Homemade Pepperoni

[RG]

I've never made homemade pepperoni before but a fella on another forum I used to frequent made it and it looked good so I thought I'd give it a whirl. In the recipe, it calls for the use of liquid smoke. My thoughts are why use liquid smoke when I can get REAL smoke? So I stuck it on the Traeger on smoke mode for 3 hours. I then brought it inside and finished it the the oven.

Here's what it looked like, pics are blurry but you get the idea.







I will say that I think it needs improving. It somewhat has a pepperoni taste but more akin to summer sausage, especially in texture. The recipe I used was Tammy's Spicy Pepperoni

I will take out a pack or 2 to make pizzas tomorrow so I think that it'll at least be edible. I also made some homemade Italian sausage to go on it. I think I'll pull a pack of homemade maple bacon out of the fridge while I am at it!

[DWard51]

Great color on those RG!!!   I've never tried pepperoni making, but on the other hand I don't know that I've ever noticed a smoky flavor to the store bought stuff either.  How was the taste?

Normally pepperoni is fermented as a dry sausage to get that underlying tang.  You could use ECA (encapsulated citric acid) or Fermento to get the twang.  Flavor will probably improve with time over about a week also.

[RG]

Great color on those RG!!!   I've never tried pepperoni making, but on the other hand I don't know that I've ever noticed a smoky flavor to the store bought stuff either.  How was the taste?

Normally pepperoni is fermented as a dry sausage to get that underlying tang.  You could use ECA (encapsulated citric acid) or Fermento to get the twang.  Flavor will probably improve with time over about a week also.

Yeah, it's not a traditional pepperoni, that's for sure. It's just something I thought I'd try. The taste is good, not great. It's definitely lacking the right flavor but it'll do. As for smoking, the recipe called for liquid smoke. I just chose to use real smoke. It also calls for an 8 hour cook time at 200° in the oven. I cooked it for a total of maybe 7.5 hours. That's what it gives it that hard feel that you'd normally achieve making it a traditional way.

[TentHunteR]

Great post!   I love pepperoni, so it gets my thump up, even if it does need some tweaking!



It took me four years of tweaking to get my hot-smoked pepperoni to taste like I think pepperoni should taste.     A few key ingredients were plenty of Paprika and Fennel Seeds, and LOTS of powdered buttermilk, to give you that lactic acid tang.

[DWard51]

I've got a new batch of ECA coming in next week.  I may have to take a stab and non-fermented pepperoni also.  This has got me interested.