Braunschweiger

• Rinse and flush your fabric lined Hog Bung casing. Turn it inside out. You want the fabric on the inside and the natural hog bung on the outside.

Phase 1: Grinding the Meat

• Clean your meat of any arteries, sinew, or unwanted parts. Separate the meat (including the ham) and the fat into 2 piles. Chill your meat and fat. The temp of your meat and fat should be below 34f (1.1c)
• I just want to interject right here to remind you to sharpen the grinder knife and plate. If either one of these are dull it will produce a subpar grind and could ruin the texture of your emulsified sausage.
• You are going to be grinding your meat and fat separately during this first step. The first grind will be on a 10mm plate. The second grind will be on a 6mm plate and if you want to make your job even easier a third grind on a 4.5mm or 3mm plate would be great. Rechill your meat between grinds. You always want the temp of the meat and fat to be below 34f (1.1c). This is ultra important.

Phase 2: Protein Extraction

• Another interjection. Make sure the blades on your food processor are razor sharp. If they are not, you will "whip" the meat instead of chopping it and that will produce a sausage with an undesirable pillowy or fluffy texture.
• In your food processor (with sharp blades) add the meat, the spices (not the binder) and 1/3 of the crushed ice. Chop your meat till it becomes a smooth paste. The temperature needs to stay under 45f (7.2c). After several times chopping and scraping the meat off the side of the walls I usually add another 1/3 of my ice and continue chopping. The end result should be a smooth meat paste.

Phase 3: Emulsification

• This is the step where it all comes together. The fat does not need to be partially frozen here. Just cold fat is fine.
• Add the cold fat and the binder to the food processor. Continue chopping for another 30 seconds. The temperature of your meat farce should not exceed 55f (13c). This is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT.
• Add the last 1/3 crushed ice and chop till your meat paste is homogenous. The meat temperature needs to remain below 55F (13c). If it gets too hot the emulsion will break. If at any time during this process you see that the meat mixture is heating up too quickly, you can always chill it in the freezer and pick up where you left off once the meat has been rechilled.
• The end result should be a meat paste that is very sticky and the meat and fat should look like one mass, very homogenous.
• Stuff your farce (meat paste) into the sausage casing.
• If you used a cure accelerator you can cook your sausage immediately. If you did not, then you will have to let your sausage rest in the refrigerator overnight before cooking.

How to cook the Braunschweiger

• Regardless of the method you choose to use to cook this sausage it should be smoked first. So, if you plan on cooking in the oven or sous vide then I would cold smoke this sausage for 5-6 hours before cooking.
• SMOKING | Set your smoker to 165f (73.8c) or 175f (79.4c). Add a tray of boiling water in the smoker for increased humidity. Apply your favorite smoke. Cook till your sausages reach the desired internal temp.
• SOUS VIDE | Place the sausage in a vacuum sealed bag and cook it in a water bath. Your immersion circulator should be set to 145f (62.7c) and you will cook your sausages for 3.5 hours. If you have a very large diameter sausage like mortadella (100mm) then you might want to cook that one for 4 hours. Once finished, cool in an ice water bath. I generally cook my sausage sous vide for 1 hour for every inch that the sausage is wide.
• POACHING | Heat a pot of water to 165f – 176F (73.8 – 80c) and poach the sausage until you hit the desired internal temperature.
• Once cooked, cool the sausage down and refrigerate overnight. Enjoy