Pink curing salt mixed in last years seasoning didn't add color to this years summer sausage.

[captainwinger]

I made summer sausage seasoning last year and added the pink curing salt at that time. I ended up only making a half batch so I stored the extra seasoning and recently used it. The texture and flavor came out perfect yet lacks the color. Does the dye in the curing salt break down over time when mixed and stored with other seasonings? To be honest, the sausage looks as though there was no cure added but I'm positive it was in the mix. Maybe not as brown but not nearly as pink as normal. Is this normal?

 

[SmokinEdge]

Color of the cured meat doesn’t come from the dye in the cure salt. It comes from the transformation of nitrite into nitric oxide, which in turn fixes the iron molecules in myoglobin and gives the pinkish reddish color of cured meat.

Cure #1 is stable by itself but mixed with other ingredients there is a chance that some of those ingredients “burned up” the nitrite in the cure #1. This is why mixing bulk cure mixes is not recommended for longer term storage. Post up your recipe so we can rule in or out the other ingredients as the culprit.

 

[dr k]

I made summer sausage seasoning last year and added the pink curing salt at that time. I ended up only making a half batch so I stored the extra seasoning and recently used it. The texture and flavor came out perfect yet lacks the color. Does the dye in the curing salt break down over time when mixed and stored with other seasonings? To be honest, the sausage looks as though there was no cure added but I'm positive it was in the mix. Maybe not as brown but not nearly as pink as normal. Is this normal?

The dye lets you know it's not salt or sugar for safety and doesn't color the meat. The cure keeps the iron in myoglobin from oxidizing and turning brown, keeping the natural pink color of myoglobin until it breaks down in a month+ and then starts turning brown. As far as the dye color break down mixed with seasoning in a year I don't know. There's so little cure 1 you can't really see it mixed in. I weigh each piece of meat and add .25% cure 1, 1.5% salt for bacons (digging dog farms calculator 156ppm.) I have cure 1 over a decade and the pink cotton candy color is vibrant in it's original package. I don't care much for summer sausage so I don't make it.

 

[DougE]

Color of the cured meat doesn’t come from the dye in the cure salt. It comes from the transformation of nitrite into nitric oxide, which in turn fixes the iron molecules in myoglobin and gives the pinkish reddish color of cured meat.

Cure #1 is stable by itself but mixed with other ingredients there is a chance that some of those ingredients “burned up” the nitrite in the cure #1. This is why mixing bulk cure mixes is not recommended for longer term storage. Post up your recipe so we can rule in or out the other ingredients as the culprit.

May well be why many commercial spice blends containing cure#1 put the cure in a separate pack.

 

[SmokinEdge]

May well be why many commercial spice blends containing cure#1 put the cure in a separate pack.

Exactly