It sure feels good to make a post on the SMF! I have been in my new job for one year, and my free time has drastically reduced. But such is life. I cook when I can, and now that deer season is over I have lots of chunk venison to play with. This past weekend was my first weekend with nothing on tap, so Friday night I took out 25lbs of venison and pork (about 50/50 give or take). My plan was to thaw overnight, grind, season and stuff Saturday, ferment Saturday and smoke Sunday. Using flavor of Italy, this was a fast, 20 hour ferment with a goal ph of 4.9. Second time following the two guys and a cooler recipe for fast fermented, semi dry but fully cooked pepperoni. I had a bunch of summer sausage casings so I went with that.
Early Saturday am, I got the meat all cut up, mostly frozen and ready to grind. While I was having coffee I put my grinder in the freezer so all components are good and cold.
mixed all of my dry ingredients together.
Cabelas #32 ready to do some work!!
that#32 gets the job done in no time. Once the meat was ground I put it in a couple large ziplocks and into the freezer while I washed my equipment.
Now that we have a clean work space, it’s time to mix the seasonings and culture.
Once everything was good and mixed I checked my temps. A little higher than I hoped but still good and cold. Time to get them in casings, and into a meat lug for an 18-24 hour ferment.
real happy with how well these casings handled. But I made them too long to hang in my smoker. Next time I’ll have to remember to shorten them up some.
and here they are ready to chill in the oven until they hit their target ph.
My little Apera ph meter. I love this thing. Hate I don’t get to use it as often as anticipated but it sure is handy and eliminates any guesswork when you are trying to hit a certain ph.
at the 18 hour mark I was close. This was Sunday morning, so I prepped my Lang Fatboy with some charcoal and small pecan splits, got it to temp (110-115) while enjoying the weather and sipping on coffee.
right at 20 hours I was pretty much where I wanted to be. By now the sample smells so good, just exactly like pepperoni. I love this stuff!!
only got a few pics of the chubs on the smoker. Wanted to keep those low temps as accurate as possible. This cook took right around 7-7.5 hours for the chubs to hit 136.
I love the smoke thermo for cooks like this. Helps me get dialed in on temps both in cook chamber and in the chubs. I’ll have a pic with the recipe and exact smoke schedule at the bottom for anyone interested.
Once they came to temp, I gave them an ice bath and cleaned them off really well. They felt nice and tight and firm.
no shrinkage. I felt like a pro!
I put the chubs in butcher paper and in the fridge for a couple days before putting them into my drying chamber for a nap. I also cut a few chubs up and packed them into vac bags. We’ve been eating this like summer sausage and it’s really so delicious. Can be heated on a pizza as well.
pepperoni summer sausage is what im calling this snack!
real happy with this batch, I don’t see it lasting too long at all!
Early Saturday am, I got the meat all cut up, mostly frozen and ready to grind. While I was having coffee I put my grinder in the freezer so all components are good and cold.
mixed all of my dry ingredients together.
Cabelas #32 ready to do some work!!
that#32 gets the job done in no time. Once the meat was ground I put it in a couple large ziplocks and into the freezer while I washed my equipment.
Now that we have a clean work space, it’s time to mix the seasonings and culture.
Once everything was good and mixed I checked my temps. A little higher than I hoped but still good and cold. Time to get them in casings, and into a meat lug for an 18-24 hour ferment.
real happy with how well these casings handled. But I made them too long to hang in my smoker. Next time I’ll have to remember to shorten them up some.
and here they are ready to chill in the oven until they hit their target ph.
My little Apera ph meter. I love this thing. Hate I don’t get to use it as often as anticipated but it sure is handy and eliminates any guesswork when you are trying to hit a certain ph.
at the 18 hour mark I was close. This was Sunday morning, so I prepped my Lang Fatboy with some charcoal and small pecan splits, got it to temp (110-115) while enjoying the weather and sipping on coffee.
right at 20 hours I was pretty much where I wanted to be. By now the sample smells so good, just exactly like pepperoni. I love this stuff!!
only got a few pics of the chubs on the smoker. Wanted to keep those low temps as accurate as possible. This cook took right around 7-7.5 hours for the chubs to hit 136.
I love the smoke thermo for cooks like this. Helps me get dialed in on temps both in cook chamber and in the chubs. I’ll have a pic with the recipe and exact smoke schedule at the bottom for anyone interested.
Once they came to temp, I gave them an ice bath and cleaned them off really well. They felt nice and tight and firm.
no shrinkage. I felt like a pro!
I put the chubs in butcher paper and in the fridge for a couple days before putting them into my drying chamber for a nap. I also cut a few chubs up and packed them into vac bags. We’ve been eating this like summer sausage and it’s really so delicious. Can be heated on a pizza as well.
pepperoni summer sausage is what im calling this snack!
real happy with this batch, I don’t see it lasting too long at all!
