Summer Sausage

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what is dextrose
SWEETENERS: Sugars are use to add flavor and to cover or mask salt. Sugars will cause browning when the product is pan fried or grilled. There are different forms of sugar. The most common is cane sugar. Cane is what we normally call table sugar. It can be used in meat brines but is not widely used in sausage because it has a tendency to burn or scorch. Brown sugar is used in most brines but sometimes used in meat because of its flavor.

DEXTROSE - 70% as sweet as cane sugar and quite a bit heavier. Helps reduce nitrate to nitrite as meats are cured. Used to counter salt in brines. Dextrose assists fermentation, which gives us the desired tang of flavor. The most common sugar used in meat is dextrose. Dextrose is corn sugar and it will not burn as easily as cane or beet sugar. When a recipe calls for cane sugar you can replace it with dextrose by adding 20% more dextrose than cane sugar due to the sweetness factor between cane sugar and dextrose.

MAPLE SUGAR - Used in producing bacon - adds flavor and aroma.

CORN SYRUP / CORN SYRUP SOLIDS - Only about 40-50% as sweet as cane sugar. will help to hold water and color in meat, bind the meat when curing sausage at low temperatures, aid the fermentation process when semi-dry or dry curing. Add no more than 2% of the green weight of the meat.
 
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Those look great! My gift baskets weren't that pretty 
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