Thanks so much Eric, you've been a great mentor and inspiration, you're the very best-- content, production, knowledge, professionalism, my favorite channel by far! Thx for your kind comment ;)
I weigh it after stuffing all piled on a tray. Then again after pulling it all from the smoker. For salami, you usually weigh individual chubbs, but a pile of sticks all together. Shelf stability is tricky, you actually need to know the Aw, or Water Available, which is the water that is not chemically bound up and thus is available to pathogens to grow. The FDA uses 0.85 Aw to decide if a food is shelf stable unrefrigerated. The Aw is actually a measurement of the water vapor pressure of the food vs. distilled water, and is expensive to measure--cheapest meter I have found is over $700! As the pH gets lower, which inhibits bacterial growth, the Aw can be higher and still be shelf stable. Most home salami makers use the time tested drying weight loss of 35-40%, along with a pH of 5.3 or below, for a salami to be "done". To be extra sure on my guess with these (I don't have an Aw meter), I went for pH 4.8 and 45% weight loss, which is pretty deep into safe territory. Wouldn't work for salami, but is a good tang and dryness for snack sticks!
The pork tenderloin that I've been making gets to about 45-50% before I clean it up and rebag it to equalize. The flavor is more concentrated than a moist product you can buy but I feel it is safer when left out. I really need to test the pH of this last batch next week before shipping off a sample.
This is the information I've been looking for...a quick way to make my favorite meat snack without having to buy a bunch of equipment to do cold smoke and a curing cabinet! Thank you so much for sharing this! One question if I may and it relates to shelf stability. My understanding is there are a few factors to being able to safely leave this out of the fridge/freezer: using a cure (Cure #1 - check), having lactic acid (ELA-check), cook > 155F (check), and removing moisture (post smoke drying-check). Finally the question, I've read a recommendation for homemade jerky with cure #1 is two weeks shelf stable else refigerate/freeze, is this the same for your's or longer?
Glad you found this helpful! Shelf stability is hard to pin down, because the USDA has different limits for dryness based on acidity, but they don't actually use dryness. What they use is "how much water is available for use by bacteria to grow, vs present but chemically linked up". They measure this by testing the partial pressure of watee vapor, and they use Aw as the units for water available. The cheapest meter I have found to test Aw is $600. On sale today for $400 lol. Anyways, most folks use weight loss during drying to guesstimate a safe Aw. I think I recall 0.85 and below are considered shelf stable. But in salami, with pH less than 5.3, a weight loss of 40% is generally stable, at least for fridge. For me personally, if I am going to leave stuff out of fridge, I go for at least 50% weight loss... but that's not supported by any testing really. If I knew I had acidified sticks down to say 5.0, I might be ok with 40% weight loss like normal salami. But after the effort, I generally don't risk it and just refrigerate. When making sticks and jerky I plan to pack around at room temp, I target 50% weight loss when drying, to guesstimate < 0.85 Aw. Adding salt drops Aw also, so 3% salt gets you to 0.95 Aw, which is why at least 2.5% salt is needed for salami. This video method, for me with my smoker and recipe, gets me to a product I feel is pretty shelf stable. I've been packing them around in vacpack at room temp for 2 weeks before eating, and felt they were perfect. I wouldn't rely on that if I wasn't the guinea pig tester though ;)
Would it be possible to get the weights and measurements for the size batch your making in your video. I see your recipe is for 2.2 pounds. Thank you sir
Yes, sure. I gave the recipe in a standard easy to multiply size, 1 kg or 1000g, to make it easy for you to make any size you want. And in weights, not volume, so that spice amounts are correct and not wildly different depending on spice grind size. Look in the video description for all the written recipe for 1kg. Just multiply the ingredients by whatever you want. 1kg is 2.2 lbs. In the video I made 2.5kg which is 5.5 lbs if you need lbs to visualize it. Reason is, my mixer will only hold 6 lbs and I like to use mixer for easy cleanup. So just multiply everything by 2.5 for that amount, super easy and simple! Now you're not locked into some silly 5lb recipe with teaspoons no one can remotely convert accurately;)
Thank you sir. So my last question is the 1 percent binder on your recipe of 1000 grams equal 10 grams and 20 grams on sure gel. So to make 5.5 lbs multiply by 2.5@@ArtisanCook
Exactly! Well, almost ;) So 25g of the binder, which IS Walton's SureGel or NDFM. The 2% or 20g on next line is for the acid blend, not the binder. "1% binder, Walton's SureGel or Nonfat Dry Milk 2% Smooth Acid blend, ECA/ELA/trelahose mix"
After you spray down StarSan on your granite countertops? Do you then have to wipe the Star San off? Will that do any damage to the surface? I see you are doing 7g of Star San per 32oz?
