Pepperoni Sticks Italian Style

3 1/2 lb Salt

5 oz Sugar

4 oz Cure

2 oz Ground hot red pepper

2 oz Allspice

5 oz Ground anise seed

10 lb Ice water

Ingredients for 100 lbs. Meat in Pounds Boneless cowmeat 50 pounds, Beef cheeks 20 pounds, Beef flanks or plates 30 pounds. Grinding and Mixing: Grind all the meats thru a 3/16" grinder plate. Remove to mixer and add all the ingredients mixing evenly, regrind thru 1/8" grinder plate. The meat is now ready for stuffing. Stuffing: It is essential that the meat is well chilled to avoid smearing the meat. The meat should be stuffed into 24 to 26 mm lamb casings. Smoking: Preheat smokehouse to 125 degrees F and place pepperoni in smoker. Have dampers wide open without smoke until the casings are dry. Close the dampers 1/4 open and apply a heavy smoke raising the temperature to 140 degrees. Hold this temperature until the internal temperature of the product reaches 130 degrees. When using PORK, raise the temperature to 150 degrees and hold until the internal temperatue reaches 138 degrees. Remove from the smokehouse and chill with cold tap water until the internal temperature is reduced 105 degrees to 110 degrees. Return to the cold smokehouse at 110 degrees and apply a heavy smoke for at least 12 hours or overnight. Leave dampers 1/4 open. Drying: The drying room should be kept at 60 degrees to 65 degrees and a relative humidity of 70%. The drying time will vary because of the amount of moisture that has been removed from the sausage during smoking. It usually takes 3 to 4 days to make a satisfactory pepperoni. When fully dry, the pepperoni will yield from 50 to 55% of the original product. Alternate Drying Method without smoking: Hold pepperoni at 70 degrees for about 2 days maintaining a relative humidity of about 75%. The product should be kept in a cooler for at least 20 days from the time the cure had been added to the pepperoni. Be sure that casins used are not over 1-3/8" in diameter as this formula applies only to casings below this range. From: Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing Shared by: Pat Stockett