Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Definition of Pepperoni:

Pepperoni sausage is a spicy Italian-American variety of dry salami often referred as ‘Stick’ due to its appearance. It is a fermented dry sausage that is formulated to have about 28% to 32% fat based on 68% to 70% yield.
Pepperoni is mostly made of a combination of pork and beef. The maximum amount of beef that can be added to be term ‘pepperoni’ and not ‘beef pepperoni’ is 55%. However, most processors used a minimum amount of 60% pork.
Paprika, instead of cayenne pepper, is used in commercial pepperoni to obtain a desirable red colour. Pepperoni is used frequently as a pizza topping, however, to prevent drying of pepperoni during baking of pizza; ‘pizza pepperoni’ is used. These pepperonis are larger in diameter and less dry compared to average pepperoni.

Process making of Pepperoni:

Fermented dry sausage; pepperoni, is manufactured by tempering and breaking the raw meat materials (pork and beef); formulating the meat with added cure, starter culture, salt and seasoning mixture; stuffing the product into hydrated casings, fermenting, heating and drying.

1. Size reduction and Blending
2. Addition of non-meat ingredients
3. Stuffing
4. Fermentation
5. Heating
6. Drying
7. Smoking (optional)

Size Reduction and Blending

Raw materials are often frozen, thus these meat blocks need to be tempered to desired temperature, and then reduced in size by frozen block grinders or chopping in a ‘silent’ chopper. Fresh meats must be chilled to designated temperature before adding into frozen materials. After which, meat mixture will then undergo size reduction. Carbon dioxide might be added to control meat mix temperature.
Non-meat ingredients such as the cure mix, seasoning mix (with or without salt), and starter culture are then weighed according to the batch size. Starter culture is added directly. If dry culture is used, dilute it in water to ensure even distribution.
Sausage castings are also hydrated with water to allow flexibility.

Stuffing

It is important to maintain cold temperatures and avoid fat and protein smearing. Usually, a vacuum stuffer is employed, which removes oxygen, providing for better curing and concentrating the product going into the casing. For most dried fermented sausages, fibrous, collagen or natural casings are utilized.
At this point, the meat mix is in the casing. Excessive fat smearing will breakdown fats, enhancing oxidation and retard drying. This is usually visible under the casing. Excessive dissolved protein smear results in meat fiber orientation and is the major cause of “cupping” in pepperoni on a pizza.

Fermentation

Fermentation from the starter culture will occur once the product temperature is elevated. A relatively high humidity (RH) of 85-90% is preferred as it enhances fermentation. It also helps to keep product surface slightly moist during fermentation and prior to subsequent drying. High RH also prevents premature and uneven drying on product surface.
It is critically important to monitor the fermentation for the proper conditions and product pH. A critical control point (CCP) is the predetermined time interval, under designated conditions, for the product to reach the desired pH, prior to subsequent heating and/or drying.
Monitoring of Positive Staphylococci should be done on product at the end of the fermentation cycle, since the potential toxins produced may survive further heating that can destroy the responsible microorganisms.

Heating and Drying

Intermediate heating (48.9-60°C) or fully cooking (68.3-71.1°C) both provide a means of destroying pathogens potentially present in meat to achieve the desired destruction. Applying heat to fermented products is not always desirable due to the resulting flavor and texture changes; so many processors have arrived at intermediate heating schedules (time/temperature) that meet both objectives for destroying potential pathogens while preserving desired product characteristics. Under whichever conditions, heat treatments must be sufficient to destroy these pathogens; Trichinae, Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, S. aureus, Listeria monocytogenes.

References:

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/meatscience/sausage.html
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/FSRE_SS_6DriedMeatsProcessing.pdf