Fermented/Smoked Pepperoni and Romano Cheese Snack Sticks...

[indaswamp]

I made these 3 weeks ago. Fermented, then smoked and onto the drying chamber. Dried to 40% weight loss in 12 days.

I ran across a good sale on pork, $1.49/# AND found Romano cheese marked down 60% off. Been wanting to make some of these for a while...now's my chance. I used 40% Canada goose/ 60% pork butt.

The shredded Romano Cheese...

Toasting the Fennel and Anise seeds...

The seasoning mix...

Fermenting... brought the pH down to around 4.8 or so.

Smoked to 136*F INT for 30 minutes per USDA regs. for fermented sausages.

Then onto the drying chamber to lose 40% weight loss...

These turned out VERY GOOD! I will be making these again! Gonna be REAL GOOD on the deer stand in a couple weeks!!!

 

[TNJAKE]

Always a pleasure seeing your posts. Looks delicious.

 

[indaswamp]

The recipe:

Goose/Pork Pepperoni and Romano Cheese Snack Sticks

Pepperoni Stick Recipe I use and Like (a variation of Marianski's recipe)
2kg lean trimmed goose meat (grind thru 3mm plate)
3kg. 70/30 Pork Butt (grind thru 4.5mm plate)

1.7% fine pickle salt
0.3% cure #1
2% total sodium
0.2% Dextrose
0.3% Sugar
0.3% Black pepper
0.1% White pepper
0.8% Paprika
0.3% Fennel seed
0.12% Anise seed
(run the fennel and anise in a spice grinder)
0.2% Cayenne pepper powder (dark red = no seeds; so milder)
15 ml/kg. dry red wine- I use chianti
0.25g/kg. Flavor of Italy starter culture (Can use FLC or F-RM-52 or a different Fast/Med.-Fast culture)

32oz. Shredded Romano Cheese (mix last; cheese is brittle and will break easily. Mix no more than 1 minute)

Ferment ~85*F with 90%RH to pH drop 4.8. (usually 24-36hrs.)

Cold smoke <71*F with red oak dust overnight 12 hours. Fermentation will slowly continue. PH should drop another 0.1 point or so.
Transfer to drying chamber 55*F; 80% RH until 35-40% weight loss for a shelf stable product.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Really nice

 

[indaswamp]

Always a pleasure seeing your posts. Looks delicious.

Thanks Jake! I thought I had used up all the goose meat. Would you believe I found ANOTHER gallon bag in one of my freezers today, 2 kg. of goose meat! Thinking of making a salami with them. I have some 4-4.5" beef bungs that just arrived I want to use. Want to make something to slice for sandwiches.

 

[indaswamp]

Really nice

Thanks Rick!

 

[TNJAKE]

Thanks Jake! I thought I had used up all the goose meat. Would you believe I found ANOTHER gallon bag in one of my freezers today! Thinking of making a salami with them. I have some 4-4.5" beef bungs that just arrived I want to use. Want to make something to slice for sandwiches.

Got a grinder and stuffer coming for Christmas hopefully. Will be picking your brain soon enough

 

[chef jimmyj]

Looks great and the flavor combo sounds tasty...JJ

 

[indaswamp]

Got a grinder and stuffer coming for Christmas hopefully. Will be picking your brain soon enough

No problem Jake. Will help all I can.

Looks great and the flavor combo sounds tasty...JJ

Thanks Jimmyj! The cheese really contrasts with the pepperoni spices.

 

[indaswamp]

I ended up with 62 sticks 24" long. I cut each stick into (4) 6" long pieces for vac sealing...perfect snack portion for the woods....

 

[SmokinEdge]

Those look great. I like the flavor profile. Nice job.

 

[SmokinAl]

Nice job on the sticks!
They look delicious!
Al

 

[pushok2018]

The sticks look great! So jealous I cannot make fermented sausages since my drying chamber died - about two years ago or so.... Thank you for sharing this recipe!

 

[indaswamp]

Those look great. I like the flavor profile. Nice job.

Thanks SE! Give it a go, it's a great combo.

Nice job on the sticks!
They look delicious!
Al

Thanks Al! Do you still have your little drying chamber?

The sticks look great! So jealous I cannot make fermented sausages since my drying chamber died - about two years ago or so.... Thank you for sharing this recipe!

Thanks pushok2018! That sucks about your chamber dying. My first chamber was a used freezer. It died about a year after setting it up for dry curing. I bit the bullet and had to buy new because it was right after a hurricane and supply was tight. But I knew dry curing was something I would continue doing so....
You can always pick up a used refrigerator for about $100 bucks.

 

[SmokinAl]

Thanks Al! Do you still have your little drying chamber?

[/QUOTE]

No it’s back to a beer fridge.
Al

 

[geostriata]

The recipe:
...
2% total sodium

Out of curiosity, why did you put 2% sodium in bold? You have me wondering if I should similarly add pickling salt to my recipe to reach that 2% threshold...

 

[indaswamp]

Out of curiosity, why did you put 2% sodium in bold? You have me wondering if I should similarly add pickling salt to my recipe to reach that 2% threshold...

My recipe is a fermented then smoked/cooked version of snack stick that will then be dried to about 45% weight loss for shelf stability. Most of the snack sticks I make are made with wild game. I want shelf stability to clear out freezer space, and to have packable snacks while afield hunting. Done this way, upon completion of the fermentation then smoking/cooking steps, the sticks will have lost about 20% moisture. This concentrates the salt to 2.5%. That salt level (and cure) combined with a pH of around 4.7 (and the cooking step) provide the safety to dry the sticks further.

If you are not making shelf stable snack sticks, you can use less salt. IF you are not fermenting the sticks to a low pH and instead use ECA to acidify, you can use less salt. These will either have to be refrigerated or frozen when done smoking.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Yup, them are some good looking sticks. Nice work.

 

[indaswamp]

*the cure is about 93-94% sodium chloride...

 

[geostriata]

My recipe is a fermented then smoked/cooked version of snack stick that will then be dried to about 45% weight loss for shelf stability. Most of the snack sticks I make are made with wild game. I want shelf stability to clear out freezer space, and to have packable snacks while afield hunting. Done this way, upon completion of the fermentation then smoking/cooking steps, the sticks will have lost about 20% moisture. This concentrates the salt to 2.5%. That salt level (and cure) combined with a pH of around 4.7 (and the cooking step) provide the safety to dry the sticks further.

If you are not making shelf stable snack sticks, you can use less salt. IF you are not fermenting the sticks to a low pH and instead use ECA to acidify, you can use less salt. These will either have to be refrigerated or frozen when done smoking.

Thanks so much for the explanation! I'll definitely be doing this for my sticks now (possibly this is the missing component I'm looking for!).

However, I've done some ph tests of a commercial product I like, and it has 6.0 ph with a "Best by" date of about a year. So I'm thinking that if you salt and cure to lose 20% moisture, and if you cook to IT of 145 (for ecoli), then you should be shelf-stable for a year. That is, the lower ph you achieve through fermentation is an added safety measure (and improves flavor, of course), but not strictly necessary for safety. Would you agree?

(Though, on second thought, maybe it's different for wild game than pure beef...)