My Pepperoni Looks like S%!T

[darrenz16]

I'm having problems with my pepperoni making. It is not getting smoked all the way around. The sides that face each other when hanging on the dowel don't seem to take any smoke. They are unsightly.

What am I doing wrong?
I have an older Bradley Smoker, the kind with the slide control on the bottom. Am I over filling it? I use 3 5/8th inch dowels and hang 9 links on each dowel. It's about 10 LBs. They are spaced about 1/2 to 3/4 inch apart on the dowel. Is the dowel too small should I use 3/4 inch? Is it possible to put too much water into the mixture? Help Please! :-\

[Kevin A]

Possible problem: surface of the peps are not dry enough. Smoke wont adhere evenly to damp surfaces.
This is assuming the chubs arent touch one another—if they are, this will leave white or light spots at the contact points.
Poor smoke circulation can allow give uneven color.

[mikecorn.1]

I'm going with maybe they're are too close together. I recently made some stix and the were completely dry before I started smoke, but the rods I used were not big enough causing the two sides to be a Lil too close together. I had to rotate them. No biggie. Good luck.


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[darrenz16]

Well, I used colagen casing 22m, I let them hang for about 3 hours with a fan on them. So I'm pretty sure they were dry enough, I even rotated them to make sure they recieved the same amount of air movement. I'm using 5/8" dowel, do you think thats too small. They definitley are not touching, I make doublely sure of that.

[devo]

Are you sure the cure is getting mixed through out the meat? Cure gives the color of the sticks so i'm wondering if you are getting it mixed good enough.

[NePaSmoKer]

I'm having problems with my pepperoni making. It is not getting smoked all the way around. The sides that face each other when hanging on the dowel don't seem to take any smoke. They are unsightly.

What am I doing wrong?
I have an older Bradley Smoker, the kind with the slide control on the bottom. Am I over filling it? I use 3 5/8th inch dowels and hang 9 links on each dowel. It's about 10 LBs. They are spaced about 1/2 to 3/4 inch apart on the dowel. Is the dowel too small should I use 3/4 inch? Is it possible to put too much water into the mixture? Help Please! :-\

Your dowel is ok in girth as long as the sticks dont touch.

Xtra water will not impart or ruin the mix, just will take longer.

To high of a heat at start

Air pockets in the meat can cause fat cavitation thus resulting in a fat out.

And what Devo said. When i mix and fridge the meat i re mix just before stuffing.

I would say that the casings were touching, thats why you have white marks