You don't have to wipe starsan off. It's selling point for bars and such is that it sterilizes and with no rinse is safe and no taste. Safe on granite, which is about as hard and impervious as you can get. I wouldn't leave it on marble or limestone, which can be affected by the acid. After 60 sec contact, stuff is sterilized... you can wipe it off counters if desired. I usually spray it on granite, wipe it all around, and let it dry off. My ratio is what the bottle recommends for equipment etc
@@ArtisanCook Thanks. I had contacted the manufacturer and they said, "We do not recommend using the starsan on granite, the starsan can destroy it." I don't know what to make of that.
Sure do, here ya go! This is Walton's, a great meat processing supply store with fantastic customer service. I brought this ELA mix to their attention, and they started carrying it for me, much easier to source now! I use about 2% of meat weight, so 20g acid per 1000g meat. This gives around pH 4.8 I'd guess. I should go measure that... waltons.com/smooth-acid/
Another good one Dave. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very good tutorial!! That ECA will certainly get that tangy fermentation flavor!! Very well done sir!!
Thanks so much Eric, you've been a great mentor and inspiration, you're the very best-- content, production, knowledge, professionalism, my favorite channel by far! Thx for your kind comment ;)
Thanks for another great video Dave!
Thank YOU for watching, glad you enjoyed!
Good job! So 45% weight loss makes for a shelf stable product? When do you weigh it? After stuffing, then after drying?
I weigh it after stuffing all piled on a tray. Then again after pulling it all from the smoker. For salami, you usually weigh individual chubbs, but a pile of sticks all together.
Shelf stability is tricky, you actually need to know the Aw, or Water Available, which is the water that is not chemically bound up and thus is available to pathogens to grow. The FDA uses 0.85 Aw to decide if a food is shelf stable unrefrigerated. The Aw is actually a measurement of the water vapor pressure of the food vs. distilled water, and is expensive to measure--cheapest meter I have found is over $700! As the pH gets lower, which inhibits bacterial growth, the Aw can be higher and still be shelf stable. Most home salami makers use the time tested drying weight loss of 35-40%, along with a pH of 5.3 or below, for a salami to be "done". To be extra sure on my guess with these (I don't have an Aw meter), I went for pH 4.8 and 45% weight loss, which is pretty deep into safe territory. Wouldn't work for salami, but is a good tang and dryness for snack sticks!
The pork tenderloin that I've been making gets to about 45-50% before I clean it up and rebag it to equalize. The flavor is more concentrated than a moist product you can buy but I feel it is safer when left out. I really need to test the pH of this last batch next week before shipping off a sample.
Sounds tasty!
Looks great!
Thanks!
This is the information I've been looking for...a quick way to make my favorite meat snack without having to buy a bunch of equipment to do cold smoke and a curing cabinet! Thank you so much for sharing this! One question if I may and it relates to shelf stability. My understanding is there are a few factors to being able to safely leave this out of the fridge/freezer: using a cure (Cure #1 - check), having lactic acid (ELA-check), cook > 155F (check), and removing moisture (post smoke drying-check). Finally the question, I've read a recommendation for homemade jerky with cure #1 is two weeks shelf stable else refigerate/freeze, is this the same for your's or longer?
