- Mar 10, 2015
- 36
- 18
I have been trying to make my own pepperoni this year, with limited success. Product tastes great, but the casings are not adhering well to the meat.
I am making pepperoni with duck and goose meat ground with bacon ends at a 4 to 1 ratio. I then season the meat, put the cure in, and then stuff into 19mm brown collagen casings with a 5 pound LEM vertical stuffer. 90% was spicy cayenne pepperoni with high melt cheddar cheese. My kids will eat that stuff like it's their job.
I then hung them in my PID controlled electric UDS. I have two coils on the bottom with chip pans on them hooked to the PID. I started at 135F and ramped up 10 degrees every two hours until I hit 165. Then I waited 2 more hours for internal temp to get to 155. Then I pulled them and put them in an ice bath. I did this because I was told by a pro sausage maker that might help my problem. Then I hung them back up and let them dry at room temp before putting them in the fridge for 24 hours and then vac packing.
The result tastes great, but the casings are only adhered in some locations and not others. Subsequently people don't know if the casing is edible, or if they want to eat it. For home consumption it's fine, but I couldn't give it out as gifts. It looks ugly and everyone likes the "snap" they get from good collagen casings on pepperoni sticks.
Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong? What causes the protein bond between the casing and the skin? What could get in the way?
The duck and goose grind really, really wet and gooey. I would think this would help with casing adhesion, but maybe not?
Thanks in advance for any help for a newbie! I feel like an idiot because I get the impression looking around the internet that this is not a common problem.
I am making pepperoni with duck and goose meat ground with bacon ends at a 4 to 1 ratio. I then season the meat, put the cure in, and then stuff into 19mm brown collagen casings with a 5 pound LEM vertical stuffer. 90% was spicy cayenne pepperoni with high melt cheddar cheese. My kids will eat that stuff like it's their job.
I then hung them in my PID controlled electric UDS. I have two coils on the bottom with chip pans on them hooked to the PID. I started at 135F and ramped up 10 degrees every two hours until I hit 165. Then I waited 2 more hours for internal temp to get to 155. Then I pulled them and put them in an ice bath. I did this because I was told by a pro sausage maker that might help my problem. Then I hung them back up and let them dry at room temp before putting them in the fridge for 24 hours and then vac packing.
The result tastes great, but the casings are only adhered in some locations and not others. Subsequently people don't know if the casing is edible, or if they want to eat it. For home consumption it's fine, but I couldn't give it out as gifts. It looks ugly and everyone likes the "snap" they get from good collagen casings on pepperoni sticks.
Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong? What causes the protein bond between the casing and the skin? What could get in the way?
The duck and goose grind really, really wet and gooey. I would think this would help with casing adhesion, but maybe not?
Thanks in advance for any help for a newbie! I feel like an idiot because I get the impression looking around the internet that this is not a common problem.
