Pepperoni is a great sausage to make. If you search the web you’ll find lots of ways to prepare pepperoni with each way giving this sausage a unique flavor and texture.
Todays recipe will closely resemble store bought pepperoni (but better). This method of making pepperoni is considered advanced sausage making and will require the use of some special equipment. We will be curing, fermenting, smoking, drying, then cooking. It’s going to be amazing.
Before we get to this recipe lets talk about the special equipment. The first piece of equipment you will need if you plan on making this version of pepperoni is a pH tester. Pepperoni is known for having “sourly” notes, and this is achieved through fermentation. Fermenting the meat meat is all about creating an environment that’s inhospitable to unwanted bacteria. As the good bacteria in your meat begin to release lactic acid the pH of your meat begins to drop creating a “safe zone”. The lower your pH gets the tangier your pepperoni will be. A pH tester will help you know when your meat has reached it’s target and is safe to move on to the next step. I use a pH meter from Apera Instruments (PH60S-Z). This unit is fast, reliable, and versatile. In addition to testing my fermented meats I also use this for cheese, kombucha, sauerkraut, and soil testing (just to name a few).
Now that the pH is out of the way we need to find a place to dry our pepperoni. We want our pepperoni to dry evenly and slowly. The best place for this is a controlled environment where we can adjust the temperature and humidity. I use a modified refrigerator with a few controllers, a humidifier, and a dehumidifier. Check out my “How to build a salami chamber” post for a complete break down. This controlled environment will produce the best most consistent results. What’s great is that once you have this special chamber you can then start making salami, cheese, pancetta, prosciutto, and all sorts of other cool projects.
The last piece of equipment (which is optional) is a smoker. I use a cold smoker from smokin-it smokers . The versatile smoker allows me to either cold smoke or apply a better regulated smoke when I’m cooking.
Let’s talk about the process. We start with our casings. We will be using beef rounds for this project. These casings are not edible and thicker that your standard hog casings. I normally rinse them well and soak them overnight. If you plan on using synthetic casings for pepperoni then you only need to soak them for 15 minutes or so in luke warm water.
Next the proteins. Beef and pork. I like going a little heavy on the pork but you can adjust it how ever you want and see if you like the results. We will be grinding this on a 4.5mm plate so make sure to cut your meat and fat into small cubes and partially freeze it.
Once you have your meat ground up rechill it (we want out meat mixture to stay in the low/mid 30’s through this entire process). While your meat is rechilling, it’s time to rehydrate your starter culture. I will be using LHP-DRY for this pepperoni. The reason I like this starter culture is because it is designed for fast acidification. It will ferment your meat very quickly and give us a nice “tangy” flavor in our finished product. This has quickly become my preferred culture as it works extremely well in things like summer sausage and snack sticks also. To rehydrate your culture you just need to add the amount you plan on using in some distilled water, mix it, and let it rehydrate for 30 minutes.
I like to have “mise en place” (everything in it’s place) when making sausages so while my culture is rehydrating I get all of my spices weighed and place them in a small container.
When it comes time to mix we are going to combine the cold meat, starter culture, and spices together. We want to mix it till our mixture gets tacky. If you grab a small handful and turn your hand upside down the meat mixture will stick to your hand. Once you mix your meat, stuff it tightly into your casings, and place it in an area to ferment.
The dextrose in this recipe will act as a food for our starter culture and as the bacteria eat the dextrose they multiply and release lactic acid. Each starter culture has it’s own parameters and for this starter culture we want to place our pepperoni in an area that is between 80F-90F with high humidity. Generally an oven (that’s off) with the light on can reach these temperatures and adding a tray of hot water will keep the humidity high during this fermentation step. We are targeting a pH of anything under 4.9. For this starter culture it normally takes between 16-24 hours for this to happen. I generally test my pH at 16 hours to see where I am at. The lower your pH gets the tangier your pepperoni will be. I personally like to target the 4.6-4.8 range.
Once your pepperoni has hit it’s pH target you now get to make some decisions. I personally like to cold smoke, dry, then cook but if you want to smoke, cook, then dry that’s ok too. Which ever way you choose to make this your pepperoni it will come out delicious as I’ve done it both ways with great results.
Follow semi dried fermented sausage preparation practices when making this sausage.
- Clean and Sanitize all of your equipment.
- Keep your meat and grinder parts super cold (below 34F)
- Rehydrate the starter culture for 30 minutes
- Mix your very chilled meat, starter culture, and seasonings till the mince becomes tacky
- Stuff the mince into sausage casings and prick out any air pockets
- Ferment for 18-24 hours till you reach target pH
- OPTIONAL: Cold smoke for 2 hours
- Dry in a controlled environment (55f and 80% rH) for 4-10 days (We are targeting a 20% weight loss)
- Cook till the internal temperature reaches 135-145F
Here are a few things you might find useful when making sausage
- High Quality Natural Casings (AA Grade)
- Iodophor Sanitizer
- MK4 Thermapen (Accurate Thermometer)
- Chef Knife – KOTAI
- Boning Knife
- Sausage Pricker
- Iwatani Professional Chef Torch
- LHP DRY – Starter Culture
- Apera pH Meter with Bluetooth
- Dextrose
- Insta Cure #1
- Non Fat Dry Milk Powder
- Meat Grinders
- Meat Mixers
- Sausage Stuffers
- Smokers
- Bella’s Cold Smoke Generator
- InkBird Controllers temp & Humidity
- Dehumidifier Eva Dry 1100
- Cool Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier
Enjoy the video and the recipe. If you have any questions feel free to ask away. If you make this at home I’d love to hear about how it came out!!
