Homemade Bratwurst Recipe

This homemade bratwurst recipe is very close to what you would expect to get if you had a fresh bratwurst served to you in Germany.

At least that's what I've been told by a friend who actually has the experience to be able to accurately make the comment.

Bratwurst (and lots of other German sausage) is often made with emulsified meat. That can be hard to do in the home kitchen, but can be approximated by grinding the meat and spice mixture very finely in a food processor.

To emulsify the bratwurst, the meat is ground through the fine plate of a sausage grinder, mixed with the spices and other ingredients, and then run through the food processor in small batches (adding water as needed) until a paste-like consistency is accomplished.

This isn't difficult to do, but it can be time consuming if you are making more than about 5 lbs. of sausage.

I find I can get a very respectable product just by grinding the meat several times through the finest plate on my meat grinder.

The texture of your finished homemade bratwurst won't be the same as the ones you buy in the store, but the quality and taste will be far superior to anything you can get at the mega-mart.

Recipe

4 lbs. 80% lean pork shoulder (Boston butt)

1 lb veal or beef

2 tablespoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons ground mace

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup cold milk

2 whole eggs, beaten

1 cup non-fat dry milk powder (as a binder)

Trim the pork and beef, cut it all into 1 inch cubes, and grind it twice through the fine plate of your sausage grinder.
Combine the spices in a 1 quart container and mix with the 1 cup of cold milk and the beaten eggs.
Pour the spice, milk, and egg combination into the ground meat and mix thoroughly for at least 2 minutes. Use your hands for mixing to assure even distribution.
Add the milk powder to the mixture and combine it all thoroughly with your hands. At this point you can pass the finished sausage mixture once more through the meat grinder if you so choose.

Once the sausage is fully mixed, stuff it right away into 32-35 mm hog or collagen casings and refrigerate or freeze immediately.

This sausage can be smoked, but that isn't traditional. If you do choose to smoke it, be sure to add 1 level teaspoon of Instacure or Prague Powder #1 to each 5 lbs. of meat mixture.

You can find further instruction on smoking sausage by Clicking Here