[USA] "Wounded Witch" Trick-or-Treat Pepperoni Sti

[Chuckwagon]

"Wounded Witch Trick Or Treat Pepperoni Stix"

Here is a quick, 2-day semi-dry-cured pepperoni using Bactoferm FLC culture. In many countries, large companies have produced "fast-fermented" type pepperoni for so long that the public has now come to believe that all pepperoni must be "tangy" to be any good. Chr. Hansen in Denmark now produces a Bactoferm™ product (LHP) that is so quick that it can drop a pepperoni product safely below pH 5.0 in merely two days! A forty-two-gram packet of LHP will treat 500 pounds (225 kilo) of meat and any leftover culture may be re-frozen (up to 6 months). In a pinch, people have often used their smokehouses for curing chambers by adding a pan of water to the hotplate for the first few hours. It is also so quick, you must use Cure #1 as there is simply no time allowed for the breakdown involved in Cure #2 from sodium nitrate to sodium nitrite and ultimately, nitric oxide (not to be confused with nitrous oxide). It is the nitric oxide that actually cures the meat.

It is most convenient to use collagen casings to make 19 m.m. sticks. Ask for the brown, "smoked" casing. They are simple to use, come in a sterile accordion-type tube, and load on your stuffing horn with no water, no mess, and no fuss. All you have to do is crank out some large coils of the stuff onto the table, let it "set-up" five minutes, and then cut it into one-foot (or desired) lengths with a pair of scissors.

Most suppliers are now offering a stuffing tube for 19 m.m. casings. I made mine some time ago using a six inch section of stainless steel tubing I found at a plumbing supply store. I welded it into an old collar and it has worked perfectly for me for years. Now, you can just buy `em to fit smaller sizes of casings. I just can`t bring myself to toss out "ol` reliable"!

One more thing... collagen will not hold twisted links and must be tied with string. However, in smaller diameters, it may be easily cut into lengths using scissors. Collagen doesn`t have the strength to hang from smokesticks without breaking, so I`ve just always laid out the sausages on smokescreens - they`ve always worked perfectly.

Here's how to make ten pounds:

"Wounded Witch Trick-Or-Treat Pepperoni Stix" (Ten-pound Recipe)
Semi-Dry Pepperoni (fast fermented sausage using Bactoferm™ FLC)

7.0 lbs. lean pork butt
3.0 lbs. lean beef
105.00 g. salt
11.00 g. cure #1
118.30 g. ice water
45.50 g. powdered dextrose
150.00 g. soy protein concentrate
45.50 g. sugar
15.00 g. freshly-ground black pepper (grind it "coarse")
30.00 g. Hungarian paprika (not Spanish paprika... it's too bitter)
14.50 g. fennel seeds
9.0 g. cayenne pepper (or 14 gr. for very hot flavor)
1.14 g. Bactoferm™ FLC culture
19 m.m. collagen casing

Place the grinder knife and plate into the freezer twenty minutes before you use them. Cut the meat into 1" cubes to keep any long strands of sinew from wrapping around the auger behind the plate as the meat is ground. Grind the meat (and fat) through a 3/16" plate. Mix the Cure #1 with a little water (for uniform distribution) and add it to the meat. Mix the FLC culture with a little distilled, chlorine-free water and follow the directions on the package allowing the bacteria time to "wake up". Add the remaining ingredients and develop the proteins. Mix the sausage until "sticky peaks" are formed when the meat is pulled apart. Stuff the mixture into 19 m.m. collagen casings forming a long coil or long lengths. As mentioned before, collagen casing will not hold twisted links. Having allowed the sausage ten minutes to "set up", simply cut uniform lengths using a pair of sharp scissors, laying them out on smokescreens in your preheated smokehouse at 100°F. The humidity should be elevated to 85%. If you don`t have a curing chamber, use an open pan of water on top of the hotplate but don`t exceed the SHT of 100 degrees for a day. After 24 hours, apply light smoke and raise the smoke house temperature to 115°F. for six hours more. Note that an FLC culture is able to produce lactic acid at this temperature. Now, gradually increase the smokehouse temperature until the internal meat temperature reaches 152°. Careful now... special precaution must be taken not to overcook this delicate, narrow 19 millimeter sausage.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

[el Ducko]

What...? No onions...?

[Chuckwagon]

Yup, no onions... for Ursula! Besides, I didn't know that old, nasty, curmudgeon Ducks ate them anyhow.