Making pepperoni sausage at home is extremely rewarding and is very similar to the making of Summer sausage. I made it once many years ago and it has become a staple at our home. This is not your typical store-bought pepperoni – this one has better texture, much better flavor, and it tastes like high quality sausage. This sausage is outstanding. You can even make sandwiches with it, it’s that good. Smoked pepperoni is to die for. Your pizzas will taste better than ever. Smoke greatly improves flavor and increases shelf life of sausage due to its antibacterial properties. In this article I will talk about how to make pepperoni sausage at home and share my experience.
What is pepperoni sausage?
Pepperoni sausage is an Italian-American semi-dry fermented sausage typically made of pork and beef. Pepperoni sausage made of beef or pork alone is also common. Peperoni is seasoned with paprika and aromatic herbs, has a soft texture, is slightly smoky, and bright red in color. It is a popular pizza topping in American pizzerias.
The name pepperoni implies Italian origin but it’s far from the truth. It does have some similarities to the spicy salamis of southern Italy, such as salsiccia Napoletana piccante, or Calabrese salami. Pepperoni has a finer grain though, is usually softer, and is made with artificial casings.
The meat
Pepperoni sausage is typically made of a combination of pork and beef, or pork or beef alone. The ratios of pork to beef vary from 75% pork and 25% beef to 25% pork and 75% beef. It really depends on personal preference. Sometimes all you have is pork butt, or chuck roast, and may decide to make an all pork or all beef pepperoni. My personal preference for pepperoni is 75% to 100% pork.
The taste of pepperoni sausage is very much dependent on the freshness and the quality of meat. To get the best results, buy your meat fresh and grind it yourself. Alternatively, ask your butcher to grind it for you. You want to grind the meat fairly fine, through a 3/16″ (4.5mm) plate.
Pepperoni sausage spices
The dominating spice in this sausage is paprika, which gives it a characteristic orange color. You will also find aromatic spices such as anise, allspice, fennel, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, mustard and black pepper among the commonly used spices in pepperoni sausage. Many recipes also add cayenne pepper for a little kick.
The best pepperoni sausage though is the sausage made to suit your taste, so feel free to experiment to come up with your favorite spice combination. If possible, grind your spices just before adding them to the ground meat. This will help you get the most flavor out of them.
Curing salt and cultures
As the typical pepperoni sausage is a fermented semi-dry sausage, a meat culture such as Bactoferm FL-C is used. Bactoferm F-LC meat culture with bioprotective properties is used for the production of fermented sausages with short or traditional production times. During fermentation pH of the meat drops to 5.3 which helps inhibit growth of pathogenic bacteria and gives the sausage its tangy taste. FL-C culture can be purchased from sausagemaker.com or butcher-packer.com.
In this recipe, pepperoni sausage is fermented and then smoked at temperatures that promote growth of unwanted bacteria. To prevent that, Cure #1 (also known as pink salt) is used. Pink salt also improves flavor, prevents food poisoning, tenderizes meat, and develops the pink color widely known and associated with smoked meats. You can purchase Cure #1 from the online stores mentioned above as well as on Amazon – DQ Curing Salt #1 / Pink Salt
.
Grinding meat and mixing with spices
You want to make sure that the salt and the spices are mixed well with the meat and distributed evenly. One way to ensure even seasoning distribution is to mix them with the pieces of meat before they are ground. This is my favorite method and it works very well.
After grinding the meat, simply add the starter culture re-hydrated in 1/3 cup of water and mix well.
Sausage casings
The most common casing size used for pepperoni sausage is 1 1/2″ (38mm) in diameter. This is the size that most pepperoni produced in America uses.
That said, there is nothing wrong with making pepperoni a bit thicker, like 2″ – 2 1/2″ (50-60mm). You can use beef middles or collagen casings. I like to use collagen casings for pepperoni sausage as they are easier to use and make straight links. These casings are sold as pepperoni stick casings and can be purchased from a variety of places, e.g. your local sausage making supply store, Amazon (Non-Edible Fibrous Casings)
, thesausagemaker.com, or butcher-packer.com.
