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


Home

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.