Tammy's Recipes

A spicy dense cured pepperoni recipe. This recipe is very easy to make and has that authentic pepperoni taste.

2 pounds lean ground beef (85% lean or leaner)
2 teaspoons liquid smoke flavoring
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons mustard seed
1 1/2 or 2 teaspoons crushed fennel seed*
1 or 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper**
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 heaping teaspoons Morton's Tender Quick curing salt

1. Combine seasonings and meat and mix thoroughly, using hands. Cover and refrigerate for 48-72 hours.

2. 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.

3. 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.

*I crushed mine with a rolling pin; it wasn't extremely crushed, but that's okay: it doesn't need to be very fine.

**Use more if you like hotter pepperoni; use less if you want a milder flavor

This is a delicious flavorful pepperoni recipe! We think it tastes very very similar to the Hormel (brand) turkey pepperoni we used to purchase.

The texture is also like the Hormel turkey pepperoni: lean and dense. Thinly sliced, this pepperoni will add lots of flavor to your pizza or sub without adding grease.

Before I created this recipe, we made the Homemade Beef Pepperoni recipe which was submitted to this website by one of our guest chefs. While we really enjoyed the results, we both felt that the distinctive "pepperoni flavor" was missing.

Therefore we altered the seasonings and slightly adjusted the baking time. We couldn't possibly be more pleased with the end result! I thinly sliced the pepperoni and froze it to use for pizza. We are definitely not going to spend $3 on a little bag of Hormel turkey pepperoni when we can make this recipe instead!!

My rating: 10/10