Smoking Pepperoni

[Warren F]

Hi All!

So brand new to the forum. Looks like a great place with lots of great people. Excited to be a part of this.

So I come from a dehydrating background, but have been smoking with my new Original Bradley smoker for the last few months. I’ve been using LEM’s Pepperoni backwoods seasoning and cure with their collagen casings to make pepperoni. Have had nothing but awesome results!

I also have been doing a variation of my dehydrator recipe for smoking jerky and well ya, family really really loves the smoked jerky too!

Tonight I decided to use the LEM pepperoni mix with 3lbs pork/2lbs sirloin tip roast in a 3” casing instead of their 21mm snack stick collagen casing. So this 3” casing I sourced locally. I’m told it is a non-edible mahogany 75% fibrous 25% collagen casing.

My question is, is there a point to smoking this huge 3” diameter pepperoni stuffed casing if it’s non edible? Does the smoke penetrate this style casing? Seems like a waste of time smoking it if it doesn’t get past the casing. Essentially you’d be just peeling away your efforts when you went to the slicer. But I’m super new to this and can’t seem to find much info on it. I sure taste the different smoked woods we use on the edible snack stick casings which I love, but of course your eating that casing so...

Any insight would really help. Thanks for taking the time to read this. (-:

Warren...

 

[Warren F]

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF!
Yes smoke will penetrate the casing.
I also moved this to the sausage section.
Al

 

[HalfSmoked]

Welcome glad to have you on board. Not much help to you but Al has taken care of things for you. You should be receiving more support soon.

No this is not a misprint same name. :D
Warren

 

[Warren F]

Great news! Thanks guys for this. I’ll post some pics after I run it all today.

War...

 

[Warren F]

Well there it is. They tasted great. Looking forward to doing so much more. I think I hit a capacity for sure with the Bradley. All the jerky and both size pepperoni’s were a bit much to handle. 14 hrs fully cranked with a 50°F Outside air temp and I never saw over 120°F inside cab temp. Had the damper open 50/50 the whole time to let moisture out but it was just to much. Ended up transferring the pepperoni to the kitchen oven and the jerky to the dehydrator. Now I know the bradley’s limits. I was a bit worried about bacteria and such so i took the pepperoni to an IT of 180°. Jerky and pepperoni tasted great with no one getting upset tummy’s.

Any insight or tips to keep bacteria at a safe level when you run into this low long temp situation?

Thanks, Warren...

 

[SmokinAl]

Well there it is. They tasted great. Looking forward to doing so much more. I think I hit a capacity for sure with the Bradley. All the jerky and both size pepperoni’s were a bit much to handle. 14 hrs fully cranked with a 50°F Outside air temp and I never saw over 120°F inside cab temp. Had the damper open 50/50 the whole time to let moisture out but it was just to much. Ended up transferring the pepperoni to the kitchen oven and the jerky to the dehydrator. Now I know the bradley’s limits. I was a bit worried about bacteria and such so i took the pepperoni to an IT of 180°. Jerky and pepperoni tasted great with no one getting upset tummy’s.

Any insight or tips to keep bacteria at a safe level when you run into this low long temp situation?

Thanks, Warren...

Yes there is Warren.
You simply use the approiate amount of cure #1 in your jerky & pepperoni.
Which is 1 level teaspoon per 5 lbs. of meat.
That way it is completely safe to smoke at lower temps.
Al