Making Pizza Pepperoni-Cups In Taiwan
Posted: Tue May 25, 2021 17:35
Hi All!
New here and new to fermenting sausages. Thought I'd share my process here to hopefully get some feedback from you guys! Long post ahead...
I'm currently working on opening up a New York Style pizza shop in Taiwan. I've been making, selling, and experimenting out of my friend's bakery, and I thought it would be great to provide pepperonis-cups on our pizza, similar to ones you see in New York. It gives the pepperoni an extra crunch at the top, and it also looks fantastic visually. Example:
Here's my problem, there's no Pepperoni-Cups supply in Taiwan, so I figured, why not make my own!? How hard could it be? I started doing some research, and BOY was this harder than I had thought... But... maybe this is an opportunity to differentiate; also, I'm fascinated with the process of fermenting sausages.
-- Below are what I've begun, and what I intend to do, please let me know if you guys have any inputs! --
// HOW PEPPERONI CURLS
According to Kenji from SeriousEats, pepperoni curls due to 2 factors, Natural or Collagen Casing, and thickness. I will experiment with both casings. I've ordered a 30mm collagen Casing from a distributor here, and I'll also look for a slightly bigger natural hog casing.
- For those of you interested in Kenji's experiment: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-pizza-l ... eroni-curl
// CULTURE & FERMENTATION (Thank you Redzed for your advice!)
No seller is willing to ship commercial cultures to me, I've only been able to get my hands on T-SPX from UMAI, but apparently, that's not the best for fast fermented sausages like pepperoni. In any case, I will still try to ferment with T-SPX with more sugar to reach higher acidity. My friend will also try and ship me F-LC and Mold 600 from LA, hopefully they arrive alive! Here's my plan:
- BATCH 1: T-SPX @25C with 6.4g of dextrose targeting 4.8 pH
- BATCH 2: F-LC @40C with 6.4g of dextrose targeting 4.8 pH
- BATCH 3 (TBD): Fermenting with probiotic supplements @40C with 6.4g of dextrose targeting 4.8 pH (this is only if F-LC does not arrive safely. If it does I will skip this)
- I'm hoping to be able to semi-dry these sausages within a week, I've read that this is possible with higher acidity and smaller diameter casing.
// CURING CHAMBER
I bought an old fridge, seriously it looks pretty bad, but it was 30 bucks and it works, so I figured I'll test and learn on this before I move onto a better chamber. I cut out the partition between the Fridge and Freezer, see below. The next step is to sanitize the crap out of it.
Looking at the back of the freezer, I noticed a lot of condensation that is drained down. I'm guessing this water will be evaporated via a hot plate at the bottom of the fridge. Given I will be hooking it to a temperature controller, I'm worried there won't be enough power to evaporate the liquids. Should I further take apart the fridge to see where the fluid is drained to and try and put some towels there?
- Target Humidity: 65 - 75% RH
- Target Temperature: 15-18C
// RECIPE
I'm still looking for some recipes. I'm hoping to achieve a noticeable tang, a bright red, and possibly a slight caramelization at the top.
I hope to achieve the tang through the pH, the red color will probably come from the paprika. As for caramelization, apart from the temperature of the oven, I'm wondering if having excess sugar would help, but I'm also not sure what the impact is on pH during fermentation.
// DOES PEPPERONI NEED TO BE COOKED?
I'm wondering if pepperoni should be warm smoked or cooked, I've read in some places that pizza pepperoni needs to reach internal temperature of ~60C before drying. I'm wondering if this step is necessary? Can I just treat this as a typical dry salami? Let me know your thoughts! If cooking is necessary, I will probably skip the smoker for now and sous vide it instead. Building a smokehouse seems a bit daunting for me at the moment, but I'm not opposed to doing it once I'm more familiar with the process.
--
Lastly, I've been a little anxious, it feels like a lot could go wrong the more I read. The costs have also been adding up as I'm trying to get proper equipments. I really hope this is worth it and I am able to achieve a pepperoni curl and that tastes awesome.