Stuffing meat into casings
The most efficient and economical way to stuff the meat into casings is to use a vertical sausage stuffer, such as the LEM Products 5 Pound Sausage Stuffer
or the LEM Motorized 20 lb stuffer. I own both of these stuffers, they both do a great job, though one is perfect for one-person operation.
You may also use a sausage stuffer attachment for your meat grinder, but you may be disappointed with the results. Meat grinders are not designed for stuffing sausages and, frankly, do a very poor job at it.
A cheaper alternative to a vertical sausage stuffer that would yield better results than a meat grinder attachment would be a manual sausage stuffer like the LEM Manual Sausage Stuffer. These stuffers are great for occasional use. They are hard to use and require good physical strength to operate, but can produce good results after some practice.
Stuff the meat firmly, ensuring that no air pockets remain inside. Getting all the air out is practically impossible and you will see some tiny cavities after your sausage is done. This is not a problem for semi-dry sausages. Just do your best but don’t worry if some tiny air pockets remain.
The cooking equipment
To smoke pepperoni sausage, you will need a smoker or a grill that is capable of maintaining low temperatures.
Electric smokers
A dedicated electric sausage smoker would be ideal, like the very popular Masterbuilt 30-Inch Smoker. Many people consider this smoker to be the best value for home sausage making needs.
Should you need a looking window to enjoy your sausage while it’s being smoked, you can get an equally popular Masterbuilt 30-Inch Electric Smoker with Window and RF Controller
.
Using a propane smoker
If you like propane-fuelled smokers, the Masterbuilt XL propane smoker is a very good choice. I used one for years to make my favorite Polish kielbasa and many other smoked sausages.
It’s not that easy to maintain low temperatures with, but modifying it with a needle valve, like the Bayou Classic Brass Control Valve, will fix that. If you don’t feel comfortable installing a needle valve into the gas line yourself, you can buy a pre-made gas assembly, like the 
Bayou Classic M5HPR-1 10 PSI Hose, Regulator, Valve Assembly
. You need to make sure that the regulator on the assembly you are buying matches the specs of your burner. Needle Valves for Gassers is a good resource for more information on this.
Using a smokehouse
This is the ultimate option. If you want a taste of traditional smoked sausage, smoke in a smokehouse. I don’t know what it is, the air flow, the humidity or something else, but sausages smoked in a smokehouse feel and taste a little different. I recently built a smokehouse and use it for smoking sausage. If you are a DIY type, check out Stanley Marianski’s excellent book called Meat Smoking And Smokehouse Design
that talks about different smoker designs that you can build at home.
Other smoking equipment
If you have a Big Green Egg, it’s a viable option as well. I’ve used it for smoking sausages, like summer sausage, at low heat before building my smokehouse. It’s not too hard to start this grill at about 110F and maintain that temperature for about 1-2 hours. Eventually, the temperature will creep up but that’s exactly what you want anyway. You just have to control the airflow such that the temperature does not rise too quickly.
The final resort option
If none of the above works for you, don’t give up. You can cook your sausage in the kitchen oven. You won’t get the same amazing smoky flavor and the color, but it’s still better than nothing. Just make sure to cook the sausage at low temperatures to not let the fat melt out. This is very important.
Cooking temperature
Stanley Marianski in his Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages
book mentions that once the temperature of the meat reaches about 100F all fat tissues become liquid. That said, there is very little fat loss between 150 – 190F or even up to the boiling point of water of 212F. Above those levels, the fat starts to leak out quite rapidly. There is a significant fat loss at temperatures over 248F. Sausages cooked at temperatures higher than 190F will have a dry, crumbly texture.
Ideally, smoke your pepperoni at 110F – 130F until the desired color is achieved, then gradually increase the temperature to 150-175F, and then all the way to 190F if needed, to achieve the internal temperature of 140F.
If cooking in the oven, start cooking the sausage at the lowest setting (usually around 170F) and slowly increase to 190F, until the internal temperature of the sausage reaches the target temperature.
