Homemade Bratwurst!
November 6th, 2011Easy & Full of Life-Giving Grease
I took on a new challenge today. Bratwurst.
This is a wonderful sausage; I figured it was worth it to make my own. Today on the way home from church I picked up some cheap veal and pork, plus sage and a six-pack of amazing Dogfish Head Raison d’Etre beer. I hate to say it, but that beer is as good as my own brew.
Turned out I did not need sage. I found a bunch of recipes on the web, and here is what I ended up doing:
INGREDIENTS
5 pounds veal and pork, mixed
20 g salt
42 g sugar
1/2 a nutmeg or nut or meg or whatever it’s called
3 g celery salt
4 g black pepper
6 g ground coriander
3 g dry marjoram (this is like half a small bottle)
2 teaspoons garlic powder
3/4 cup lard
1/4 cup butter
Sorry for the weird units. I’m in a hurry.
I ground it all up and fried test pieces in the microwave until I was satisfied. I left the coriander out, so I mixed it into one of my one-pound loaves, tested it, and found it really mattered, so I broke up all the loaves and mixed it in.
The garlic should be fresh, but this is kind of an offhand effort, so I grabbed powdered garlic on impulse. I think you should use maybe 9 pressed cloves.
I had to grind the nutmeg in a coffee grinder. It would have taken two years with a grater.
It was too lean at first, hence the delightful El Cochinito lard and the butter. ALWAYS sneak butter into a recipe if you can get away with it. ALWAYS.
This is a good starting point for your own efforts. You can add all sorts of stuff to bratwurst. Real German recipes include stuff like ginger and mace. There are different varieties. Naturally, I’m thinking about powdered homegrown cayennes, and how about addiing some Champagne to the mix?
I am not a great fan of sausage casings. I don’t see the point, really. They don’t hurt anything, but they certainly don’t help, so I don’t go out of my way to get them.
I’m going to fry a big wad of this, and I’m going to serve it with sauteed onions on a toasted buttered baguetty sort of roll, with Mister Mustard, my all-time favorite. It will be amazing.
This beer is very nice. I highly recommend it. Pretty strong, however. I am using the backspace key quite a bit right now.
You can also mix bread and eggs into bratwurst.
Maybe Randy from Cold Fury will give this a shot and tell us what happens.
There are three reasons I’m keen on making sausage. 1) It’s cheap. 2) You can do anything you want to the recipe. 3) Sausage is best when you, yourself, can choose nice, fresh meat. I usually like meat that’s nearly rotten, but for sausage, super-fresh seems to be the way to go, and if you make it yourself, you can also avoid boar taint, which is the kiss of sausage death.
Enjoy.
More
This was really good, but now that I’ve eaten it, I think a softer bread might be a smart idea. A huge sandwich with a hard crust can scrape your mouth up pretty good.
I threw a 10″-long mass of sausage into a cast iron skillet and fried it in butter, with piles of onions in there with it. Toward the end, I hit the onions with salt, paprika, and pepper. I think the right way to do this involves a bigger skillet, because you really need to be able to dedicate 2/3 of the pan to onions. Minimum.
The sausage was tasty and full of excellent fat. Very nice. I didn’t miss the casings at all.
November 7th, 2011 at 6:58 AM
It sound awesome, but I’m currently on a Kosher kick, working on recipes I can feed my parents.
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Hows this inspiration? Larb. Yes, the national dish of Thailand. Ground chicken thighs (for a bit more fat and robust flavor) with fresh pressed garlic, lime juice and chili paste hot enough to sear your colon at 50 yards. Jungle Jim’s has fresh Thai chili’s, I may even go so far as to get my heat that way instead of the chili paste I normally buy.
November 7th, 2011 at 9:15 AM
Having made a lot of sausage in my day (from Chorizo to andouile to italian and polish) a brat recipe is something we never tried. Locally up here in the north the local brats are outstanding but finding a good andouille is another story. If you want to sample the very best brats in the world go here to compare.
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http://www.miesfelds.com/brats.htm
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Order their ‘Grand Champion’, you will not be disappointed.
November 7th, 2011 at 9:58 AM
Steve, could you add our family to your prayers? My husband just found out that he will be losing his job as the factory where he works will be closing. We don’t know when or how long he has, the company has plans to have everyone out by May of 2012.
I am trying to stay strong. I have been asking the Lord for a while to help him in his career, so I feel that this will be for the best and a better job is out there for him. But this came out of the blue and we are rather stunned!
Thank you & God Bless!
November 7th, 2011 at 11:36 AM
Larb? Is that the same thing they sell as “larp” down here? It sounds a lot like “lard,” so I can’t help but be prejudiced in favor of it.
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When I started looking for brat recipes, I found there were tons of different brat concepts out there. It seems like nutmeg plays a very big role in creating the basic brat flavor. I think next time I’ll use a coarser grind.
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I will pray, Heather. For what it’s worth, I think alms, especially helping the Jewish poor, are tied to personal prosperity.
November 7th, 2011 at 1:27 PM
Yep, larb and larp are pretty much the same dish. And I was mistaken about it’s origin. It’s actually a Laotian/northen Thailand dish. The national dish of Thailand is Pad Thai, which would also serve as a sausage inspiration quite nicely, since the flavors are somewhat similar.
November 7th, 2011 at 8:20 PM
Isn’t sausage or brat, whatever, without a casing called “meatloaf.” Sounds a lot like I would make one.
For Heather, and I will write her personally later, you must believe there is something better to come. It has happened to two of my nephews. One lasted for 2 years, but they had seen the famine coming so to speak and were prepared. In both cases they almost had the big one and were shocked when the offers were withdrawn, but God prevailed and within weeks better career jobs appeared. God really does know best.
November 7th, 2011 at 11:45 PM
Your homemade sausage on your homemade pizza might just exceed the physics limitations of known science.
Plus-lightspeed neutrons would be jealous of such.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
November 8th, 2011 at 10:29 AM
Ruth, surely you’re familiar with bulk sausage. All of the flavor and fun of link sausage, without the aggravation. Far as I know, it’s the only kind they make in Appalachia.
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Jim, I tried to to that last week, but I overcooked the sausage. Marv and Maynard benefited from that error.
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It’s amazing how liberating an electric meat grinder is. There are so many things you can make with it.
November 8th, 2011 at 3:35 PM
Made 50 # of brats for Memorial day. Marjoran and nutmeg are key.
I’ll pray for you and yours Heather