Sausage Question

[Flaco611]

I just made a batch of sausage and came across a problem I haven’t had before. I mixed and cured the meat on Wednesday and smoked it on Friday. It tasted very good. I put it in the refrigerator in a sealed container and ate it again 2 days later. It had developed an off taste within those 2 days. I can not figure out why it tastes that way after tasting fine 2 days before.

 

[smokerjim]

Not sure what you mean by off taste, did it taste like it soured somehow. Maybe you should've not sealed it up until the next day possibly a creosote build up. What recipe did you use, what type smoker, process. Not sure these are some of my thoughts. I'm sure some others with more knowledge will jump in.

 

[chef k-dude]

The experts here are going to need more details.

Some foods change in flavor in the fridge. That's a thing.

 

[Flaco611]

Not sure what you mean by off taste, did it taste like it soured somehow. Maybe you should've not sealed it up until the next day possibly a creosote build up. What recipe did you use, what type smoker, process. Not sure these are some of my thoughts. I'm sure some others with more knowledge will jump in.

It didn’t taste like the meat was bad but it definitely tasted kind of similar to that. It’s hard to describe. It did not have any of that flavor after I smoked it. It was an all beef sausage and I used my regular seasonings and pink curing salt #1. I ground the meat and mixed the spices and curing salt Wednesday evening. I smoked them Friday in my 500 gallon offset. I temped em at 160 before throwing em in a quick ice bath. I heated one up about an hour or 2 later and it tasted great. I popped em in a plastic container with the lid and put them in the fridge. I know the fridge can change the flavor of food but to change a smoked sausage in 2 days just seems odd to me.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

More sausage mix, better mixing for protein extraction.

never put your fresh smoked sausage in a plastic container or bag after smoking. leave to hang at room temp for a day or two, then brown bag or non waxed butcher paper in the fridge.

 

[grabber]

Agree with BGKYS. Leave it out, as guys call it time to Bloom? Works for me every time. Don't know science behind it, but if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.

 

[Dave in AZ]

More sausage mix, better mixing for protein extraction.

never put your fresh smoked sausage in a plastic container or bag after smoking. leave to hang at room temp for a day or two, then brown bag or non waxed butcher paper in the fridge.

Sorry, but I don't agree with this. This is too long to hang at room temp IMO. There might be some confusion happening here between short blooming, and risk-protected salami methods. It's easy to see folks hanging salumi and salami, forget there are numerous risk mitigation methods at play, and extrapolate you could do the same for a sausage...
Pathogens grow well and fast at 40-130f. This is why commercial operations can not have meat in that temperature range longer than 6 hours, and then they must achieve a pathogen lethality temperature after that. This is why restaurants are not allowed to take buffet leftovers that sat at room temperature and put back in fridge for reuse. This is why the entire practice of salami making exists. This isnt a salami with several barriers to pathogen and germ growth, this is just a sausage waiting to regrow pathogens if left hanging at room temperature. No salt 2.5% or higher, no pH 5.3 or lower, no competing safe lactic bacteria meat cultures fermenting to fight competitors, no reservoir of unused unconverted NaNO2 or nitrate, no drying to Aw 0.85 or below, just a big old juicy petri dish for bacteria. Yes, you killed everything off hopefully with your smoke cook--but that doesn't mean it's good forever and all health/temperature/exposure requirements can be ignored. I have never seen anywhere a caveat to allow comminuted/ground meat sausages to sit around like this.

Hang a smoked sausage at room temp and instantly stuff begins to recolonize it. The ice bath is intended to rapidly get meat temps back down out of the danger zone. The "blooming" is just a casing dry and oxidizing color fix, hours at most before you get the sausage cooled back down where bacteria don't grow, not a multiday exposure.

Sorry to disagree, but I don't believe I could ever pass an FSIS process inspection doing this.

 

[grabber]

I welcome everyone's opinion. IMHO- that's why I put in cures in my meats, sausages, etc. Everyone, be safe..

 

[Hijack73]

It could have been the container itself. Maybe it had 'soaked up' some off flavor from prior use and imparted it into the meat. Improbable, but possible.

I've tossed more than one tupperware because it 'smelled funny' even after a round though the dishwasher.

 

[grabber]

Got to tell you, which/ what plastic containers are safe? Go to places and they list as, Food Safe? How do I know. I try and avoid anything, Made In China- sorry, just me. All I know, growing up without microwaves, plastics, etc., we never had all these cancer problems, etc.- Insert comments here. Be safe.

 

[thirdeye]

I just made a batch of sausage and came across a problem I haven’t had before. I mixed and cured the meat on Wednesday and smoked it on Friday. It tasted very good. I put it in the refrigerator in a sealed container and ate it again 2 days later. It had developed an off taste within those 2 days.

I'm wondering if the sealed container was the culprit?

I loosely use the term "mellowing" when referring to any number of post smoking treatments I do with things like ham, bacon, fish, cheese, sausage etc. Most of these treatments involve open air, or uncovered in the fridge to allow flavors to settle down, or texture to firm up.

Examples would be:

• Blooming sausage
• Holding smoked slabs of bacon in the fridge for a few days before slicing.
• Holding smoked steelhead in the fridge for 24 to 36 hours to equalize the moistness before serving.
• Letting smoked cheese calm down and cool so packages don't form condensation.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Hey everyone has their way. I done room temp for 30 years, I'm still here. Sausage/salami makers have been hanging un refrigerated for hundreds of years.

So you do what is good for you.