Glad you found this helpful! Shelf stability is hard to pin down, because the USDA has different limits for dryness based on acidity, but they don't actually use dryness. What they use is "how much water is available for use by bacteria to grow, vs present but chemically linked up". They measure this by testing the partial pressure of watee vapor, and they use Aw as the units for water available. The cheapest meter I have found to test Aw is $600. On sale today for $400 lol. Anyways, most folks use weight loss during drying to guesstimate a safe Aw. I think I recall 0.85 and below are considered shelf stable. But in salami, with pH less than 5.3, a weight loss of 40% is generally stable, at least for fridge. For me personally, if I am going to leave stuff out of fridge, I go for at least 50% weight loss... but that's not supported by any testing really. If I knew I had acidified sticks down to say 5.0, I might be ok with 40% weight loss like normal salami. But after the effort, I generally don't risk it and just refrigerate. When making sticks and jerky I plan to pack around at room temp, I target 50% weight loss when drying, to guesstimate < 0.85 Aw. Adding salt drops Aw also, so 3% salt gets you to 0.95 Aw, which is why at least 2.5% salt is needed for salami.
This video method, for me with my smoker and recipe, gets me to a product I feel is pretty shelf stable. I've been packing them around in vacpack at room temp for 2 weeks before eating, and felt they were perfect. I wouldn't rely on that if I wasn't the guinea pig tester though ;)
@@ArtisanCook Thanks again for sharing all of this - you are a wealth of knowledge! I can't wait to try this out!
You're welcome, thx ;)
Would it be possible to get the weights and measurements for the size batch your making in your video. I see your recipe is for 2.2 pounds. Thank you sir
Yes, sure. I gave the recipe in a standard easy to multiply size, 1 kg or 1000g, to make it easy for you to make any size you want. And in weights, not volume, so that spice amounts are correct and not wildly different depending on spice grind size.
Look in the video description for all the written recipe for 1kg. Just multiply the ingredients by whatever you want. 1kg is 2.2 lbs. In the video I made 2.5kg which is 5.5 lbs if you need lbs to visualize it. Reason is, my mixer will only hold 6 lbs and I like to use mixer for easy cleanup. So just multiply everything by 2.5 for that amount, super easy and simple! Now you're not locked into some silly 5lb recipe with teaspoons no one can remotely convert accurately;)
Thank you sir. So my last question is the 1 percent binder on your recipe of 1000 grams equal 10 grams and 20 grams on sure gel. So to make 5.5 lbs multiply by 2.5@@ArtisanCook
Exactly! Well, almost ;)
So 25g of the binder, which IS Walton's SureGel or NDFM. The 2% or 20g on next line is for the acid blend, not the binder.
"1% binder, Walton's SureGel or Nonfat Dry Milk
2% Smooth Acid blend, ECA/ELA/trelahose mix"
Thanks for your help, I worded that wrong on my post. I made this over the weekend and it was delicious. Thanks for recipe.@@ArtisanCook
Glad you tried it and it was good! ;)
After you spray down StarSan on your granite countertops? Do you then have to wipe the Star San off? Will that do any damage to the surface? I see you are doing 7g of Star San per 32oz?
You don't have to wipe starsan off. It's selling point for bars and such is that it sterilizes and with no rinse is safe and no taste. Safe on granite, which is about as hard and impervious as you can get. I wouldn't leave it on marble or limestone, which can be affected by the acid. After 60 sec contact, stuff is sterilized... you can wipe it off counters if desired. I usually spray it on granite, wipe it all around, and let it dry off. My ratio is what the bottle recommends for equipment etc
@@ArtisanCook Thanks. I had contacted the manufacturer and they said, "We do not recommend using the starsan on granite, the starsan can destroy it." I don't know what to make of that.
It's just phosphoric acid mostly.. Granite isn't hurt by acids, which is why folks use it for counters instead of marble.
Do you have a link for the Smooth Acid blend, ECA/ELA/trelahose mix? Great video, going to give this a shot.
Sure do, here ya go! This is Walton's, a great meat processing supply store with fantastic customer service. I brought this ELA mix to their attention, and they started carrying it for me, much easier to source now! I use about 2% of meat weight, so 20g acid per 1000g meat. This gives around pH 4.8 I'd guess. I should go measure that...
waltons.com/smooth-acid/
@@ArtisanCook Thank you very much! It is ordered. Looking foward to more content!
Hope it works well for you, I like it better than citric acid.
I love cumin, but not for this type sausage - good choice of spices!
Same here!