Making Venison Pepperoni is a surprisingly simple process with a delicious product that has many uses and stores refrigerated for months. You can stuff the pepperoni into collagen or natural casings, edible or inedible, of any size.

Smaller diameter casings are used when making snack sticks and larger diameter casings when making pepperoni chubs.

Ingredients:

4 Pounds of trimmed Venison

1 Pound of Pork Fat

1 Teaspoon of Pink Curing Salt #1 (see Notes at the end of this recipe)

3 Tablespoons of Kosher Salt

2 Tablespoons of smoked Paprika

2 Tablespoons of Dextrose if you have it, otherwise White Sugar

1 Tablespoon of freshly ground Black Pepper

1 Tablespoon of Cayenne Pepper

3 Tablespoons of Red Pepper Flakes

2 Teaspoons of Fennel seeds

2 Teaspoons of ground Cumin

2 Teaspoons of dried Oregano

2 Teaspoons of dried Thyme leaves

1 Cup of non-fat dry milk powder

1/4 cup of medium dry Red Wine like Pinot Noir, chilled

2 Tablespoons of Wrights® hickory flavored liquid smoke

Collagen casings (sizes from 1/2" diameter to 1 1/4" diameter)

Directions:

Place the stand mixer grinder accessory in the freezer along with the stand mixer bowl for 20 minutes.

Put the venison and the pork fat into the freezer for 20 minutes.

Chop the venison into 1" cubes and mix in the salt. Cut the pork fat into 1/2" cubes. Grind the venison and the pork fat separately using a 1/4" die. Immediately place both in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.

Put all of the remaining dry ingredients except the red pepper flakes and the dry milk into a Magic Bullet® mixer and mix them for two minutes.

While the ground meat and ground fat are in the freezer, make a paste with the red wine, liquid smoke, dry milk, and the powdered mixture from the Magic Bullet® mixer.

Place the venison and the pork fat in the stand mixer, mix for 4 minutes to blend them, and then mix in the red pepper flakes and then the Paste mixture a little at a time then mix for three minutes on medium speed, scraping down the inside of the bowl as necessary with a soft spatula to guarantee good mixing.

Mix the pepperoni by hand kneading on a wood cutting board to assure perfect mixing (wear latex or nitrile gloves).

Stuff the casings with the pepperoni mixture using a sausage stuffer, and form links about 8" long by twisting/turning the casings a few times periodically. Fold links together after the twisting to keep the twisted collagen or casing from untwisting.

Put the links into one gallon Ziploc® freezer bags, seal them and put them in the refrigerator to cure the pepperoni for 24 hours.

Place the links on raised racks on 12" x 17" baking sheets.

Bake the pepperoni links at 180 degrees F (in a convection oven if you have one) until the internal temperature of 160 degrees F has been reached. Use an instant read thermometer to check the temperature about once an hour. Expect six or seven hours of baking time.

Remove the baking sheets from the oven and let the links cool to room temperature. If necessary wipe the links with paper towels to remove excess liquefied fat.

The Pepperoni may be stored in the refrigerator for a few months in Ziploc® bags or it can be vacuum sealed and refrigerated or frozen for longer storage. Simply cut the links from each other using scissors where the casing was twisted before packaging them.

After opening and cutting the casing of a pepperoni sausage to eat some, any remaining section is best stored in the refrigerator with the cut end wrapped in plastic wrap.

Enjoy!

Notes:

Processing considerations:

The reason you cut up the pork fat before grinding it and chill the venison and pork fat before mixing them together is because the two will bind better this way. This is an important part of the process. Also, if you mix the Kosher salt (not the pink salt) in with the venison before grinding it that will assure very good binding later between the meat and the fat (myosin protein weakening from exposure to salt increases the water-holding capacity of raw meat and that influences its juiciness and tenderness).

Pink Curing Salt #1 description:

All pink tinted crystals of meat curing agents have the same sodium nitrite concentration, which is 6.25%.

They are sold under various names like Prague Powder # 1, Insta-Cure, and Modern Cure. They are all the same.

The pink color is not what gives the meat a reddish hue - that is done by the curing process and by seasoning ingredients like paprika.

After the meat has been cured and cooked, it will have a longer shelf life than uncured cooked meat.

Use one teaspoon of pink curing salt #1 per 5 pounds of meat and fat combined.

Wear latex or nitrile gloves when handling pink curing salt #1 or any product containing sodium nitrite as it can be absorbed through skin and it is quite poisonous when used improperly. Also, putting too much of it into the meat to be cured creates a poisonous product that can kill humans when the cured meat eaten.