Best Homemade Spicy Pepperoni Recipes

HOMEMADE PEPPERONI

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Separately grind pork and beef through the coarse disk.
• Mix meats together with salt, sugar, cayenne, paprika, anise seed, garlic, red wine, ascorbic acid, and saltpeter in a large bowl.
• Spread mixture out on a large pan, cover loosely with waxed paper, and cure in refrigerator for 24 hours.
• Start with about 4 feet of casing. It's better to begin with too much than too little because any extra can be repacked in salt and used later.
• Rinse casing under cool running water to remove any salt stuck to it.
• Place casing in a bowl of cool water and let soak for about 30 minutes.
• After soaking, rinse casing under cool running water. Slip 1 end of the casing over faucet nozzle. Hold casing firmly on nozzle, and turn on cold water, gently at first, and then more forcefully. This will flush out any salt in the casing and pinpoint any breaks. Should you find a break, simply snip out a small section of casing.
• Place casing in a bowl of water and add white vinegar; a tablespoon of vinegar per cup of water is sufficient. The vinegar softens casing and makes it more transparent, which makes pepperoni look better. Leave casing in water-vinegar solution until ready to use. Rinse well and drain before stuffing.
• Stuff sausage into casings and twist off into 10-inch links.
• Using cotton twine, tie 2 separate knots between every other link, creating pairs of links. Cut between the double knots. ​
• Tie a string to the center of each pair to hang sausages. Hang pepperoni to dry in a space that is 50 F to 55 F with 75 to 80 percent humidity for six to eight weeks. Once dried, the pepperoni will keep, wrapped, in the refrigerator for several months.

HOMEMADE PEPPERONI

Steps:

• Place meat in a mixing bowl.
• Add pepperoni seasoning and mix.
• Dissolve cure in¾ cup water. Add liquid smoke and red pepper flakes to water as well, if using.
• Add cure mixture to meat.
• Mix by hand, adding more water 1 teaspoon at a time, until the mixture is sticky enough to stick to inverted hand.
• Place the mixture into a sausage stuffer (like this one or this one) and stuff into casings following the sausage stuffer's instructions. Or, follow the instructions above or here for making sausage without special equipment. You'll want to make your cylindrical meat shapes about 1 and ½ inch in diameter and about 12 inches long.
• Refrigerate the sausages (whether in casings or in plastic wrap+foil) in a single layer for 24 hours to allow the cure to properly penetrate and for the shape of the sausage to set.
• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Carefully remove foil and plastic wrap from tubes of meat if you used them instead of casings. Carefully lay the cylinders of meat, or your casings stuffed with meat, on an oven-safe rack placed over a baking sheet.
• Put into the oven and bake until meat reached an internal temperature of 160°F on an instant read thermometer (like this), 45-60 minutes.
• Take out of oven and let cool.
• Slice and enjoy.

HOMEMADE SPICY PEPPERONI

Steps:

• Combine seasonings and meat and mix thoroughly, using hands; cover and refrigerate for 48-72 hours.
• Form meat into two long logs or rolls. Place a rack (or pan/sheet with drainage) on a cookie sheet and put the logs onto rack. Bake at 200 degrees for 8 hours, rotating logs every 2 hours.
• Logs will be a bright pink when they are finished, and should be fairly dry and firm. Wipe off excess grease and allow meat to cool. Chill and then slice thinly. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze for longer storage.

SPICY PEPPER PENNE

Steps:

• In a large skillet, layer the pasta, rosemary, pepperoni, pepperoncini and red peppers. Add water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 12 minutes or until pasta is tender. Add cream and Parmesan cheese; toss to coat.

HOMEMADE PEPPERONI

Steps:

• grind the peppercorns (if using), fennel seeds and the dried red pepper together in a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder.
• mix all the dry spices together in a bowl and set aside.
• break up the ground beef in a mixing bowl.
• sprinkle the dry spices over the meat and mix well.
• once mixed add the smoke flavor and the honey and mix well.
• cover tightly and refrigerate for 48-72 hours.
• to cook:.
• pre-heat oven to 200˚.
• cover a baking sheet with foil and place a baking rack over it.
• form the meat into two long sausages, mine were about 12 inches each.
• roll them firmly on a clean surface until they are well compacted.
• gently transfer to the prepared baking sheet.
• bake for 8 hours.
• try to roll them over every two hours, they will be firm and this will help them maintain their shape and evenly cook.
• remove after 8 hours and wipe them off.
• let them cool and wipe again.
• wrap and store in the fridge until chilled.
• slice and use as desired.
• *add more if you prefer a spicier mix or feel free to remove if you can't stand the flavor-I made mine as this recipe reads and they were perfect for little boys, flavorful but not flaming hot.
• **if you want you CAN use Morton's Tender Quick curing salt which will make it pink, mine were made purposely without pink salt which is why they are brown, if you are trying to avoid preservatives yours should be made without pink salt as well.