Monday, 19 May 2025

Pepperoni Sausage Experiment

Pepperoni sausage is an American semi dry fermented sausage typically made of pork and or beef. Peperoni is seasoned with paprika and aromatic herbs, has a soft texture, is slightly smoky, and bright red in color. It is a popular pizza topping and a snack cold meat.

Pepperoni

80/20 lean and pork fat

30 g salt per KG

2.5 g Cure #1 about 1/2 tsp per KG

5 g sugar - 5.0 g about 1 tsp per KG

3 g black pepper ground, about 1½ tsp per KG

8 g sweet paprika ground, about 4 tsp per KG

2.5 g anise seeds ground; about 1 tsp per KG

2 g allspice ground; about 1 tsp per KG

2 g cayenne pepper about 1 tsp per KG

2 cloves fresh Garlic per KG

2g Fennel seeds per KG

1/3 cup Red wine per KG


Chop meat in small cubes

Mix ingredients into slurry and mix with meat

Leaver in fridge overnight

Mince coarse then fine blade

Fill casing in sausage filler.

Ferment at room temp for 24 hours.

After fermentation smoke the pepperoni for 3 hours at 65C.

Check internal temp of pepperoni.

Place pepperoni in a drying chamber fovernight.

Cryovac



Overnight marinade in spice mix

Minced twice

Natural Casings

Pepperoni left at room temp for 24 hours to ferment.

Smoked at 65 c
30 minutes
3 hours
Cool overnight
Cryovac

Results: Good, not great. The pepperoni is well spiced and tastes like pepperoni but lacks the strong tangy flavour of a good fermented sausage. Meat will naturally ferment when left at room temperature, but I think next time I will use a starter culture to accelerate this process and hopefully result in a better sausage.

A starter culture (available from sausage supply places online) and some glucose to feed it will be better for the fermentation stage of this sausage’s creation.

This starter culture is used to induce good natural bacteria into the meat mix during the fermentation stage. Inducing good bacteria helps ward off bad bacteria from developing in your meat in the early stages of curing. It is a slower culture, ideal for salami and other Italian meat recipes.


Tuesday, 6 May 2025

Skin Cancer

Skin cancer is a disease where abnormal skin cells grow uncontrollably, often due to overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. The three main types of skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and melanoma. 

I had a Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) it is the second most common type of skin cancer, originating from the flat cells (squamous cells) in the outer layer of the skin if left untreated, it can spread to other parts of the body.

Surgery is the most common treatment. Non melanoma skin cancers are almost always removed and in my case the surrounding tissue needed to be removed to make sure that all of the cancerous cells have been taken.

Too much sun. I hope I never see this shit again.

The culprit.

The planned excavation.

The outcome.
Endone is my friend.

1 week after surgery.

16 days after surgery with stitches out.


Six Weeks after surgery