do a spreadsheet, but have converted about all my recipes that use volumetric measurements to grams by weighing each spice out by volume, them weighing. I write out the newly formulated recipe and try it. If any adjustments are needed, I make them and update.

For cure, salt, and sugar, I always go by percentages to meat weight, so those are percentage based in all my recipes.

 

[slavikborisov]

I do absolutely everything by weight in g/kg I find it way easier and more accurate. Since this original post I’ve done MSG in my recipes at .25% or 2.5g/kg of meat and have had excellent results. I’ve also dabbled with disodium I and G from Make it meaty and their yeast extract …. What an unbelievable flavor highly recommend

 

[zwiller]

I do absolutely everything by weight in g/kg I find it way easier and more accurate. Since this original post I’ve done MSG in my recipes at .25% or 2.5g/kg of meat and have had excellent results. I’ve also dabbled with disodium I and G from Make it meaty and their yeast extract …. What an unbelievable flavor highly recommend

Chef Jimmy was trying to get me into DIG. I know it's potent stuff (and the reason I shyed away from it) but how's it compare to MSG? And or YE vs Accent?

 

[slavikborisov]

Chef Jimmy was trying to get me into DIG. I know it's potent stuff (and the reason I shyed away from it) but how's it compare to MSG? And or YE vs Accent?

I use very little IG in combination like .05g/kg along with MSG. It’s similar to MSG but cut much finer almost like a powder and definitely stronger but what an amazing flavor profile much better than MSG in my opinion. YE is a nice meaty flavor almost to it reminds me of a dextrose type flavor that’s salty.

 

[indaswamp]

Well.....now you guys have me curious. I had to look it up....Sodium Inosinate and Guanylate. Hmmmm, I had never heard of the stuff.

 

[slavikborisov]

Well.....now you guys have me curious. I had to look it up....Sodium Inosinate and Guanylate. Hmmmm, I had never heard of the stuff.

Meat it Meaty on Amazon is where I got it…. If you use MSG you need to try it. It was discovered in Japan I believe from a shittake mushroom the umami flavor is hard to explain but I guarantee you will enjoy it

 

[zwiller]

I use very little IG in combination like .05g/kg along with MSG. It’s similar to MSG but cut much finer almost like a powder and definitely stronger but what an amazing flavor profile much better than MSG in my opinion. YE is a nice meaty flavor almost to it reminds me of a dextrose type flavor that’s salty.

THANKS! Been snooping and see that yep it's recommended to use both MSG + IG together. Last time I went looking for it, it was HARD to find and EXPENSIVE since you had to buy a pound or 2. Have it in my Amazon cart now (you beat me to it LOL). $15 for 1.5oz. SWEET.

Well.....now you guys have me curious. I had to look it up....Sodium Inosinate and Guanylate. Hmmmm, I had never heard of the stuff.

Back in the day I was one of the few guys into msg. Most here were against it. One time a thread about it got going and Chef Jimmy DM'ed me and said if you like msg you will LOVE I&G. Told me it's used extensively in pro circles. I would start playing with accent/msg first and see if you like it then go from there.

 

[slavikborisov]

THANKS! Been snooping and see that yep it's recommended to use both MSG + IG together. Last time I went looking for it, it was HARD to find and EXPENSIVE since you had to buy a pound or 2. Have it in my Amazon cart now (you beat me to it LOL). $15 for 1.5oz. SWEET.


Back in the day I was one of the few guys into msg. Most here were against it. One time a thread about it got going and Chef Jimmy DM'ed me and said if you like msg you will LOVE I&G. Told me it's used extensively in pro circles. I would start playing with accent/msg first and see if you like it then go from there.

i know inda uses msg in his Cajun sausage so itll
Pair good with I and G

 

[slavikborisov]

THANKS! Been snooping and see that yep it's recommended to use both MSG + IG together. Last time I went looking for it, it was HARD to find and EXPENSIVE since you had to buy a pound or 2. Have it in my Amazon cart now (you beat me to it LOL). $15 for 1.5oz. SWEET.


Back in the day I was one of the few guys into msg. Most here were against it. One time a thread about it got going and Chef Jimmy DM'ed me and said if you like msg you will LOVE I&G. Told me it's used extensively in pro circles. I would start playing with accent/msg first and see if you like it then go from there.

I’ll say this much it’s separates the pros and the premixed rubs from your traditional rub you make at home that why I started using it. I wanted to know why seasonings just have such a good flavor and these little
Additions make all the difference. I stumbled onto this on Henry soo YT channel he’s got all
Kinds of good info.

 

[slavikborisov]

HERBOX beef bullion has it in it and that’s what I used a few times on beef brisket before I bought the raw version

 

[zwiller]

HERBOX beef bullion has it in it and that’s what I used a few times on beef brisket before I bought the raw version

Funny you posted that. Went through a bullion phase this past winter. Pretty much all bullion that I found had it in there.

 

[indaswamp]

I would start playing with accent/msg first and see if you like it then go from there.

I've been using MSG for years in my rubs, blends, and sausage seasonings. I will order some sodium I & G today! Thanks for the info on this thread...