Ingredients
- 700 g pork butt about 1.54 lbs; see notes
- 300 g beef chuck about 0.66 lbs; see notes
- 23 g salt about 4 tsp
- 2.5 g Cure #1 about 1/2 tsp
- 10 g dextrose or glucose; about 2 tsp
- 5 g sugar - 5.0 g about 1 tsp
- 3 g black pepper ground, about 1½ tsp
- 8 g sweet paprika ground, about 4 tsp
- 2.5 g anise seeds ground; about 1 tsp
- 2 g allspice ground; about 1 tsp
- 2 g cayenne pepper about 1 tsp
- 0.24 g F-LC culture use scale
- 80 ml distilled water about 1/3 cup
Instructions
- Grind pork and beef through 3/16” plate (5 mm).
- Mix all ingredients with ground meat.
- Stuff into beef middles or fibrous casings about 60 mm in diameter.
- Ferment at 86F (30C) and 85-90% humidity for 24 hours.
- Place the sausage in the smoker and smoke at 110F - 130F and 70% humidity for 6 hours. Gradually increase smoke temperature to 150-175F, and then all the way to 190F if needed, until internal meat temperature reaches 140F.
- For a drier sausage, dry for 3 days at 60-70F and 65-75% humidity or until desired weight loss is achieved.
- Store sausages at 50-59F and 75-80% humidity.
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe variations
If you want to use a different process, without fermentation, I suggest Rytek Kutases recipe which suggests using 2 Tbsp powdered dextrose, 3/4 cup fermento and 3 Tbsp corn syrup solids per 10 lbs of meat. Cook sausages to 152F internal in this case.
If you don’t have the starter culture, or Fermento, but really want to make pepperoni, you can always make it as you would a regular kielbasa. Follow my Polish kielbasa recipe process, only replace the spices and seasonings with the ones in this recipe. The sausage won’t be exactly like pepperoni but will be pretty close and will taste great nevertheless.
Brett
Hello Victor –
I made up a batch of your Kabanos yesterday, they’re in the fridge drying out a bit, but I snuck a taste this morning and they are everything you said they’d be! Delicious.
I also made a batch of pepperoni, but like someone else I stuffed them into 22mm casings for snacking. After 24 hours in the oven fermenting, I smoked for an hour and then was going to finish in hot water like I did the Kabanos. But ended up with water getting between the casing and the meat. I’m not sure if they would have been salvageable or not, but I didn’t want to risk it so tossed 2/3 of a 10 pound batch. The rest I’ll finish either in the smoker or oven. Any ideas what might have happened?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Hi Brett, glad to hear that you like the kabanos. You should try my chicken sausage, it’s a hit this year.
Sorry to hear about your pepperoni. It would have been 100% salvageable. Just squeeze out as much water as you can, dry it and it will be fine. Skin separating from the meat usually happens to me when I smoke at too high temps, the fat melts out leaving pockets of air that water happily would fill out. It also happened to me when using collagen casings that don’t shrink at the same rate as the meat. I’ve also seen this when making leaner sausage, or poorly mixed sausage with low levels of myoglobin.
So, the solution is to use enough fat, mix really well, until the mass is sticky enough, smoke at low temps, use natural casings if possible. Now, that said, I am sure you can easily use any casing and smoke on a regular BBQ at high temps and you will still be fine. Just vacuum seal those suckers, or put in Ziploc bags trying to get as much air out as possible, and poaching in bags. Same effect but no water will get in. Will be smokier too, though the skin won’t be as soft as poaching in water directly.
When finishing in the oven, add a pan with boiling water to keep humidity up. It will prevent the skin from drying out and will help cook the sausage faster. That’s my most recent tweak. I do it when finishing in the smokehouse too. Good luck.
Brett
Thank you for all of your help and suggestions. I will definitely give it a try again with all of those in mind. I used about 2/3 fatty pork shoulder and 1/3 venison, and the smoker was at 120-130. So I’m guessing maybe I didn’t mix the meat and spices long enough to get it tacky. Will enjoy my Kabanos and give the pepperoni another try!
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
You are very welcome and good luck. Hope it turns out much better next time.
Kevin Schneider
What is the recommended wood type for smoking the pepperoni sausage?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
That’s a good question. Traditionally, Italian pepperoni is not smoked so there is no specific wood type for this type of sausage. Now, personally, I like cherry wood for that gives the sausage dark red color and sweet flavor. Pecan and hickory are very good too. Oak is another good option.
