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Need a lil help.
I made some breakfast sausage and after I took a pack out of the freezer and opened it it looks pale brown, not pink.
It don't smell or "look" bad and not slimy, just unattractive. Looks fine and taste great after cooking it.
Should I be adding some pink salt to it to keep the color?
TIA
The sausage color darkens when frozen as it is exposed to the light,
As shown in this article: Color of Fresh Meat: The Basics
Posted on 23. September. 2009 by Chris Raines By Christopher R. Raines
The color of fresh meat is considered one of the most influential factors related to fresh meat purchasing decisions. To many consumers, it can be a troubling thing, to go to the self-serve retail meat case and see one steak that is a bright, cherry-red color (packaged on a tray and wrapped in film) and right beside it is a dull, purple appearing steak (packaged in vacuum). Why the color difference? Even if those two steaks were cut from the same loin, they can appear very differently.
The reason for this apparent difference is probably due to how the meat was packaged. In order for meat to “bloom” (meat industry jargon for turning from purple to red), exposure of the primary pigment in meat (myoglobin) to oxygen is needed (*meat color is a super-complicated thing; for now, let’s presume oxygen is the only substance that can cause meat to bloom; I’ll delve into others in later entries). Thus, if fresh meat (“fresh meat” meaning steaks, chops, ground beef, etc. — not salami, bacon, ham…) is packaged in a way that lets it contact oxygen (this is how most meat in self-serve meat cases are packaged), or displayed fresh at the meat counter, it should look red. Problematically, once the steak is cut and exposed to air, oxidation (going rancid or “off”) may begin. To mitigate oxidative deterioration and essentially keep meat fresher longer, there is vacuum packaging (some folks use the blanket term “Cryovac” in lieu of vacuum), in which meat is packaged without oxygen, and thus the fresh meat would appear a dull, purplish color. Vacuum packaging is pretty handy – take the air away, and meat will keep (frozen or refrigerated) longer. Below is an illustration of the relationships among different states of myoglobin in fresh meat:
Forms of myoglobin, adapted from Mancini & Hunt, 2005 There is a lot happening in this diagram! (1) Let’s start with DEOXYMYOGLOBIN in the upper left, which appears purplish. This is the color of meat when myoglobin is in its native state, or immediately after cutting and before blooming. For example, purple is the color of meat in the middle of a steak (i.e., When you cut across a raw, fresh steak that’s red on the surface, it should be purple in the middle. If you let the steak sit for a bit exposed to air, that color will change, or bloom, to cherry red.) (2) In the presence of oxygen (better referred to as oxygenation), fresh meat blooms and turns its characteristic red color. This form of myoglobin is called OXYMYOGLOBIN. After prolonged exposure to oxygen, (3) we then have METMYOGLOBIN, which appears brown. If you’ve ever been to the grocery and see brown spots on the “Reduced for Quick Sale” fresh meats, those superficial blemishes are METMYOGLOBIN. (Those little brown spots may not look appealing, but may not mean the meat is not safe to eat after cooking. However, if you’ve any reason to believe it’s not safe – such as smells spoiled – don’t eat it!) After the meat oxygenates and turns red, it will eventually oxidize and turn brown.
Getting into the chemistry of the matter, the state of the iron in myoglobin (the heme pigment – this is the iron than makes red meat “high in iron”) is a determining factor to fresh meat color. DEOXYMYOGLOBIN and OXYMYOGLOBIN contains iron in the ferrous (Fe 2+) state and METMYOGLOBIN contains iron in the ferric (Fe 3+) state. Let’s dig deeper into this ferrous/ferric business…
I stopped using meat bags for long term . I just don't like the way it comes out of the freezer for a few months . Never had any go bad , but just not as fresh .
