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Salt and
Sugar
 

 When making a sausage the non-iodized salt should be used as it is purer. Iodized salt includes extra
ingredients for example, anti-caking agents are used to prevent salt lumping. If
you fill one glass with iodized salt and water, and the other with pickling salt
and water, you will see that after a while the solution of pickling salt will be
much clearer. In earlier days "rock" salts were named after the mine from which
they came from, for instance Wieliczka (Poland) or Sławianska, Permska, Jelecka,
Bachmutska (Russia) and they all had different degrees of purity. Our American
salts are manufactured to the highest standards but keep in mind that in other
countries salts can be mined under different conditions or made by evaporation
from sea-water. Quality of the final product will vary and may have some
impurities present. What is important is that salt should be always perfectly dry
(no bacteria) when used for curing. 
For brining
purposes both table salt and kosher salt will work equally well in terms of
providing the desired effects, though kosher salt
and in particular Diamond
Crystal kosher salt dissolves more readily. What is important to remember is
that kosher salts are less dense than ordinary table salts and measure quite
differently from a volume standpoint. Kosher salt has larger crystals and
is bulkier. For example, a given weight of Diamond Crystal takes up nearly twice
the volume as the same weight of table salt.
The list below
shows approximate equivalent amounts of different salts:
Table
Salt                                   1 cup                         292 g
(10.3 oz)
Morton Kosher
Salt                     1 cup                         225 g  (7.9 oz)
Diamond Crystal
Kosher Salt       1 cup                        
155 g  (5.5 oz)
One cup of table
salt is equivalent to 1-1/3 to 1-1/2 cups of Morton Kosher Salt or 2 cups of
Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt.
1 Tablespoon
           
            18 g
1 teaspoon
               
_             6 g
1 Tbs = 3 tsp    

    As we can see it
is always advisable to weigh out your salt.  Make sure the salt is dry
otherwise you may introduce some bacteria into the brine. Besides, moist salt
weighs much more and your results will be off. Salt used in brine should be as
pure as possible. Common impurities found in salt are calcium chloride,
magnesium sulphate, or nitrates.

Note:
salinity of seawater is about 3.7% which corresponds to 14 degrees. 
 
Sugar
 
As a flavoring ingredient, sugar plays a little role in making sausages. No more
than 3g of sugar is added to 1kg of meat otherwise it can be noticeable. Chinese
are very fond of sweet sausages so they might be an exception to the rule. If
after mixing meat with ingredients and we find that the mixture tastes too
salty, we can try to save the product by adding a little sugar. Not too much though
as it should not be felt in a ready to eat sausage. Adding sugar was very
important when making fermented and air dried sausages as it provided food for
bacteria and helped to form the lactic acid. Now we have commercially prepared
and ready to use starter cultures and adding sugar is less important. Sugar also
helps to preserve red color of meat. In Europe beet sugar is commonly used, in
the USA cane sugar is readily available. Often dextrose is used, but keep in
mind that it is only 70% as sweet as sugar.
Sugar is often used in preparing brines. (to
learn more...)

 

 

 


Page added on November 4, 2006


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