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Pepperoni
Ingredients
- 550 g Lean Pork
- 250 g Lean Beef
- 200 g Pork Back Fat
- 23 g Kosher Salt
- 2.5 g Insta Cure #1
- 6 g Dextrose
- 2 g Table Sugar
- 3 g Black Pepper
- 1 g White Pepper
- 8 g smoked Paprika
- 3 g Fennel seed crushed
- 2 g Anise seed crushed
- 2 g Cayenne pepper powder
- LHP-Dry Starter Culture Rehydrate starter culture in distilled water for a maximum of 30 minutes.
Instructions
- Clean, rinse, and rehydrate your casings
- Clean your meat of any silver skin, sinew, arteries and cut into small cubes. Place the meat and fat in the freezer for an hour or until the temp reaches 32f – 34F.
- Rehydrate the starter Culture LHP-Dry in some distilled water (use 1/2 tsp of this culture in 1/4 cup of distilled water for every 5# of meat)
- Grind chilled pork, fat, and beef through 4.5mm plate.
- Mix all ingredients with cold meat till very tacky
- Stuff firmly into 40mm-43mm beef rounds
- Ferment at 80F – 85F for 18 hours, 90-85% humidity till pH reads 4.6 – 4.8 (the lower it goes the tangier your pepperoni will taste).
- OPTIONAL: After fermentation lightly cold smoke the pepperoni for 2 hours
- Place pepperoni in a drying chamber set to 55F and 80% humidity. Dry for 4-10 days. (You are looking for a 20% weight loss)
- Once dried slowly cook your pepperoni till the internal temp reaches 135-145F. I use my smoker with a tray of water added for higher humidity and gradually increase the temperature over the course of 5 – 6 hours. Here's my cooking schedule:-125F for 1hr-135F for 1.5hr-145f for 1.5hr-155F till the internal temp reaches 135F
- Another way to do this is to cook your pepperoni is sous vide. Cook at 140F for 2 hours
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I have some 32 mm UMAI casings I’m not sure if they can be cold smoked. I’ve posted the question on their facebook page. I’ll let you know. If not I have some powdered smoke I use for jerky that should work. It would be 1 tsp for a kilo batch.
From there I’ll Sous vide at 140 for 32 minutes plus five for safety. Well, That’s my game plan, I’ll keep you posted. I really can’t thank you enough for all the work you’ve done creating this series. I’m getting a lot out of it.
Hey Eric. I don’t think you can smoke the Umai casings. Let me know what you find out though..
Fantastic tasting pepperoni. I was a little disappointed on how soft it turned out. I’m assuming if the next time I make it I could down to 40% loss and get the firmness of a commercial pepperoni?
That would work
mine was perfectly firm, it might have something to do with your bind…
The series has been quite educational. Thanks for all the info!!
As for sausages that I’d like to see next year, there are two that I’ve been trying to find recipes for and have not been successful. Perhaps your resources can find them.
The first sausage is a French sausage called Sausicon Sec. It’s a cured, dried sausage that has a white mold on the outside. The few ‘recipes’ that I’ve found call for pork and garlic, but no cure is mentioned, nor anything about aging. The exterior mold supposedly grows naturally, but, again, no clear info.
A second recipe is for Merguez. I ran across this sausage in a Tunisian restaurant in France. The sausage is shaped like snack sticks or longer breakfast links, supposedly is ground lamb (no pork used in Muslim dishes) and the seasoning is supposed to be coriander. The one recipe that I found was nothing like the above description, and the taste was nothing like I was seeking.
Thanks, again.
Excellent!!! Consider it done!! I’ll make both of them. I actually have a great Saucisson Sec recipe that I’ve been wanting to make for the channel and as crazy as it sounds I literally just got some beautiful lamb Merguez has always been a must do. Thanks for the suggestions.
Forgot too much of my French. Spelled the name wrong; should be ‘Saucisson’.
LOL…
Hey Eric, I watched just about every video in this series. Great work. Much appreciated. I was wondering if you could comment on substituting T-SPX for LHP and targeting for a 5.0pH. Or, due to the very short drying time, could I take the T-SPX down to into the 4.8-6 range (Staphylococcosus xylosus becomes ineffective, yet with such a short cure, the benefits of the extra lactic acid from the Pedeococcus pentasecius outweigh the loss of aroma, flavor and color development?) If not, I could live without the extra tang from the 4.6pH and just go to 5.0pH with my T-SPX. Your thoughts? I am not in the US and getting Bactoferm products is a challenge. I currently only have T-SPX. Also, if I omit, the cold smoke, is Mold-600 something you would suggest as a small extra barrier of protection. Thanks!
