ECA ... Encapsulated Citric Acid......

[daveomak]

With all the discussion on sausage making and ECA, I decided to look it up....  

I found this article interesting in the fact, ECA is used in many places.... Including candy.... And it can be regulated to dissolve with pH, temp, chewing etc and at different rates depending on the coating used....   The article does not go into too much detail but interesting just the same...

http://www.gadotbio.com/var/124/11962-Encapsulated Citric Acid.pdf

 

[smoking b]

Cool article - learned a few things

 

[linguica]

Thanks Dave, I try to learn something new every day. You got today covered.       

 

[big casino]

neat! thanks Dave

 

[smokinjoe52]

Here is an excerpt from the ECA article:

An acidulant must be retained in its encapsulated form to allow sufficient time for a matrix formation that occurs when salt is added to meat tissue. Salt extracts the salt-soluble proteins in meat (salting in-process), which forms a “protein matrix” that binds the meat particles and other ingredients prior to acidulation.

 

That tells me that if you add ECA, you must wait (24hours?) for the cure/salt combo to work prior to smoking.  I.E. releasing the ECA

 

Smokinjoe

 

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Here is an excerpt from the ECA article:

An acidulant must be retained in its encapsulated form to allow sufficient time for a matrix formation that occurs when salt is added to meat tissue. Salt extracts the salt-soluble proteins in meat (salting in-process), which forms a “protein matrix” that binds the meat particles and other ingredients prior to acidulation.

 

That tells me that if you add ECA, you must wait (24hours?) for the cure/salt combo to work prior to smoking.  I.E. releasing the ECA

 

Smokinjoe

 

Not the case.

You can mix, stuff, smoke right away.

eca is used at 1 tsp per every 1 lb of meat. The coating breaks down at 130* I have when running out of time put eca mixed chubs and sticks in the fridge and have no bad eca affects.

Your results may vary

 

[diyelker]

Nepas...you are a master of the sausage. :biggrin:

 

[smokinjoe52]

Not the case.

You can mix, stuff, smoke right away.

eca is used at 1 tsp per every 1 lb of meat. The coating breaks down at 130* I have when running out of time put eca mixed chubs and sticks in the fridge and have no bad eca affects.

Your results may vary.

Nepas,

Do you notice a firmer beef stick when you wait 24 hours?  How about a difference in flavor?

Thanks for the experienced feedback.

Smokinjoe

 

[shoneyboy]

From what we discussed in class, ECA is basically the acid from a fruit juice….Like lemon or orange juice…..I have not tried it in sausage yet, but I had a gift certificate that I had to use and wound up with a pack……Then if I remember right, Nepas posted about making cheese and I used a little of it then……Oh!!!! It was then, because I tasted it out of the packet and the wife told me

that if I made myself sick she was not going to take me to the hospital

, because she had already told me not to keep trying different things like that…….

And after she told me that I told her my stomach was hurting and she tried to make me go to the emergency room......

.......................It didn't really make my stomach hurt, I just told her that....

....It actually tasted pretty good to me, but I didn't eat that much either......ShoneyBoy