Pepperoni snack sticks, 19mm smoked and 21mm fresh collagen casings
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I made some pepperoni sticks, cooked them up today. I had grinder and stuffer out for another stick last night, so ground up meat, mixed, stuffed, and cured 20hrs.
You can see color is good, but not orange like commercial guys get adding oleoresin of paprika. And there was a lot of red pepper, cayenne, and paprika in these.I got this recipe from Spidey , many thanks to him. After a month or so researching pepperoni recipes on google, youtube, blogs etc, his recipe looked the best for the flavors I like and authenticity. He told me he was going to convert Tbs and tsp into grams and %, and I did that while measuring stuff out. If he doesn’t mind me posting his recipe here, I can post it up as % of meat block and grams spices per kg meat.
Meat was 42% lean beef cross rib, 51% pork butt, and 7% pork fat from butt. All ground 4.5mm.
Spidey gave me a hot and medium version, I did the medium. It is still pretty darn hot, and very good. I buy that Hormel pepperoni in the 1lb bags as a standard snack, and I wouldn’t go any hotter than this.
I was first going to do a citric acid test on some sticks, then couldn’t figure amounts out, so I went pepperoni. By the time I was mixing, I decided I didn’t want to add F-LC culture and ferment 24 hours, as it wasn’t going to be 100f in Phoenix last night. So I just let them cure overnight, then light cherrywood smoke at 160f for 2 hours, then 180f until 160 internal temp. Took 3.5 hrs.
Cut, bagged in 1 layer, sucked out air with a straw, ice bath 40 min, then out to dry.
These have a pretty decent pepperoni flavor with a lot of the anise and fennel I like. They are hot enough from red pepper you wouldn’t eat 5 of them…ok, I just did, so 6…7… nevermind
I made some with 21mm FRESH collagen casings I had left on tube from kabanosy making. Then I did rest with 19mm smoked collagen. Both using a 1/2" outer diameter stainless tube, or 12.7mm. My thoughts are that the 19mm case has a bit more snap, the fresh 21mm bites like there is no casing almost. Both worked excellent. If I was linking them or hanging, I’d go with the smoked collagen as the fresh is a bit delicate if stuffed full. I caused 2 blowouts trying to link it after stuffing and had to tie those off, the case gets more tender as it sits and takes up water.
You can see the 21mm fresh at front of left tray below, and that there isn’t a lot of difference.
Other casing size notes since I bought all sizes to test and have now made meat sticks with them all:
- I like 16mm smoked the best, it’s just a very nice slim jim size and not too much of a meal so to speak. However, there are several downsides: you must use a 10mm tube, you must add maybe 2x the water to get it to stuff, and it makes a huge length that rapidly eats up your smoker floorspace. Not sure it is worth it.
- 19mm smoked, not as slim as I like but probably the best to use. Still a good stick size, can use 12.7mm i.e. half inch tube so much easier stuff. I didn’t have any problem sliding a sleeve onto the tube, nor any grabbing during the stuff, it’s about perfect. You can use normal recipe water amounts, so you don’t have to dry as long. More meat per foot, so you can fit it all on smoker. Strong enough to hang, and link nice.
- 21mm fresh. I got these for breakfast sausage and to replicate sheep casings. But to me 21mm is a bit larger than normal breakfast size. In any case, I love these. They hold up enough for laying flat in smoker, way easier than sheep casings, very tender bite where you almost can’t tell casing is there. Almost as big as a skinny hot dog, those are likely 23mm. Also, I fried up some in a pan and liked it, very breakfast sausauge browning.
Hope this is helpful to some
Dave in AZ said in Pepperoni snack sticks, 19mm smoked and 21mm fresh collagen casings:
Cut, bagged in 1 layer, SUCKED AIR OUT WITH A STRAW, ice bath 40 min, then out to dry.
Haha, that is funny
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Dave in AZ said in Pepperoni snack sticks, 19mm smoked and 21mm fresh collagen casings:
Cut, bagged in 1 layer, SUCKED AIR OUT WITH A STRAW, ice bath 40 min, then out to dry.
Haha, that is funny
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Dave in AZ said in Pepperoni snack sticks, 19mm smoked and 21mm fresh collagen casings:
Cut, bagged in 1 layer, SUCKED AIR OUT WITH A STRAW, ice bath 40 min, then out to dry.
Haha, that is funny
Grimpuppy lol the straw thing hey? Yah, it works good enough to get decent contact for the ice bath, so I don’t have to mess with the vac sealer
the ziploc bags with the little slider that closes it makes it a lot easier.I know some guys just toss straight into the water, but I don’t want to have some casing moisture issue or lose the smoke flavor, so do the bags.
gus4416 thx
follow up report I guess, the flavor and texture does get better if you let them dry a week or so…but man was my fridge smoky smelling. -
I am sure it works, just picturing it in my head made me laugh.
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Spidey said ok to post his recipe, so here it is in amounts per 1000g or 1kg of meat, where spices are in grams. Move the decimal 1 to left to get %, so 2.5g is 0.25% of a 1000g meat block.
