Smoke Pepperoni

[smokeitall]

I am going to make some smoked pepperoni next week.  I am using the same recipe as on the recipe site, which is from Rytek Kutas.  The recipe calls for cure and usually after mixing and stuffing sausage you let it rest in the fridge overnight before smoking.  Neither the book or the recipe on the site call for this.  Do I have to let the cure work or can I smoke right after stuffing?  thanks

[Mr Walleye]

I am going to make some smoked pepperoni next week.  I am using the same recipe as on the recipe site, which is from Rytek Kutas.  The recipe calls for cure and usually after mixing and stuffing sausage you let it rest in the fridge overnight before smoking.  Neither the book or the recipe on the site call for this.  Do I have to let the cure work or can I smoke right after stuffing?  thanks

Tough question Smokeitall.

Most sausage I do... I stuff it in the evening, into the fridge over night, then into the smoker in the morning. The only exception to this is when I do snack sticks from Rytek's book. They also contain Fermento like the recipe your doing. In the case of the snack sticks, I stuff them in the evening as usual, then hang them in the smoker at 100 degrees for about 12 hours (no smoke), then in the morning I apply my smoke and increase the temp to 165 till an IT of 152 degrees. It's Fermento and the time you hold it at 100 degrees that adds the "Tang" flavor to the sausage. Rytek says in the snack stick recipe you can go up to 20 hours at 100 degrees, depending on how much "tang" you want to add to them. The cure #1 adequately protects the meat during this process. At least this is how I understand it and how I've done his process on my snack sticks.

Mike

[Habanero Smoker]

I also generally let my sausage rest overnight to ensure that the cure has a chance to evenly distribute, unless the recipe has soy protein, fermento, or powdered milk/butter milk. Those ingredients are like cement for sausage if you don't stuff them right away. You can still stuff them later, but it's more difficult.

In that case I don't let my sausage rest overnight, I will dissolve the cure in the liquid, before adding it, this helps for better distribution.

[smokeitall]

Thank you for the responses.  I think I will mix, then stuff, and then put in the smoker at 100 for 12 hours (or overnight), and then crank it up to get my final IT.  That should get the tang I am looking for and dry them out real nice before I apply the smoke.  I am going to try collagen casings (32mm) on this one.  I am also going to add and subtract certain seasonings and make several small batches.

[Mr Walleye]

Smokeitall

If you haven't tried Rytek's Semi-Dry Snack Stick recipe it is worth a try. I really liked it and it had that really nice "tang" flavor.

Mike

[smokeitall]

I have been using Curleyssausagekitchen seasoning for my snack sticks (called Cody's Snack Sticks) and have been satisfied.  But it has been missing that "tang", I will give Rytek's recipe a try since I will have all the stuff I need, I placed a large order at butcherpacker.com a few days ago.