Cured sausage turning brown

[angel4us]

Had a freind make cured country style sausage and it usually stays pink but turned brown this past time. It’s a bag of seasoning and a bag of cure ground 60% deer and 40% pork mixed it all together and in 5 minutes it all turned brown inside and out ???

[Jonathon]

angel4us How was it cooked, what temperatures were used and what was the final temp? What additives were used? The pink color is set during the thermal processing phase when it starts it will have the brown color and once the nitric oxide interacts with the myoglobin (what gives blood its red appearance) and heat is applied that is when the pink will appear.

Could it be that the cure was left out? I’ve had it happen before. Could also be a problem with the seasoning or the cure.

The age of the animal will also affect the amount of myoglobin in available so that could be a factor as well.

What seasoning was it?

Let me know the answer to these questions and if I can’t figure it out I will talk to our food scientist to see if he has any better ideas!

[angel4us]

Thanks jonathon but the guy came to work today and said he went home last night and went to package it up for freezer and it was red/pink! All good thanks again !!peace

[Jonathon]

angel4us Thanks for the update and glad everything came out well in the end!

[Forkinpork]

Hmm really would like to know what happened here.
Glad it all turned out great, and my first thoughts went to the CURE.
Not really understanding what happened here???

[pooldude]

I have been making sausage for over 30 years and have to see a proper cured sausage not turn brown, not to worry it’s normal and will turn that beautiful red you look for during the smoke and cook process

[JoeB]

For those that walked thru the meat markets in the 50’s every morning the butcher would add a little magic power to the ground beef and pork ( cure#1) … Mixed it up. Ground meat looked great. Bright red every time. Happy Dance.