Hormel Fresh Foodservice Pepperoni

[Zing]

A year ago, I tried to find out from Hormel the difference between their sliced retail, club pack, and foodservice pepperoni. My emails went unanswered and a rep from the retail side wouldn't tell me or didn't know herself. This effort is in support of our efforts to recreate Shakey's pizza, and we are fairly certain Shakey's corporate restaurants are currently using Hormel foodservice pepperoni.

Hormel's foodservice website notes that a number of their products in this line are "fresh", and state it must be refrigerated. The retail products are apparently shelf stable, though most supermarkets sell them out of a refrigerated case. In particular, I have bought the three pound club pack "pillow packs". This label does not indicate the product must be refrigerated before opening.

In early August I bought a 12.5 pound bag of 16 slice to the ounce "fresh" pepperoni, Hormel product number 31763, for about $35 from a foodservice cash-and-carry. I immediately packed most of it into plastic sandwich bags, 45 slices to a bag, and froze it. My goal was to see how the fresh product performed on our Shakey's knockoff crusts, and how long the product would remain usable. I used a lot of the pepperoni so far to make pepperoni and cheese/club/turkey/BMT etc. sandwiches. On the pizzas, it seemed to perform slightly better than the shelf-stable retail variety, possibly because the slices were thinner. There appeared to be less grease. They are a dead ringer for the pepperoni used on our samples of genuine Shakey's pizza.

In early December (or 4 months later), the first batch could no longer be used for sandwiches because they had the taste of stale deli salami. The second batch, packed earlier after opening the bag and stored in a colder part of the frezer, is still usable. I always remember the retail pillow packages of Hormel pepperoni still usable  after freezing them for four months, even with pillow pack opened and tightly resealed.

So this is my experience with using what the pizzerias use. Still looking for what the differences in formula and processing are between Hormel's foodservice and retail pepperoni are.

[Knead2know]

....  My goal was to see how the fresh product performed on our Shakey's knockoff crusts.... 

Shakey clone crust!  Do you have a recipe for such a thing that you'd be willing to share?  If so you're going to make my very happy

[Zing]

Shakey clone crust!  Do you have a recipe for such a thing that you'd be willing to share?  If so you're going to make my very happy

I use a lot of the recipes found in the 10 or so Shakey's threads in both the American and Cracker Crust sections. The situation is made more complicated because different recipes were used at different times in different places in the Shakey's chain. The search function will find them for you.

[TXCraig1]

There is more than one formulation of both retail and foodservice pepperoni, and there are no direct matches. In the closest matches, if I remember correctly, there are differences in seasoning and coloring. Perhaps other differences as well.

Call Hormel in Austin, MN and ask for the product manager for foodservice pepperoni.

FWIW, the foodservice rep is likely be a better source of information than the retail rep. Retail reps don't typically get into the technical details of products the way foodservice reps do (if they are good). The foodservice rep won't know the answer either, but probably has a better relationship with someone who does.

[Jackitup]

In early December (or 4 months later), the first batch could no longer be used for sandwiches because they had the taste of stale deli salami. The second batch, packed earlier after opening the bag and stored in a colder part of the frezer, is still usable. I always remember the retail pillow packages of Hormel pepperoni still usable  after freezing them for four months, even with pillow pack opened and tightly resealed.

A note on freezing "sliced" pepperoni. Best to vac pac when freezing. In a ziplock bag, or even tightly wrapped in plastic pepperoni seems to oxidise faster than other stuff and gets an off taste and color sooner. When I've vac packed with my brother 'chamber sealer' the stuff lasts for several months with little loss in quality.

jon

[Trinity]

I was wondering why there are no ham TV Dinners so I went google'n. The short version is that prepared pork does not like to be frozen.