4.4 - Meat Curing: Ingredients, Reactions, and Applications

What are the basic curing ingredients?

• Salt

• Nitrite (NaNO2) and/or Nitrate (NaNO3)

• Ascorbate/erythrobate

• Phosphate

• Water

What does the following functions?

• Enhancing flavor

• Preventing WOF in reheated products

• Retarding rancidity during storage

• Preventing growth of Clostridium botulinum in canned products (anaerobic environment)

• Bacteriostatic agent

• Developing cured pink color

Nitrite (NaNO2) and/or Nitrate (NaNO3)

What is the warmed over flavor?

a cardboard like taste

What is responsible for a warmed over flavor?

oxidized products 

Where does the nitrite/nitrate come from?

Potassium or sodium salt

Nitrate is only allowed in:

dry cured meats or dry sausage

Ingoing concentration limit of nitrite in bacon?

less than or equal to 120ppm

Nitrite in bacon must be accompanied by:

550 ppm of ascorbate or erythorbate

Residual nitrite must be:

less than or equal to 40ppm

Acsorbate or erythrobate are:

reducing agents

What chemical is formed during the curing process that can cause cancer?

Nitrosamine

When will Nitrosamine cause cancer?

only if you consume multiple pounds of bacon everyday for 40 years will this chemical build up be enough to be harmful to human health

What natural ingredient chemically has nitrite in it?

Celery powder that has been “cultured” or fermented

What is step 1 of the curing reaction?

generation of nitric oxide

Formal electric load of NO?

+2

If nitrate is used, it must be converted to:

nitrite

2HNO2 get converted to:

N2O2 + H2O

N2O2 get converted to:

NO + NO2

What is needed to react to the myoglobin to form nitric myoglobin?

NO

What is the 2nd step in the curing reaction?

development of cured color in raw meat

NO-myoglobin =

Fe++ —> ferrous state

Nitric oxide myoglobin or nitrosomyoglobin, iron state =

ferrous

What is true about metmyoglobin?

it's already oxidied and cannot bind to NO

Nitric oxide myoglobin or nitrosomyoglobin is similar to:

oxymyoglobin

Typical color of cure in pork & poultry?

pink

Typical color of beef?

red (corned beef)

Pink color is cased by:

nitrosomyoglobin

NO + myoglobin → NO-myoglobin

What is step 3 of the curing reaction?

cured color fixation

Nitric oxide myoglobin is:

unstable

How is nitric oxide myoglobin fixed?

by heating to 140ºF

How is it fixed that way?

temp will help stabilize the color

• heating only changes the sturcture but not chemical composition

What does nitric oxide myoglobin converted into after heating?

Nitrosomyochromogen or nitrosohemochrome

Nitrosomyochromogen or nitrosohemochrome is only formed during:

by heating

In Nitrosomyochromogen or nitrosohemochrome:

• the globular protein is denatured

• NO-porphyrin stable

• Not changed with further cooking

When does the pink color happen to cured meat?

when it is cooked, not when raw

Which compound is primarily responsible for developing the cured pink color in meat?

Nitric oxide

True or False: Nitrosomyochromogen is formed only after heating cured meat to at least 140

true

Which ingredient accelerates the curing reaction and protects cured color during display?

Sodium erythorbate

What is the legal ingoing nitrite concentration allowed in bacon?

120 ppm

200ppm =

ingoing nitrite amount for dry cured ham

Which of the following is NOT a function of nitrite in meat curing?

Enhancing water-holding capacity

• done by phosphates

Curing acceleration and protection:

ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, or sodium erythorbate (VC)

Ascorbic acid other function:

prevent the oxymyoglobin to be converted to metmyoglobin -- it can help with this because it's an antioxidant

Speeding up the reduction of HNO 2 to NO: why important?

for curing to go faster and make sure there is enough NO to react with the myoglobin

How is the cured color protected?

• antioxidant

• Preventing cured color from fading during retail display

• 5 – 10% may be used

Phosphates used is usually:

tripolyphosphate

How does tripolyphosphate inc WHC?

because this will give more negative charges and hold water better

Increasing WHC of muscle proteins is important because:

Decreasing shrink during curing and smoking

Why is there shrink during cooking?

