PEPPERONI 100% beef made at home

The salami type pepperoni It has intense seasoning and is widely consumed, especially in the USA, in the production of pizzas. Its original name is peperone and dates back to Roman times. The original version is drier, hotter and more spicy than the contemporary commercial version. I applied a recipe here that is more focused on the original version. The meat generally used is beef, but pork can be added to harmonize the flavor of the product.

Definition and commercial classification of Pepperoni

Pepperoni is an industrialized meat product, made with pork and/or beef, bacon, added ingredients, with an average particle size between 3 and 6 mm, embedded in natural or artificial wrappers, peppered, cured, fermented, matured, dried for the time indicated by the manufacturing process, smoked or not.

1000 g Beef with 20% of fat;
18 g Salt;
13 g smoked paprika;
5 g Sugar;
2.5 g Curing salt 2;
2.5g Rosemary Extract (natural antioxidant);
2 g black pepper;
2 g white pepper;
2 g ground fennel seed;
1 g ground anise;
1 g Cayenne pepper;
½ teaspoon of bacterial starter culture;
100 ml of filtered water;
1 meter of 50 mm collagen casing.

Pepperoni preparation

Clean the meat into 2 cm cubes;
Cut the meat finely with a knife or grind to 3 mm;
Place the collagen casing in a pot with 500 ml of water and 50 g of salt and leave it to hydrate for at least 10 minutes;
Dilute the bacterial starter culture in 100 ml of filtered water;
Mix all dry ingredients;
Add the dry ingredients to the meat and mix;
Add the starter culture to the meat and mix well until the meat becomes sticky;
Embed the meat in the casing;
Hang in a warm, humid environment for 72 hours for the starter culture to ferment the pepperoni;
Hang in an environment with air circulation, low temperature, ideal around 12ºC and high humidity, ideal around 80%. It can be any environment that can maintain conditions close to those mentioned.
Keep hanging for 40 days or until the pepperoni has lost 35% of its initial weight;
The shelf life is around 90 days stored in the refrigerator.