Low Pre-ferment pH

[Mmmm Meat]

I re-made my initial recipe of Cacciatorini today (since I got my new grinder!!!) I did a (roughly) five pound mix with the recipe below. My pre-ferment pH was 5.34 which seemed significantly less that the pH 5.7 or so that I expected. Does this seem off base (extremely low) to anyone else?

1535 g lean pork
557 g fat
3% salt
.2% dextrose
.2% sucrose
10 g garlic powder
2 tsp caraway + 1 Tbsp. coriander seed ground
11.4 g black pepper
8.5 g peppercorns
4 g Calabrian Pepper Powder
24.3 g smoked paprika
1/4 cup (2 oz.) red wine infused with garlic overnight.
T-SPX - 1/4 tsp in 4 oz. distilled H20.

(edit - .25% cure #2 - 5.24 g)

 

[indaswamp]

Did you measure the pH after you added the wine? 1/4 cup is 60mL...that's roughly 30mL per kilo....that'll drop the pH from 5.7 to the mid 5.3ish range....

And if that is the case, you likely added too much sugar..the calabrian pepper and Paprika will contribute a significant amount of fermentable sugars. The Paprika alone contains about 15% sugars so that is 3.65 grams of sugar right there. You did not need any dextrose or sucrose.

Your pH after ferment might drop to 4.5......

 

[indaswamp]

I don't see cure #2 in your recipe. Did you use it?

 

[indaswamp]

I would watch the fermentation closely...when pH gets to 5.1, pull the salami and transfer to your chamber. Set your temp. range 50-56...or 49-55. The salami will keep the avg....52.5*F and that will stop fermentation to a crawl if you can catch it in time.....The salami may dry below 95Aw before the pH drops too much and that should stop fermentation.

 

[TNJAKE]

Is cure not required in fermenting meat? I don't see it in the recipe. I have no idea about anything relating to this field. Just trying to learn

 

[TNJAKE]

Nevermind late post lol. Internet's acting up

 

[indaswamp]

Is cure not required in fermenting meat? I don't see it in the recipe. I have no idea about anything relating to this field. Just trying to learn

Yes, cure is suppose to be used. If the salami will dry in one month of less, then cure #1 should be used. But if it will dry in a longer period than 1 month, cure #2 is used for a long term supply of nitrite from the conversion of nitrate by the staph bacteria....

 

[Mmmm Meat]

I don't see cure #2 in your recipe. Did you use it?

Yes - cure #2 - .25%. That was an omission, though I swore I put it in there. pH was taken after the wine addition. Good info on the wine plus dextrose/sucrose ( plus pepper powder etc.). I was just following a recipe, and we know they are not always quite right. I'm still leery that my pH won't drop enough on these early tries, so I tend to overdo the sugar addition, which obviously wasn't necessary here, but I kind of like following the old homemade recipes while also ensuring I have adequate salt, cure, etc. Sometimes that will apparently yield a result like this. I've gotta work on better calculations on future batches.

 

[Mmmm Meat]

I would watch the fermentation closely...when pH gets to 5.1, pull the salami and transfer to your chamber. Set your temp. range 50-56...or 49-55. The salami will keep the avg....52.5*F and that will stop fermentation to a crawl if you can catch it in time.....The salami may dry below 95Aw before the pH drops too much and that should stop fermentation.

That sounds like a good plan. That was the reason I decided to do the fermentation at room temp in the coolest room in the house. I was hoping to give it more time to develop flavor compounds before being forced to end the ferment and get it in the chamber. I'll check the pH in the AM - they are fermenting at room temp/68 degrees but if I remember correctly, the last time I did this recipe, I fermented at room temp and the pH had dropped to 5.1 at 24 hours. I'll likely never let a ferment get past pH 4.9 without pulling the plug and putting it in the chamber. How far it drifts south of there after ending the ferment is yet to be seen.

 

[Mmmm Meat]

Did you measure the pH after you added the wine? 1/4 cup is 60mL...that's roughly 30mL per kilo....that'll drop the pH from 5.7 to the mid 5.3ish range....

And if that is the case, you likely added too much sugar..the calabrian pepper and Paprika will contribute a significant amount of fermentable sugars. The Paprika alone contains about 15% sugars so that is 3.65 grams of sugar right there. You did not need any dextrose or sucrose.

Your pH after ferment might drop to 4.5......

Do you have a table, reference, or link for the pH drop for the addition of wine? Seems like I read it somewhere but I can't easily find it in Marianski Brother's book. Also, I assume there has to be some variation in the exact numbers - table wines vary from something like 13 to 17 percent alcohol, and have significant differences in how acidic they are

Thank you for. your help (again).

 

[indaswamp]

I do not have a table, only the wine fermentation trials I did where the pH dropped from 5.88 to around 5.65...so if you started around pH 5.7 it is conceivable your pH dropped to 5.34 since your wine addition was on the upper end near 30mL per kilo...

 

[indaswamp]

I'm still leery that my pH won't drop enough on these early tries, so I tend to overdo the sugar addition

Understandable as a beginner. Which is why I did my fermentation trials so I will KNOW how the sugars perform. It was a cheap project, but invaluable for my education. I would like to repeat the experiment using a different culture, possible tspx.

Good thing is, I was able to utilize the meat after the trial...made a huge batch of bolognese sauce. So when that is gone, I may do another trial.

 

[Mmmm Meat]

Weirdly, after 24 hours, the pH still tested at 5.35 all the way up to 5.4, which is a touch higher than yesterday. I moved the fermenting chamber to a warmer spot and put a heater in the H2O set for 70 F. Hopefully that will get the ferment going.

 

[Mmmm Meat]

At thirty six hours, the pH had dropped to 5.13 or so. I unplugged the heater and expect to hang the salami in the curing chamber tomorrow AM. All is good. The final product may end up a bit short on flavor profile due to the quick drop in pH down to the low 5's, but if it turns out reasonably well, it will be a winner in my book.