More to come...
New here and new to fermenting sausages. Thought I'd share my process here to hopefully get some feedback from you guys! Long post ahead...
I'm currently working on opening up a New York Style pizza shop in Taiwan. I've been making, selling, and experimenting out of my friend's bakery, and I thought it would be great to provide pepperonis-cups on our pizza, similar to ones you see in New York. It gives the pepperoni an extra crunch at the top, and it also looks fantastic visually. Example:
Here's my problem, there's no Pepperoni-Cups supply in Taiwan, so I figured, why not make my own!? How hard could it be? I started doing some research, and BOY was this harder than I had thought... But... maybe this is an opportunity to differentiate; also, I'm fascinated with the process of fermenting sausages.
-- Below are what I've begun, and what I intend to do, please let me know if you guys have any inputs! --
// HOW PEPPERONI CURLS
According to Kenji from SeriousEats, pepperoni curls due to 2 factors, Natural or Collagen Casing, and thickness. I will experiment with both casings. I've ordered a 30mm collagen Casing from a distributor here, and I'll also look for a slightly bigger natural hog casing.
- For those of you interested in Kenji's experiment: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-pizza-l ... eroni-curl
// CULTURE & FERMENTATION (Thank you Redzed for your advice!)
No seller is willing to ship commercial cultures to me, I've only been able to get my hands on T-SPX from UMAI, but apparently, that's not the best for fast fermented sausages like pepperoni. In any case, I will still try to ferment with T-SPX with more sugar to reach higher acidity. My friend will also try and ship me F-LC and Mold 600 from LA, hopefully they arrive alive! Here's my plan:
- BATCH 1: T-SPX @25C with 6.4g of dextrose targeting 4.8 pH
- BATCH 2: F-LC @40C with 6.4g of dextrose targeting 4.8 pH
- BATCH 3 (TBD): Fermenting with probiotic supplements @40C with 6.4g of dextrose targeting 4.8 pH (this is only if F-LC does not arrive safely. If it does I will skip this)
- I'm hoping to be able to semi-dry these sausages within a week, I've read that this is possible with higher acidity and smaller diameter casing.
// CURING CHAMBER
I bought an old fridge, seriously it looks pretty bad, but it was 30 bucks and it works, so I figured I'll test and learn on this before I move onto a better chamber. I cut out the partition between the Fridge and Freezer, see below. The next step is to sanitize the crap out of it.
Looking at the back of the freezer, I noticed a lot of condensation that is drained down. I'm guessing this water will be evaporated via a hot plate at the bottom of the fridge. Given I will be hooking it to a temperature controller, I'm worried there won't be enough power to evaporate the liquids. Should I further take apart the fridge to see where the fluid is drained to and try and put some towels there?
- Target Humidity: 65 - 75% RH
- Target Temperature: 15-18C
// RECIPE
I'm still looking for some recipes. I'm hoping to achieve a noticeable tang, a bright red, and possibly a slight caramelization at the top.
I hope to achieve the tang through the pH, the red color will probably come from the paprika. As for caramelization, apart from the temperature of the oven, I'm wondering if having excess sugar would help, but I'm also not sure what the impact is on pH during fermentation.
// DOES PEPPERONI NEED TO BE COOKED?
I'm wondering if pepperoni should be warm smoked or cooked, I've read in some places that pizza pepperoni needs to reach internal temperature of ~60C before drying. I'm wondering if this step is necessary? Can I just treat this as a typical dry salami? Let me know your thoughts! If cooking is necessary, I will probably skip the smoker for now and sous vide it instead. Building a smokehouse seems a bit daunting for me at the moment, but I'm not opposed to doing it once I'm more familiar with the process.
--
Lastly, I've been a little anxious, it feels like a lot could go wrong the more I read. The costs have also been adding up as I'm trying to get proper equipments. I really hope this is worth it and I am able to achieve a pepperoni curl and that tastes awesome.
More to come...