First Dry Cured Pepperoni Done!

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solaryellow

Master of the Pit
Original poster
SMF Premier Member
Jul 26, 2009
2,893
63
Orlando, FL
Over a month ago I had completed my dry curing chamber. As my first foray into the world of dry cured sausage I went with four different kinds. I did 10lbs of pepperoni, 10lbs of Spanish Chorizo, 5lbs of Tuscan salami and 5lbs of Saucisson Sec. All 4 recipes came from Ruhlman and Polcyn's book Charcuterie. Since this is new territory for me, I didn't want to wait months to find out if I had made a mistake or not so I stuffed them in 32 - 35mm casings.

Here is the pepperoni mixture during stuffing:

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The starter culture I used was F-RM-52 that I purchased from Butcher Packer. Next time I will try T-SPX. After stuffing, all the sausages were dredged in a Mold 600 bath.

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And then hung up in the curing chamber. I kept the chamber at around 80% RH and 82*F for 48 hours for the sausages to ferment. The pepperoni are the darker ones on the far left.

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After 2 days I lowered the temp to 60*F and humidity to 75%. After a week the mold had really developed.

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After 4 weeks of drying the pepperoni had lost 35% of its weight. So tonight we decided to make a pizza for dinner using our pepperoni.

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It was delicious!

I have some T-SPX and protein lined casings on order for some larger versions that should be in later this week. The other 3 kinds of sausage should be done by the end of the week.
 
 
I have never made dried sausages, only fresh and smoked varieties and the summer sausages.

Is the mold a normal thing and how do you remove it for use, I see you sliced right though it doesn't that spread the mold to the meat you are going to put on the pizza, i have had moldy items the past and it has a distinct taste to me.

i have to go back and look through you curing chamber build it looks like something a person should have.

Thanks for sharing this.
 
I have never made dried sausages, only fresh and smoked varieties and the summer sausages.

Is the mold a normal thing and how do you remove it for use, I see you sliced right though it doesn't that spread the mold to the meat you are going to put on the pizza, i have had moldy items the past and it has a distinct taste to me.

i have to go back and look through you curing chamber build it looks like something a person should have.

Thanks for sharing this.


Mold can be a normal thing but there is nothing harmful with this particular mold. I used it to increase my chances of success. The mold helps to keep harmful bacteria and mold off of the sausage while helping with the drying process by helping to keep the casing from drying out. Anything other than white or cream colored mold is not desirable however. If you don't want mold, you can wipe it off with a vinegar/water solution. For the pizza I simply peeled the casing and thus the mold off.

Here is a link to the curing chamber build. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/106836/curing-chamber-build-w-cure-view
 
Glad to hear it turned out good Joel.
 
Nice looking Chow...A curing chamber is on the list of got to do some day...JJ
 
Looks great joel....... what about the the casing mold,,, Does it wash off?

Joe
 
Sweet Joel, Ya must have tried some before it cooked on the pizza, how was the texture? nice and firm to the center? looking forward to the other varieties.
 
Looks great glad to see it turned out so well
 
Looks great joel....... what about the the casing mold,,, Does it wash off?

Joe
I wouldn't say it just washes off. It can be scrubbed off with a little elbow grease. It is much easier to peel the casing off IMHO.


Sweet Joel, Ya must have tried some before it cooked on the pizza, how was the texture? nice and firm to the center? looking forward to the other varieties.


I sure did Dan. Texture was exactly what I was looking for, nice and firm throughout. You can see in the pics that there was no dry rim either. I am very pleased.


Wow Joel it looks great i love the white mold on the pepperoni . can i have the info on the Spanish chorizo?

the pizza looks yummy
The mold really took off. I don't have the recipe in front of me at the moment but I got it from and followed the recipe exactly to establish a baseline.


That sure looked like a great pizza!

Nice job with the pepperoni!


Thanks Al!
Looks good from my house!!!

Bear


Thanks Bear!


Looks great glad to see it turned out so well
Thanks Jerry!
 
I have had a lot of trouble getting any mold to grow on my salamis, yours looks amazing.  How did you do the mold bath: what is the ratio of water to culture in the bath? how long of a bath do they get? do you spray the meats once they are in the chamber?  Do you think the casing matters -- collagen for intestines -- with respect to how well the mold grows?

Awesome job.  I am doing a pepperoni this week and will use hog casings.
 
I have had a lot of trouble getting any mold to grow on my salamis, yours looks amazing.  How did you do the mold bath: what is the ratio of water to culture in the bath? how long of a bath do they get? do you spray the meats once they are in the chamber?  Do you think the casing matters -- collagen for intestines -- with respect to how well the mold grows?

Awesome job.  I am doing a pepperoni this week and will use hog casings.
For the first batch I used the Mold 600 instructions and did a quick mold bath. Since then I have harvested the mold from the previous batch for the following batch. A few inches of molded casing drowned in a couple gallons of distilled water for a couple hours at room temp was all that I needed to perpetuate the mold.
 
 Since then I have harvested the mold from the previous batch for the following batch. A few inches of molded casing drowned in a couple gallons of distilled water for a couple hours at room temp was all that I needed to perpetuate the mold.
Joel, evening.... Harvesting mold....  Seems tough to do.... Do you sanitize the chamber before each batch and only cultivate one strain of mold on your salami at a time ????

   Seems there is a good posibility of cross contamination using that method..... 

     Just curious for the newbees that may be reading this thread.... Curious for me too....    Old Dave has to keep learning U-know...    Dave
 
 
 Since then I have harvested the mold from the previous batch for the following batch. A few inches of molded casing drowned in a couple gallons of distilled water for a couple hours at room temp was all that I needed to perpetuate the mold.
Joel, evening.... Harvesting mold....  Seems tough to do.... Do you sanitize the chamber before each batch and only cultivate one strain of mold on your salami at a time ????

   Seems there is a good posibility of cross contamination using that method..... 

     Just curious for the newbees that may be reading this thread.... Curious for me too....    Old Dave has to keep learning U-know...    Dave
 
I do sanitize it between batches with diluted bleach Dave. There very well could be some cross contamination with wild mold but this is where you have to trust your eyes. Chalky and white is good, anything else is bad. If you develop the wrong mold, it is easily removed with a rag dampened in a vinegar/water solution.
 
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