500g ground beef
500g ground pork
13 g salt, 1.3%
2.5g pepper black
2.5g pepper white
1.4g ground mustard
2.4g crushed toasted fennel
2.0 g anise, toasted
2.0 g garlic powder
2.4 g sugar
3.3 g paprika
2.6 g crushed red pepper
1.5 g cayenne pepper
10% water, so 100mlI also added:
20g NonFat Dry Milk, so 2% as binder
4.2 g MSG, so 0.42%. Little less than recommended on Accent bottle, about 2/3.These all started as whole T and t, so these wierd grams are just what that weighed out to. It’s easy to make a mistake typing all the actual grams divided by 3585g meat block, but pretty sure I did these right, they are all in the 1 to 3 gram per kg meat usage region Marianski recommends for all these in his book usage charts. I had to start with tsp then convert by 1.5 for my larger recipe, then weigh… so, if you see something off it’s possible, let me know
However, you could easily cut a spice in half or add 50% and I think you’d still be in ballpark.Spidey recipe actually doubles the black pepper, red pepper, and cayenne, for the hot version. My personal taste, I wouldn’t try that until doing regular version, which I think is pretty spicy already. Even as a kimchee eating hot Thai food loving guy
Dave in AZ Thank you for the recipe.
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Dave in AZ said in Pepperoni snack sticks, 19mm smoked and 21mm fresh collagen casings:
Cut, bagged in 1 layer, SUCKED AIR OUT WITH A STRAW, ice bath 40 min, then out to dry.
Haha, that is funny
This post is deleted! -
Dave in AZ said in Pepperoni snack sticks, 19mm smoked and 21mm fresh collagen casings:
Cut, bagged in 1 layer, SUCKED AIR OUT WITH A STRAW, ice bath 40 min, then out to dry.
Haha, that is funny
Grimpuppy How about these?
Vacuum-Reusable-Resealable-Storage-Bags
(https://www./Vacuum-Reusable-Resealable-Storage-Sizes15/dp/B08KFJP2MY/ref=asc_df_B08KFJP2MY/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475718470701&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5334592860422434796&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017954&hvtargid=pla-1019473695504&psc=1) -
Grimpuppy How about these?
Vacuum-Reusable-Resealable-Storage-Bags
(https://www./Vacuum-Reusable-Resealable-Storage-Sizes15/dp/B08KFJP2MY/ref=asc_df_B08KFJP2MY/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475718470701&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5334592860422434796&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017954&hvtargid=pla-1019473695504&psc=1)Denny O said in Pepperoni snack sticks, 19mm smoked and 21mm fresh collagen casings:
Grimpuppy How about these?
Vacuum-Reusable-Resealable-Storage-Bags
(https://www./Vacuum-Reusable-Resealable-Storage-Sizes15/dp/B08KFJP2MY/ref=asc_df_B08KFJP2MY/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475718470701&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5334592860422434796&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017954&hvtargid=pla-1019473695504&psc=1)I can’t get the link to work, but I do have the Waltons ziplock vacuum bags.
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The link would not take for me. All you need to do is copy including the ( ) and paste then >
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The link is missing the domain. Is it from Waltons.com?
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I have used the following two, quart and gallon.
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Update!
I left a snack stick out on counter for 5 days drying, Phoenix humidity. It got almost bone dry, only moisture and flex comes from the fat. Wow what a surprise, really fantastic, super concentrated flavor. Closest to a slim Jim I’ve ever come!Next time, I will run some of these at 135 to dry in the smoker on just oven heat, after they have cooked and had their lethality treatment to like 155, so it is safe. I will target 30% weight loss then see how that looks for shelf stability. But these super dry ones are just fantastic! Only change I’d make is reduce the heat as it is very concentrated when drier.
In any case, the 7 Log-10 lethality dwell time at 135f is 37 min, so long as it is a moist high humidity heat, which sausage in collagen casing qualifies for. Per USFDA FSIS Cooking Guideline for Meat and Poultry 2021. And their 2014 Jerky guidelines, which are good to look at for proper procedures when drying stuff like jerky or snack sticks.
-
Update!
I left a snack stick out on counter for 5 days drying, Phoenix humidity. It got almost bone dry, only moisture and flex comes from the fat. Wow what a surprise, really fantastic, super concentrated flavor. Closest to a slim Jim I’ve ever come!Next time, I will run some of these at 135 to dry in the smoker on just oven heat, after they have cooked and had their lethality treatment to like 155, so it is safe. I will target 30% weight loss then see how that looks for shelf stability. But these super dry ones are just fantastic! Only change I’d make is reduce the heat as it is very concentrated when drier.
In any case, the 7 Log-10 lethality dwell time at 135f is 37 min, so long as it is a moist high humidity heat, which sausage in collagen casing qualifies for. Per USFDA FSIS Cooking Guideline for Meat and Poultry 2021. And their 2014 Jerky guidelines, which are good to look at for proper procedures when drying stuff like jerky or snack sticks.
Dave in AZ Try drying out your Kabanos in the fridge to that point. It’s really good. Polish Hunters Sausage.
-Reusable-FoodSaver-Handheld-Sealers/dp/B09Q993PCD?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1
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