Clean your meat of any silver skin, sinew, arteries and cut into small strips or cubes. Place in the freezer for an hour or until the temp reaches 32f – 34F.
Grind your very chilled meat on a medium plate
Prepare all of your seasonings and water. Add it to your chilled meat.
Mix the meat till it becomes very tacky. If you grab a small handful it will stick to your hand if you hold your hand upside down.
Stuff your farce into the sausage casings and twist into links
For the fine textured Bratwurst
Cut you meat and fat into small pieces and place in the freezer to chill. The temp of your meat and fat should be below 34f (1.1c).
You will Grind your meat and fat separately. Grind on a medium plate (6mm). Make sure your meat is chilled at every step in this process.
In your food processor (with sharp blades) add the meat, phosphates, all of the spices, and 1/3 of the ice-cold water. Chop your meat till it becomes a smooth batter. The temperature needs to remain below 45f (7.2c) through this initial chopping.
After chopping for 20-30 seconds add another 1/3 of your ice-cold water.
Once your mixture has turned into a smooth meat batter add the very chilled fat. Chop for another 30 seconds then add the rest of your water.
Continue chopping till you have a smooth homogenous paste. The meat temperature needs to remain below 55F (13c) through this second chopping process. If it gets too hot the emulsion will break.
Stuff your farce into the sausage casings and twist into links
To Cook your Bratwurst (either one)
To Poach:Heat a pot of water to 176F and poach the sausage till the internal reaches 155f (68.3c)
To Grill:Grill your sausages on indirect heat till the internal temp reaches 155f (68.3)
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6 thoughts on “German Bratwurst”
Michi
Thanks for that! Minor corrections:
The water in the recipe above belongs with the fine version, not the coarse one.
The coarse recipe says to cook the meat before forming it into patties. Surely, you mean to put it into casings first and then cook it.
LOL. Thanks for catching the cooking instructions. As far as the water goes it’s correct. The course recipe has water as an optional ingredient at 60ml (1/4 cup per kilo) whereas the fine sausage has 200ml of water added to the farce. If you give this a shot, let me know how it turns out.
I make Bratwurst quite often, both coarse and emulsified. Probably the most iconic German Bratwurst is Thüringer Bratwurst, closely followed by Nürnberger Bratwurst. Having grown up in Munich, I believe I can speak with some authority on the subject 😉
Thanks again for Celebrate Sausage. This is awesome, please do another season.
Thanks for that! Minor corrections:
The water in the recipe above belongs with the fine version, not the coarse one.
The coarse recipe says to cook the meat before forming it into patties. Surely, you mean to put it into casings first and then cook it.
LOL. Thanks for catching the cooking instructions. As far as the water goes it’s correct. The course recipe has water as an optional ingredient at 60ml (1/4 cup per kilo) whereas the fine sausage has 200ml of water added to the farce. If you give this a shot, let me know how it turns out.
Thanks, Eric, I stand corrected 🙂
I make Bratwurst quite often, both coarse and emulsified. Probably the most iconic German Bratwurst is Thüringer Bratwurst, closely followed by Nürnberger Bratwurst. Having grown up in Munich, I believe I can speak with some authority on the subject 😉
Thanks again for Celebrate Sausage. This is awesome, please do another season.
LOL. This year has been a blast!! Looking forward to start working on season 4😁
No milk (powder)? Or another binder?
you can if you want. I know in the emulsified version “phosphates” were used