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switch from milk powder to soy the pepperoni batches where denser than with milk powder all recipies said they where changeable 1for1

I guess it depends on the soy. There's different types with vastly different amounts of protein. I know that the higher protein ones can hold an awful lot of water and can 'set up' and make stuffing difficult. Milk powder also binds water - but I don't think it does it to the same degree. Milk powder is about 35% protein whereas soy (Isolate) can be up to 90%. Pea powder is another alternative to either.

Personally, I don't like the taste of soy, but it's probably not noticeable in pepperoni.

Was there a particular reason why you wanted to switch?

Phil

Hi Phil, Thanks for your input, great information. I switched to soy because it is much less expensive, and easier to obtain from the commercial suppliers. My wife didn't like the texture, nor the flavor. GRB

Both the milk powder and soy are used at the same rate (1%-3%) but like Phil mentioned there are different concentrations of soy powder and the more protein in it the more liquid you'll want to add. I once made a batch of franks using soy isolate instead of my usual soy concentrate and they were incredibly dense.

GRB, can you tell us what specific products you have tried and where you purchased them? Until I recently started reading through Ingredients in Meat Products, I had no idea that there were so many available – at least 4 different kinds of soy protein isolates and 3 different soy protein concentrates.

But, as you've discovered, they are not strictly interchangeable! In general, as Phil and Dan have already suggested, non-fat milk powder is generally a filler with the ability to bind to water, while generally the soy protein concentrates also contribute to binding the meat mix – not so much making it "denser" as binding the proteins so thoroughly that the texture can become rubbery and hard to bite through.

Phil, I'd beg your indulgence with this kind of "cut and paste" bookish stuff, but I know how tolerant you are of ignorant punters like me!

So to clarify, NON fat milk powder is the most suitable to use as a binder in any and all cases?

Depends what you mean by "binder"! If all you want is something to help hold moisture in the mix, then non-fat dried milk powder will be fine. If you're looking for something to help firm up the meat mix and give you a sausage with more "snap" when you bite into it, then one of the soy proteins is what you want.

Unfortunately, I don't know of anything that covers "any and all cases"!

Thanks TLP