Elk Pepperoni Recipe

Elk Pepperoni

5 lbs Elk Ground
2 tablespoon salt
.5 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1.5 tablespoon sweet paprika
.75 tablespoon crushed anise seed
.5 tablespoon garlic, very finely minced
.5 cup dry red wine
4 ml cure salt
1 Tablespoon Cracked Black Pepper
.5 Tablespoons (fine ground) Black Pepper
1.5 Tablespoons Crushed Chilies

First, always make sure your prep area, and all cooking aids are clean.

Thoroughly mix all ingredients with the meat. When you think you’ve mixed enough, mix some more.

Stuff meat/spice mix in any size casings you like. I prefer the small diameter casings.
I use a Bradly Smoker. I preheat smoker to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. I loop pepperoni over 1 inch hardwood dowels positioned on the top rack. Let sit at 120 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour to dry the pepperoni casings. After 1 hour, increase temp to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Let sit at this temp until the internal temp of the pepperoni reaches 142 degrees Fahrenheit. I use a digital meat thermometer to do this. This process takes 10 hours in my smoker.

Remove from the smoker, and place in refrigerator until cooled. Pepperoni is ready to eat, or freeze.

I vacuum seal and freeze the pepperoni in packs of 10; 8inch sticks so it’s always fresh.

Note, This makes a 5 pound batch, I’ve tripled all ingredients and made up to a 15 pound batch at one time in my smoker.

You can add a little smoke if you wish, I personally think it takes away from the flavour of the pepperoni. But that’s the great thing, you can play with the recipe and finish it to YOUR taste.

Finally, I’d say this makes a med-hot pepperoni.