Hey Ben. Thanks for the comment. You could go either way although (as you stated) you would lose the Xylosus as soon as you dropped below 5.0 but you would gain that tangy flavor so it’s up to you. If you do go with the lower pH I would add more dextrose (.7%) and ferment on the hotter range till you reach your target. Mold 600 is a great layer of protection and will certainly add a layer of flavor to this sausage. Great addition if you choose not to smoke..
Hi Eric,
I’ve been looking for an American style pizza pepperoni for a long time. I’m gonna give your recipe a try. I was going to try Bactoferm B-LC-007 on my next batch of soppressata. Do you have any experience with this culture blend? I was going to use in for the pepperoni as well because I only like to buy one pkg of starter culture at a time due to the limited shelf life. Your thoughts?
Hi Joe. You can use that culture no problem. It’s not really designed for pepperoni as pepperoni typically has a unique tanginess in it’s flavor but it will certainly acidify your meat and get it to a safe pH. If you do change the culture you’ll want to lower the dextrose amount to .2% – .4%.
Hey Eric,
Really Great Videos!
High quality and very well presented.
I’ve been soaking it all up and learning a lot.
I can’t get starter cultures in the Philippines and no one wants to ship it here.
I really need to be able to make fast fermented style pepperoni for my restaurant as its not always available from our local suppliers (Salami also).
Do you have any experience or knowledge using
GDL (Glucono-delta-lacton, E575)
I have used this with other recipes and always end up with a brown, cooked looking Pepperoni and the flavor don’t taste like pepperoni.
I’m planning on trying your American Pepperoni recipe (Hoping this is finally the one!) but I will need to modify it with GDL.
Any advice would be much appreciated on this, also if you can recommend a Fast Ferment Salami recipe that would be good as pizza topping.
Thanks in advance.
Hey Robert. Thanks for your message. This is a yummy recipe. I haven’t used GDL in my recipes yet but here is an interesting article that you might find helpful: https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-types/fermented-sausage
Scroll about halfway down. Here is a great forum that discusses the use of GDL as well: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?p=24707&highlight=#24707
Let me know how it turns out..
Hey Eric, I’ve been wanting to make olive loaf. Would the base mortadella recipe be the same and omit the pistachios and replace with olives to get olive loaf style?
Hi Eric, I am planning on starting to experiment with salamis, but I don’t eat pork for religious reasons. I want to substitute beef for pork in the pepperoni and some of your other salami recipes, do you have any recommendations on what cut I should use, and what kind of beef fat I should ask for at my butcher? Thanks!
Really any cut of beef will work but if you can get a fattier cut like a rib roast or chuck roast, even the point on the brisket should have enough fat to make a sausage taste yummy without having to add too much more. If you want to but fat tell your butcher to save you the trimmings from the brisket (not the deckle). This makes for great sausages. I’m sure he would know if you asked though…
Hello Eric,
Been making some of your recipes and enjoying them all, my question is im going to make this recipe but want to use Flavor of Italy, would i use dextrose at .3%?
any help would be great.
Thanks again
Ben
Yes. It won’t be as tangy but it’ll still be delicious
Thanks for your reply, will be makeing the pepperoni and a genoa in the next few days, did your landjager a few weeks back and turned out delicious.
I’ve been curing meat for about a decade but have yet to try pepperoni. After buying a wood oven and spending way too much on pepperoni I am starting this project this weekend. I’m going to use a natural edible casing and slice thick to hopefully get the curled cups of pepperoni. My only (kidding) complaint is – you used a frozen pizza – lol
Thanks for the vid
Recipe looks great. What are your thoughts on using dry milk in the pepperoni recipe?
I think it’s work great! It’s will help with the binding and the overall texture of your product.. I would go with 2%
Hi Eric, if I were to use a thinner 32mm hog casing, do you think it would be safe to allow this to dry to ~40-45% weight loss and still use cure #1? In my experience with your Spanish chorizo, this only took about 20-28 days which I believe is plenty short enough to still use cure #1.
I would omit the cooking and keep this raw for the final product. I’m trying to find a dry pepperoni recipe that uses cure #1 so I don’t have to worry about the issue with cooking meats with cure #2.
A related question, after something with cure #1 is finished drying, would I be able to treat it similarly and vacuum seal it to equalize like I would for something with Cure #2 or would that create an unsafe environment since cure #1 may have disipated already?
Thanks a lot, your recipes and site have guided me to make some incredible salami that the family and friends love!
Mike
Hi Mike. Yes to all your questions
Hey Eric
So I made a mistake and wanting to get your opinion on trying to save it, I followed the recipe but I used #2cure and natural beef round 40mm, should I just let it cure in the chamber tell like 40% or should I sous vide it to 140° as it’s sitting at 30% at this moment but it’s to soft in my opinion. Thanks for any help.
I would let it continue drying till you lose 40%. Make it like a salami…
Eric
If you wanted to dry this down like a salami using #2. Would you still use 1.5% of Non Fat dry mil poweder?
Sure. Adding a binder won’t hurt either way.