How to Make German Sausage

Fresh Bratwurst Your Way!

There's a long tradition of sausage-making in Germany, with varieties from bratwurst to knockwurst to bludwust and more. Although there are many good commercial sausages on the market, making your own German sausage at home gives you the freedom to adjust meat types, coarseness of grind, spices, casing type and size to create a sausage that's traditionally German yet distinctly your own. For purposes of this article, we will discuss making fresh bratwurst, a classic German sausage.

Things You'll Need

• Stand mixer with grinder and sausage stuffer attachments
• Knife
• 2 bowls
• Butcher's string
• 3 feet of small sausage casing
• 1 1/2 lb. cubed lean pork butt
• 1 lb. cubed veal
• 1/2 lb. cubed pork fat
• 1/4 tsp. allspice
• 1/2 tsp. caraway seeds
• 1/2 tsp. marjoram
• 1 tsp. white pepper
• Salt to taste

Instructions

How to make Bratwurst

1. Cube the veal, pork butt and pork fat and add the spices and salt. Place the meat in a bowl and allow it to sit covered in the refrigerator overnight to allow the spices to season the meat.

2. Grind the meat coarsely, using the meat grinder attachment on the stand mixer. Regrind the meat with the fine blade in the grinder.

3. Soak the sausage casing material in a bowl of warm water to soften it.

4. Tie off one end of the casing with butcher's twine.

5. Replace the meat grinder attachment with the sausage stuffer attachment and slip the casing material onto the stuffing horn all the way up to the end tie.

6. Turn on the mixer and begin to feed the ground meat into the stuffer attachment with one hand while controlling the rate at which the casing is being stuffed with the other hand.

7. Continue the stuffing process, tying the sausage at regular intervals with twine to make links, until all of the meat has been stuffed.

8. Put the uncovered sausage in the refrigerator overnight. Fresh bratwurst can be pan fried, grilled or smoked.

References

• Basic Sausage Making Process
• Bratwurst Recipe
• The Art and Practice of Sausage Making