Sausage color depends on meat, nitrates, spices, casing, smoking & cooking















 








Home



 





making
sausage

sausage color


salt and
sugar

spices




 
Sausage Color
 
Sausage color depends on: meat,
nitrates, spices, casing, smoking & cooking.


type of the meat used
- beef, pork, veal, poultry

type of the sausage - fresh or cured with nitrates/nitrites and smoked

spices and additives

type of a casing

smoking - type of wood used and the length of smoking

method of cooking

1. Meat color is determined largely by
the amount of myoglobin (protein) a particular animal carries. More myoglobin
the darker the meat, that simple. Going from top to bottom, meat that contains
the
most myoglobin are: beef, lamb, veal, pork, dark poultry and light poultry. The amount of myoglobin present in meat also increases with age
of the animal. Different parts of the same animal, take the turkey for example,
will have different colors as well. This color is pretty much fixed and there is
not much we can do about it unless we mix different meats together.  (to
learn more...)
2. Cured meats
develop a particular pink-reddish color due to the reaction that takes place
between meat myoglobin and nitrate/nitrite. If insufficient amounts of
nitrate/nitrite are added to the meat the cured color will suffer. This may be
less noticeable in sausages where the meat is ground and stuffed but if we slice
a larger piece like a ham, the poorly developed color will be easily
noticeable. Some sections may be gray, some may be pink and the meat will not
look appetizing. (to learn
more...)
3. Dark spices
like nutmeg, caraway, cloves, and allspice can darken the color of the sausage.
Paprika is another well known colorant and will give a sausage an orange tint
(paprika dosage:1 Tbs/1 kg)
4. Natural casings
will develop color that will depend on type of wood used for smoking and the
total time of smoking. There are man made casings that come already pre-colored
and if liquid smoke is added into the meat that will easily dupe an average
customer into thinking that his product was smoked.
5. Smoking
will impart color to the sausage casing. When cold smoking the color
originally will be gold - yellow and as the smoking continues it will become
light brown. When hot smoking the color will develop rapidly (1 - 3 hours) and a
lot will depend on the type of wood used. Oak will paint the sausage with a
brown color, hickory will add brown color with some red tint in it. As the time
progresses the color will deepen. (to
learn more about wood and sausage color...)
6. Method of
cooking will also influence the looks of the sausage. Cooking in
hot air (baking) dries out the surface of the meat which acquires deeper, redder
color with an extra shine. This shine is due to the grease that might accumulate
on the surface of the casing. Some of the fat that is located in the outside
surface of the sausage will melt down and will settle on the outside creating this
shine. Sausages poached in water will not develop that particular shine and
their color is lighter. Their flavor is also milder, more typical of a cooked
meat.
 


Page edited on July 20, 2007


Copyright © 2006 WedlinyDomowe.com All rights reserved
 




geovisit();