Bratwurst (Pork, 75/25)

Ingredients

• Lean pork shoulder — 750 g
• Pork back fat — 250 g
• Salt — 18 g
• Black pepper, ground — 2.5 g
• Mace, ground — 1 g
• Ginger, ground — 0.75 g
• Allspice (ground) — 0.5 g
• Lemon zest — 0.5 g
• Cardamom, ground — 0.25 g
• Ice water
• Phosphate (white powder, optional)
• Casings (pork casings caliber 28–30 or sheep casings 22–24)

Steps

1. Prepare meat and fat: Cut pork shoulder and pork back fat into suitable cubes and freeze briefly to make grinding easier; if necessary, pre-freeze lean meat and fat separately as recommended in the video.
2. Grind spices: Finely grind or rub salt, black pepper, mace, ginger, allspice, lemon zest, and cardamom to create a uniform spice mixture.
3. Grind meat: Pass the partially frozen meat and fat through the meat grinder (choose the appropriate grinding plate depending on the desired texture of the sausage meat). For very fine sausage meat, grind twice or use a food processor/cutter if necessary.
4. Prepare the sausage meat: Thoroughly mix the ground meat with the spice mixture and knead vigorously until the sausage meat binds. During this process, add phosphate as needed and gradually add ice water to achieve a stable bind; the temperature of the mixture should ideally remain below 14 °C (max. 16 °C).
5. Prepare casings: Soak casings in lukewarm water for 20–30 minutes, rinse several times, and pull them onto the stuffing horn so they are moist and pliable when stuffing.
6. Stuff and twist sausages: Slowly fill the casings with the sausage meat, do not overfill, and ensure even pressure during filling; then twist the sausages into desired lengths (practice twisting, do not pull too hard to prevent the casings from bursting).
7. Optional: Blanching (Pre-cooking): The sausages can be blanched for shaping and shelf life — simmer in lightly salted water at about 70–75 °C (small sausages ≈20 minutes, larger ones ≈30 minutes); start at 75 °C when adding, the temperature will drop to around 70 °C after a short time, as described in the video.
8. Storage and consumption: Store stuffed sausages in the refrigerator for up to one week or freeze them; freshly stuffed sausages can be fried, grilled, or further processed as desired.