variation of Pepperoni - cooked from Poli

[MTFiddler]

Starting to snow today so sausage it is.  Looking for something to put on pizza so I thought maybe the pepperoni would be a good idea.

started with pork, deer and beef trim (as I was out of back fat) ground thru 3/16 plate



added spice mix and used my new mixer from Kirby. Again worked flawlessly.

the spice mix is from Poli's recipe collection and is as follows (for 6# total meat):

21 grams paprika
16 grams cayenne
10 grams mustard seed
10 grams anise seed
6 grams granulated garlic powder
1 gram fennel seed

I doubled the amounts (because I had slightly more than 6# of meat) and ran this all thru a spice grinder on the finest setting to incorporate.

To 3.2# each of pork shoulder and  venison and 1.3# of beef trim (7.7# total) I added 82 grams of spice mix, 45 grams non iodized salt, 64 grams non fat powdered milk, 15 grams powdered dextrose, 9 grams cure#1, and 3 (recipe only called for 1 but I upped just a bit to help mix the powders better) fluid ounces dry red wine (Columbia Crest Merlot)




stuffed into 1 1/2 x 15 casings



air dried for 1 hour (**here is the variation**) then instead of heating in the smoker with no smoke I water bathed them to 152F, held for 10 minutes and then back to the drying cabinet for 1 hour.

My control tube weighed in at 575 grams out of the bath one hour later it was down to 541 when I put unwrapped into the fridge. By morning a total moisture loss of 9% (525 grams) was noted.






Sliced and packaged into 4 oz packs for later. (In case anyone is wondering it takes 22 slices to make a 4 oz package, and you get lots of packages)



Flavor was good but could have used just a bit more fat as the texture was slightly dry.

thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions,  man this is fun.

[Mr Walleye]

MTFiddler

Very nice!

That's interesting how fast it dried down by 9%. Impressive.

Mike

[Keymaster]

Very nice job, Looks ready to top a Pizza ;)

[MTFiddler]

MTFiddler


That's interesting how fast it dried down by 9%. Impressive.

Mike

I'll measure my control tube that is still in the fridge in a couple of hours to see what the 24 hr loss is and then decide if I want to let it go another day. My thinking was to get rid of some of the water that undoubtedly got soaked in when bathing. I should have weighed the control before I water bathed but didn't think of that, I was more concerned with the final outcome.

The point of  my experiment was to find out:  'if the smoker is being used for just a heat source then is it as efficient (or more efficient) to use a water bath for the heat source (because of the total submersion in a liquid) vs heating with air?'

It only took about 1 hour to bring to temp (152F) having my bath at 16oF.

[pikeman_95]

Looks very good Lon.  I agree if you are making this for pizza use it does not need to be smoked. You could always add a little liquid smoke but probably not needed. Are you going to share the recipe with us? 

Would you guys say that Lon is hooked?

Kirby

[Keymaster]

Would you guys say that Lon is hooked?

Kirby

Hook, line and sinker, I bet he's still in a daze with half the worm on his lip ;D

[Mr Walleye]

MTFiddler


That's interesting how fast it dried down by 9%. Impressive.

Mike

I'll measure my control tube that is still in the fridge in a couple of hours to see what the 24 hr loss is and then decide if I want to let it go another day. My thinking was to get rid of some of the water that undoubtedly got soaked in when bathing. I should have weighed the control before I water bathed but didn't think of that, I was more concerned with the final outcome.

The point of  my experiment was to find out:  'if the smoker is being used for just a heat source then is it as efficient (or more efficient) to use a water bath for the heat source (because of the total submersion in a liquid) vs heating with air?'

It only took about 1 hour to bring to temp (152F) having my bath at 16oF.

I use the water bath method all the time as well. It's very efficient for sure. I usually take them up to 130 or 135 in the smoker prior to the water bath. Although pepperoni is quite often not smoked.

I've been looking for a solution to my summer sausage. The larger diameter sausage is fine prior to freezing but after vac packaging and freezing, once thawed, it has a "wet" texture to it that I don't like. This is pretty much exactly the process I was considering to lower the water content. I was thinking 3 or 4 days in the fridge and I was going to weigh them each day.

Mike

[ghost9mm]

Really nice job on the pepperoni...it looks real good...

[Sailor]

I could tell from Lon's first post that he was hooked.  Glad to have another sausage maker in the group.  Nice job on the pepperoni for sure.  Never tried to make it but it is on my list.  Ordered some spices to make it but have not gotten around to it yet.  :P

[Sailor]

MTFiddler


That's interesting how fast it dried down by 9%. Impressive.

Mike

I'll measure my control tube that is still in the fridge in a couple of hours to see what the 24 hr loss is and then decide if I want to let it go another day. My thinking was to get rid of some of the water that undoubtedly got soaked in when bathing. I should have weighed the control before I water bathed but didn't think of that, I was more concerned with the final outcome.

The point of  my experiment was to find out:  'if the smoker is being used for just a heat source then is it as efficient (or more efficient) to use a water bath for the heat source (because of the total submersion in a liquid) vs heating with air?'

It only took about 1 hour to bring to temp (152F) having my bath at 16oF.

I use the water bath method all the time as well. It's very efficient for sure. I usually take them up to 130 or 135 in the smoker prior to the water bath. Although pepperoni is quite often not smoked.

I've been looking for a solution to my summer sausage. The larger diameter sausage is fine prior to freezing but after vac packaging and freezing, once thawed, it has a "wet" texture to it that I don't like. This is pretty much exactly the process I was considering to lower the water content. I was thinking 3 or 4 days in the fridge and I was going to weigh them each day.

Mike

Mike, I also find that when I vac seal my SS that I get some moisture.  My last batch of SS I made I let them bloom after the water bath then instead of vac sealing them I wrapped them tight in plastic wrap (got this from Pikeman video) with the casing still on them then put them in a zip bag.  I have not gotten into them yet but will Thanksgiving.  My hope is that by not vac sealing them it will not pull the moisture out.  Will have to wait and see.

[viper125]

Wow no smoke! Don't think I have ate any unsmoked meat and other things since I got my Bradley. Maybe that's why so many heating elements are blowing. You are receiving the wrath of the Bradley gods. LOL

[pikeman_95]

To reduce some of the water in your summer sausage start by reducing the up front water in the mix. Second I do like Lon and let my sausage spend a couple of days in the fridge to drop some moisture. You can also let it have some time in the fridge after you thaw it out and you will get the same affect. I believe the freezing process seems to bring the water to the surface and especially the cut surface. Giving it some dry time and you will find it is much better.
KC

[Stickbowcrafter]

That looks tasty. Another nice job!

-Brian

[MTFiddler]

Good morning all,

This morning (36 hours after) my control tube weighed in at 507 gram for a total loss of 68 (@12%) grams. Only losing 7 grams of water in 12 hours leads me to believe that its ready.

I've edited the post to include the spice portion of the recipe, sorry everyone, I have a tendency to get ahead of myself on occasion.

My thinking on the vacpac moisture problem is that it is like resting any piece of meat after it's been cooked, similarly, you need to let the juices redistribute when they thaw.

[Mr Walleye]

That's excellent MTFiddler.

I may make a test batch and weigh each sausage, then try a couple of different things to see what the results are.

Thanks for sharing.

Mike