10 pounds of chubs using Celery Juice Powder

[Sailor1]

Doing 10lbs of Summer Sausage with 1 pound of mild cheddar cheese.  Instead of using 2 tsp of cure #1 I am using 3 1/2 tsp of celery juice powder.  Celery juice power is pretty expensive $9.99 for enough to do 25 pounds of meat.  Buddy of mine thinks additives and preservatives will kill him    Told him he gets more nitrates in veggies every day than he gets in cured sausage but he insists on no sodium nitrates.  So we is going all natural in this batch.

10 pounds of Wally World GB 80/20


Spices and celery juice power all mixed up


Casings soaking for 40 minutes


Got 1 pound of mild cheddar all diced up.  This is store bought and not high temp cheese.


Meat got mixed up and then the cheese was added and mixed.  All hand mixed.


Casings all stuffed.  Tied the chubs in 8 inch lengths


Loaded in the Bradley.  3 chubs in the back row and 4 in the front.


1 hour at 130 degrees to dry.  Will bump to 140 for 2 hrs and add 3 hours of Hickory.  Bump to 150 for 2 hours and finish off the other hour of hickory smoke.  Bump to 160 for 2 hrs then to 170 and hold till IT of 152.

Be back later.

[Smokin Don]

Looks like a bunch of good snacks there!!! Don

[sparky]

I got crackers.   

[CDN Smoker]

That looks outstanding, great job

[HighOnSmoke]

Will be watching this one!

[Sailor1]

Smoke is finished and now just got to let the IT come up.  IT is at 130 so got a ways to go.  Pretty happy with the color so far using the celery juice powder instead of the Cure #1

[hikerman]

Sailor they are looking great!

Question for you....How exactly is the celery juice powder replacing the cure #1? This baffles me. 

[Sailor1]

They just came off the smoker and into a cold water bath to cool down and on the counter to bloom for a few hours.  Then they will go into the fridge for 24 to 48 hours and then get vac sealed.

[sliding_billy]

Very nice.

[Sailor1]

Sailor they are looking great!

Question for you....How exactly is the celery juice powder replacing the cure #1? This baffles me. 

Sodium Nitrate is considered a "chemical" and therefore is an additive/preservative.  Nitrates occur naturally in veggies.  Celery is high in nitrates.  The USDA considers meat "cured" if you use a cure agent such as Cure #1, Morton's Tender Quick etc.  The USDA allows meat producers to label smoked meats as natural, no preservative no additives if you don't use cure.  The label has to say "uncured" and precooked.  Of course this is all a big hoax to start with.  A nitrate is a nitrate is a nitrate no matter how you get it.  But because a veggie is giving it and not a chemical people think they are eating healthy.  Lot of scientific and chemistry stuff going on to turn the nitrates into nitrites as meat is smoked. The smoke ring on a brisket is getting the pink from the chemical reaction of burning wood which produces nitrates.  I may be confused with the nitrites/nitrate stuff but bottom line is the celery juice powder does the same thing that cure #1 does except it costs lots more money to do it.  It is a scam to get people to spend more money for something that they could have gotten a lot cheeper. 

Cliff aka Tenthunter did a great write up a while back when he juiced a bunch of celery and used the juice instead of the store bought celery juice powder.  Michael Ruhlman has a nice write up about the hoax.  http://ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/

My Buddy will not be convinced and he insists that he can tell the difference in meats using sodium nitrate vs the all natural stuff.  He wanted it so he is getting it.   

[muebe]

Glutamates also occur naturally like that are in MSG. And people get all freaked out about MSG

Hey cyanide is also naturally found in apple seeds

And tapioca is poisonous before it is processed!

There are so many "natural" things out there that are actually bad for you.

Sailor those chubs look great!

So are you going to do a blind taste test with your friend to see if he can identify which one uses pink salt and which one uses the celery juice?

[SiFumar]

Looks great as usual!

[hikerman]

Thanks for explaining that Sailor. And yes those chubs are looking mighty fine!

[TentHunteR]

Jim, can't wait to see it sliced! 

Sailor they are looking great!

Question for you....How exactly is the celery juice powder replacing the cure #1? This baffles me. 

Like Jim (Sailor1) said, Celery is very high in naturally occurring nitrates, which break down into nitrites, which in turn cure the sausages.

Here's the celery juice experiment that I did this past year: Curing Sausage with Celery Juice - the experiment


I did that experiment because I also know someone who refuses to eat "cured" meats, but will eat these "No Nitrite/Nitrate added" meats thinking they contain no nitrates/nitrites, which of course is not true.

[fishingbouchman]

Those look great.