Jo
What is the shelf life like on these if vacuum sealed? I see from other comments you can freeze them, which is a good option but fresh is best 🙂
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Jo, this is a good question. It depends. I don’t have a scientific answer and will only go by my experience. Smoked, chilled and vacuum sealed it should be good for at least a month and more. This sausage will still have plenty of water in it so the shelf life will be somewhat limited. If you dry it for a week or two after smoking, vacuum seal, it will last many months, 3-6 months+. If you don’t have a curing/drying chamber, dry in a refrigerator. IN a fridge, wrapped in plain butcher’s paper it will dry within a few weeks. Once it’s dry enough to your liking, vacuum seal to stop further drying. This one will store much, much longer. 6 months+ easily or longer depending on how dry it is. I’ve had sausages that I forgot about sitting the fridge for over a year that were perfectly fine, not vacuum sealed. They got a little too dry but smelled and tasted great.
Devin
For those that have to resort to the oven method but still want smokey flavor, I might advise one of the small cold smoking tubes available online.
It’s about $20, you fill it with wood pellets and then torch the end and allow it to burn for about ten minutes before blowing the flame out.
You then get several hours of strong smoke with little to no heat.
I use one of these for cold smoking cheeses, and I would imagine that anyone that has no smoking equipment could let their sausage be cold smoked like this for a while before putting it in the oven
John
Great recipe, tried it by substituting sugar for the dextrose. It was good but from that I have researched the dextrose acts as a binder as well as food for the culture. It turned out great.
Since I made the first batch I have ordered dextrose but it won’t be in with enough time to make a batch so with more research one similar recipe calls for powered milk to be used as a binder accompanied with corn syrup.
What are your thoughts on this?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Hi John, sorry for the long delay in responding to your comment. To be honest, I’ve never used powdered milk in my sausages so I can’t comment on that. No particular reason why. I have used powdered buttermilk in my fresh chicken sausage to give it some tang, not to change the texture, the results are really good. I may experiment more with those ingredients in the near future.
Mike Raether
Just finished a batch of your pepperoni and it is wonderful! Thank you. Used 2/3 pork butt and 1/3 venison. Seasoning was just right for me. Smoked with hickory chips. Stuffed into 19mm edible collagen casings as I wanted as snacking sticks. I had my wife pick up a ham shank portion so I can try your Kielbasa recipe next. Or maybe I’ll try the brats . . . Or maybe . . .
I’m like the proverbial kid in a candy store!
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Hi Mike, your comment put a smile on my face;) Happy to see that you enjoy reading my blog and the recipes here. For snacking, try the kabanos recipe. My family loves it. I’ve also been playing with a chicken sausage recipe and after several batches I think it’s outstanding. The only problem is that when I make say 10lbs it’s gone in just a few days. Hard to resist. I will post the recipe on the blog when I get a chance.
Leigh Smith
You can use a couple table spoons of sauerkraut juice (contains lactobacillus) and ferment as described.
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Very true, but who knows what’s in that juice. Meaning it can be contaminated with spoilage bacteria, bacteria population may be too low, etc. Also, it’s very hard to find proper (fermented) sauerkraut nowadays. A lot of store-bought sauerkraut is nothing but flavored pickled cabbage so have to be careful about that. Using a culture is a sure and predictable way IMHO.
Raymond Campbell
Victor,your pepperoni looks wrinkle free,did you give it an ice bath,or just hanged it at room temp?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Hi Raymond, sorry for the delayed response, yes, I gave them a bath to cool down. That sure helps keep them nice and plump. You can also smoke at low temp then poach in a hot water batch to bring the internal temperature up. I use that method often, it makes thing much easier and faster and keeps the wrinkles away.
Matt
I see a lot of recipes that call for red wine. Could red wine substitute the water in this recipe?
Thanks!
Matt
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
You’d need some water to activate the starter culture but it won’t hurt if you add some wine on top. For larger batches it’s easier – say if you are starting with 3 kg of meat, you can use 80 ml of water for the starter culture and add 160 ml of wine, or even more…
Matt
Sounds like a plan. Thanks!!
