Manufacturing of meat sausage: Ingredients and processing

Sausage is a food product resulting from the assemblage of proper ingredient in the right proportion coupled with a structured design and controlled process. The quality of the product is always a reflection of the status of the raw materials and the process. Its taste, texture, tenderness and color are related to the ratio of fat to lean.

Fresh sausage is typically prepared from one or more kinds of meats. It may contain water (not exceeding 3 percent of the total ingredients in the product) and binders and extenders (for example, wheat flour and non-fat dry milk).

Good sausage begins with good meat. Beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, and poultry are all suitable for use in sausage. A majority of sausage products are prepared with pork and beef. Meat should be fresh, high quality, have the proper lean-to-fat ratio and have good binding qualities. The meat should be clean and not contaminated with bacteria or other microorganisms.

Other ingredients such as salt (addition to taste, extract some proteins from meat, enhances flavor, reduce microbiological spoilage and increases water holding), water ice (assist the process of mixing and help salt to solubilize meat proteins), curing agents (inhibit microbial growth, provide pink color and enhance flavor), spices (add flavor to the product) and binder (promote fat and moisture retention) and extender (reduce formulation costs).

The basic steps in sausage making are:
• Weighing/measuring the ingredients
• Grinding
• Stuffing/linking
• Smoking/cooking

Sausage making has become a unique blend of old procedures and new scientific, highly-mech-anized processes. Traditionally, sausage was formed into a symmetrical shape, but it now can be found in a variety of shapes and sizes to meet consumers’ needs.
Manufacturing of meat sausage: Ingredients and processing  

Manufacture of cranberry sauce

Large amounts of cranberries are used to produce cranberries jelly and cranberry sauce, both retailed as canned products.

The forts can cranberry sauce was packed in Hanson, Massachusetts in 1919, about 100 years after cranberry cultivation began in North America.

In the manufacture of cranberry sauce, water, about twice, as much as fruit and about 0.3% of dispersed pectin are mixed together.

The mixture is then cooked to 102.2 ° C and evaporated in an open steam kettle to a soluble solids content of 65%. Citric acid solution is then added to bring the pH to 3.0 – 3.4.

Whole cranberry sauce should not be cooked to a point where it sets to a solid gel, but should flow slowly when poured into a dish.
Manufacture of cranberry sauce

Processing of fudge

The name fudge covers a wide range of products which are basically toffee formulation but in which sugar crystal has been developed during processing.

Fudge consists of oil, water and milk ingredients.  Normally fudge contains more sugar and milk than a toffee, but composition can vary between very wide limits. The hardness and texture of the final fudge are mainly determined by the water content, which in turn is controlled by the boiling temperature. The higher the temperature, the lower the water content and it will harder the final product.

Vanilla fudge packaging

Fudge is produced by boiling a caramel batch to 120 – 123 ° C, cooling it to about 105 ° C. It is then cats or spread on tables to allow crystallization to develop.

Fudge is a grained product, and some means of graining is required. This can be done by removing part of the cooked batch, cooling it and working it until crystallises, when it is added back to the remainder of the hot batch and thoroughly mixed in.

Whilst this is feasible it is not usual and use of fondant to provide seed crystal is almost universal. Usually about 5% is required but increasing the quality will produce finer crustal and a more plastic product.

Chocolate fudge brownies with walnuts

In fudge applications, the fat works as a smoothing and shortening agent making the product less sticky.

Another very important function of the fat is as a flavour carrier which means that it needs to have very good flavor and flavour stability.
Processing of fudge

Ingredients for making fondants

Fondant, a mixture do sucrose, corn syrup and water, is a simple candy. Fondant used extensively in the candy and baking industry, the additive used is invert sugar.

When making fondant, accurately measuring the ingredients is important because changing their ratios greatly affects the texture of the fondant.

Ingredients: ½ cup softened butter, ½ cup corn syrup, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 2 cups confectioner’s sugar (shifted).

The process of making fondant consists of cooking a mixture of the ingredients, cooling to 38° C to 54 ° C, then agitating it until it crystallizes.

In the baking industry, fondant is used in the preparation of high quality icings. It imparts humectants qualities to the icings, but at the same time, it provides a highly desirable sheen or luster to the finished products.

Adding flavoring to fondant can help make an otherwise bland icing a little more palatable. Adding color to it makes the cake more vibrant and visually interesting.
Ingredients for making fondants

PH Control Substances

PH Control Substances
Natural or synthetic acid or alkali ingredients change or maintain the initial pH of a product.

For example, acidulents flavor, preserve and regulate pH.

The acid ingredients regulate by lowering the pH and preserve foods by inhibiting microbial growth.

Regardless of the acid level of food ingredients, food acids are incorporated into foods in order maintain a constant acid level.

Natural acids include the following acetic acid or vinegar and citric acid from citrus, which control unwanted trace metals otherwise catalyzing oxidation reactions; malic acid (an organic acid from apples and figs); and tartaric acid (a weak acid).

These acids may be added to foods to impart flavor and control tartness.

Lactic acid present in almost all living organisms, is an acidity regulator and is used in balancing the acidity in cheese making, as well as adding tartness to many other foods.

The acid salt calcium propionate is added to control pH of breads.

Sodium lactate (the salt of lactic acid) may be used in processed meat and poultry products.

Examples of alkaline ingredients include sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), an ingredient that balances the acid component of baking powder, sodium hydroxide, used in modified starches, and potassium hydroxide.

Alkaline compounds are used to neutralize excess acid that otherwise could produce unwelcome flavors. In food they leaven and soften hard water.
PH Control Substances