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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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