• this is because the products shrink and lose water

• if water is lost, the water soluble stuff will the lost as well like: nitrate, nitrite, and salt as well

• this is why phosphate needs to be added in the cure

Other function of phosphate?

it is added in salt form so can add a little bit of flavor

What is legal limit? Why do processors use phosphates well below legal limit?

a lot more of this can be used than nitrate/nitrite — up to 0.5% in the final cooked product can be present can be used

Why do most processors only use up to 0.3% phosphate?

because it can taste soapy (like detergent)

3rd reason for not using too much phosphate?

you have to label it in there

Antioxidant =

prevent the formation of metmyoglobin

Phosphate, ascorbic acid, salt, nitrate/nitrite =

all in the powder form

Dry cured bacon is much much more expensive than what people regularly get, but:

has a very rich flavor that a lot of people like

Wet cured bacon =

faster, more controlled, not as costly as dry cured (doesn't lose the moisture like dry cured)

Water = 

• Dispersing cure through meat

• Reducing cost

• Remaining water labeled as “added water”

Dry salt cure:

using salt with or without nitrite/nitrate

Dry sugar cure:

• adding sugar to overcome harshness of salt flavor

• Traditional country cured ham

little bit of sugar =

bacteria can grow (ex.yeast)

lot of salt =

bacteria won't grow

Alcohol is also used as a:

preservative

Rubbing cure mixture over surface is done:

twice: 1 at the beginning and 2nd time after about a week

Penetration of salt (and other curing ingredients) through osmosis is when:

something moves from a higher concentration to lower concentration --> salt moves inside from the surface of the meat

Great shrinking for dry curing because:

moisture loss

In dry curing, why is the bone salted?

if you don't, bacteria and yeast will grow in the bone marrow (this is very nutritious)

Curing with liquid can be done by using:

Cover pickle (placing meat in brine) or sweet pickle

Penetration of salt (and other curing ingredients) with curing liquid happens through:

osmosis

More uniform distribution of cure is seen when using a:

curing liquid

Disadvantages of curing liquids:

bone sour, yeast growth

• because brine does not reach the center of the meat fast enough, and the center remains anaerobic, low-salt, and warm long enough for bacteria to grow

What is the way to pump brine to get with distributed quickly?

you can pump the brine solution into the arteries or the veins because that will go everywhere through the meat quickly

Stich or spray pumping:

cure directly injected into meat at several places by needles

Artery pumping:

cure dispersed via vein and artery (capillaries) for BEST distribution

Multi-needle injection:

• Commercial processing

• Rapid distribution of cure

• Better protection against spoilage

• Less shrinkage

• Not having typical flavor, aroma, and texture

Summary of way to pump cure:

• Stich pump

• Artery pump

• Multi-needle injection

• Cover pickle

• Combination

Disadvantage of stich pump is:

not really efficient and takes too long

Massaging and tumbling after pumping purpose:

• Extracting proteins to bind muscles

• Increasing pickup and retention of moisture

Functions of massaging and tumbling?

• Disrupting tissue structure (vacuum, agitation)

• Speeding up cure distribution

• Solubilizing and extracting muscle proteins

Massaging =

frictional energy, less tearing of muscles, less size reduction

Tumbling =

impact energy, more tearing of muscles, extracting more proteins

How many days does ti take to process dry cure hams?

150

105 days to process * 10,000/day =

1,050,000 hams in stock

What is needed for commercial dry curing?

• Storage

• Labor

Almost all country cured business is in:

southeastern U.S.

How many days to complete pickle curing?

3

How many hams does a packer have on hand if 10,000 hogs are slaughtered per day?

20,000 hams per day because each hog has 2 hams

Which curing method would you choose and why?

• needle pumping method from the processing standpoint

• dry curing for people who want rich flavor

Ham skinning =

Silverside shrinks distorting hams

Cure equilibration =

• Dry cure requires 20 days of equilibration at 38ºF for uniform distribution of cure

• Can make people sick if eaten too soon

You want to maintain a __ temp for curing equilibration?

low

Dry cure: curing loss =

2%

Dry cure: smoking loss =

8-9%

Dry cure: after 30 days of aging loss =

15-18%

Dry cure: 6 months of aging loss =

± 30%

Why do country cured products cost much more than others?

lot of processing loss

Pickle cure popularity is due to:

• Much cheaper: less overhead, added water, less shrinkage

• Juicier

• More tender

• Better flavor

___% of all hams and bacon are produced by pickle curing?

90