Abi
I just followed your recipe for pepperoni in the oven. How do I store it? Can it be hung in a cool, dry place or does it need refrigeration/freezing?
Thanks so much!
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Step #7 in instructions:
Store sausages at 50-59F and 75-80% humidity.
This way it will be drying slowly and the shelf life will extend. In general, simply refrigerate. To store without refrigeration you’d need to prepare it a bit differently.
Matt Cosgrove
After a few days in the fridge, can it be frozen?
Thanks!
Matt
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
I’ve frozen dry and semi-dry sausage before… it’s fine… I think the texture changes a little but still good. Make sure to defrost in a fridge though.
Ray
one word outstanding,followed the recipe to the letter,best I have made
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Glad to hear it, Ray. Now try my other recipes;) Plenty of good ones. Enjoy!
Darlene
Hi, for the oven method- is the target internal temperature 190F? Noting gradual temp increase from 170-190F- just not clear if that is the target internal temperature as well.
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Darlene, the target internal temp of the pepperoni is 140F.
MICHAEL
I think there might be some confusion because above the recipe you have “deally, smoke your pepperoni at 110F – 130F until the desired color is achieved, then gradually increase the temperature to 150-175F and then all the way to 190F.” under cooking temperature
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Hi Michael, I am not sure where I caused confusion, perhaps me being more concise in the instructions. I updated it.
Paula
Can I use honey or sugar in place of the dextrose? In what ratio, if so?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Sugar will do just fine, I’ve substituted dextrose for sugar without any obvious effects.
Lee
Hi, I’m not new to making salami but this is the first time making pepperoni. Using 65mm casings and smoking them in the pizza over 6 hrs turned out brilliant. Have ended up with nearly 3kg for $30 ish (AUS).
Thanks for the recipe.
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Glad to hear that, Lee. You are very welcome.
Ginger
Instead of an oven, would a dehydrator work to dry the pepperoni?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
You need to cook it 140F internal first then dry. I suppose a dehydrator might work but I haven’t tried myself.
William
First off, great website – thanks you for sharing the information – very inspiring!!!!!
I am assembling all of the equipment and materials for my 1st shot at homemade pepperoni. In your instructions for making pepperoni you state “Ferment at 86F (30C) and 85-90% humidity for 24 hours”
How do you achieve and monitor this step?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Hi William, welcome to my blog and to this exciting hobby. I am sure you will love it.
As for how these fermentation conditions can be achieved – there are a few options. One is a curing chamber. I use mine for both fermentation and maturing salumi. Now, this is not a trivial solution and, frankly, not needed unless you want to immerse yourself into the beautifully tasty world of salumi making.
The simplest and cheapest option is a good old oven. Turn the light on, shut the door, close the vents, and you will have a perfect 80F-90F temperature, depending on your oven, and the humidity will be around 90F because of the moisture released by the sausage itself. Super simple and works like a charm. I also use the oven with the light on to ferment dough.
For monitoring, you can get a hygrometer with a probe like the Extech here which I own and like for certain uses, or the Inkbird hygrometer with a data logger paired with a smartphone. But honestly, I checked the temperature once or twice in my oven and it was about 85F and ever since then I’ve never checked again. I don’t worry about humidity when fermenting this type of sausage, it will be perfectly fine for making this type of sausage, even with some deviation. Humidity is far more critical when making dry-cured meats and sausages.
William
Thanks for the great advice!!!!
Philip S
I love your website. I have made several of your sausage recipes and they all turned out great. My family loves homemade sausage and I can’t make enough. With three boys in the house it’s gone in no time. I just made the pepperoni and summer sausage but used encapsulated citric acid and the results were perfect. My wife is big into baking so she is going to try your sour dough cinnamon buns soon. Can’t wait to try them
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Good to hear it Philip. Thank you for the compliment. Try my kabanos sausage – my kids love it the most. I sometimes stuff it in regular hog casings still outstanding.
James K
Outstanding! Followed the recipe exactly and smoked on my BGE at about 175F as I couldn’t keep the temperature lower. The pepperoni sausage still turned out excellent.