semi-OT: Making Bratwurst; a Sausage Walk-thru

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

No recipes or step-by-step method here, but just a picture essay on the overall process. I had a few comments from people re: the Eggfest sausages I did like "someday I will tackle that myself".

Well, it's not difficult, it just takes a little time and a little attention to process. Other than that, it's pretty easy. And I don't think it is possible to exaggerate this, it will be the BEST sausage you ever taste. I offer this only as a little window into the process if anyone is on-the-fence and tempted to try it but not sure what's entailed.

This'll be the third year I think we've done brats for the 4th. what's involved:



Cubed 3 pounds of pork shoulder (front), and grabbed a 1 pound package of ground veal (rear) when I was at the grocery store. In the bowl at left is a mix of nothing more than salt, white pepper, ground nutmeg and ground ginger.

Next step is simply to mix that up and let it chill again in the fridge.



I had forgotten my "secret ingredient" the other day, and so while the stuff was chilling, hit the grocery store. I'd called ahead and had the butcher put aside my secret ingredient:



Three pounds of pork fat. No, i don't use all three pounds, I freeze what's left. At the eggfest, I had a little sign out with all the ingredients listed. The only one I left off was "Pork Fat". heh heh heh. Can't imagine why... By rights it should be BACK fat, but it's hard enough getting just pork fat itself. That also got cubed up (one pound of it) and added to the chilling ingredients. Notice it says "No Charge". It pays to talk up the butcher.



Half the folks here will think that's disgusting. The other half will think it beautiful...

While it was all getting good and cold, I took a break. Polar Cola (we call it "tonic" up here).



As a kid, we had all the flavors. Birch Beer (my favorite, and maybe regional, northeast US?), orange, cola, root beer, grape, sarsaparilla... All with cane sugar (no corn syrup). This was vanilla cream (like cream soda). Had no birch beer, sold out. Birch Beer is faintly cool like mint, but most closely resembles root beer.

Back at it....
Grind everything into a chilled bowl (ideally a bowl set within a bowl of ice). You want the fat to keep its integrity or it will break when cooked and the sausage will be mealy.



Meat goes back into the fridge while I prep the casings. These are natural hog casings (um, intestines), packed shriveled in salt. I rinse two lengths (about 7 to 8 feet long each), then set them in a bowl of water while i fill each one from the tap, rinsing their insides.



With the meat chilled again and very cold (otherwise you would have it in a bowl nested in another bowl with ice), paddle it good for a minute or so on low.



This develops the bind I think, the proteins and meat get thready and net-like, holding together. I don't have a shot, but after the bind, I mixed in a cup of chilled heavy cream and two lightly beaten eggs. For about another minute on medium speed to develop the texture. Though this isn't really an emulsified sausage, it really has a nice softer, less grainy, zero-gristle, fine texture. Texture was the number one thing people commented on, believe it or not, at the eggfest. That and the searing stomach cramps (I kid... hey, I'm a kidder).

Back into the fridge ("cold" is the order of the day). Since I had to build my new stuffer, the time in the fridge passed quickly. You don't need one of these, but it helps if you are working alone.



The Kitchen Aid will do five pound batches decently. Uses the same fixture as the grinder, but replaces a stuffing tube for the grinder. But the K/A is a two-person stuffing job, and takes about 45 minutes for five pounds of sausage. I used this hydraulic stuffer myself and did all five pounds in 20 minutes. I think it'd have done it in 5, if i had the cajones to turn the water on full blast.

HEre she be, cruising along.



In the end, I got about 18 five to six-inch brats, about an inch and a quarter in diameter.

This is a simple classic bratwurst recipe, from "Charcuterie" by Ruhlman and Polcyn. Not to put too fine a point on it, but my absolute favorite sausage by far (until next week)

There's always some left over. I had this one browned in cast-iron, together with another Cream soda... It's skinless, since this is what is left in the stuffer.

Good Eats

mad max beyond eggdome

really nice pictoral jeff!!!! thanks!!

Mickey

That sir will be reposted and reposted often.
Very good job and thank you.

WWSis

I will vouch.. It IS THE best sausage I've ever had -- I was lucky enough to be cooking ( and snacking) beside him last weekend! :P I feel bad now, though... Had I known what a process it was, I would have savored each bite even longer!

Mainegg

Jeff! what a treat! I get home tonight and on the step is a box from Amazon my Charcuterie Book came :laugh: pic me doing the happy dance with arms full of laptop, book and two bags of groceries and two little white dogs just wanting in the house!! so tonight over dinner I will be reading this and driving Neil nuts while we dine on WWIS cook from the fest LOL beef and onions are heating in the wok now on the egg. thank goodness I did not get out to sample much :( I would be broke getting all the food and toys required to make it all!
and Jeff it was the best I have ever had really! that is a great post and thanks for sharing more details I will be bugging you I am sure!

Florida Grillin Girl

I think it's beautiful - the pork fat, and the sausage!

Faith

Little Steven

Every time I have done sausage it has been too lean. Did you trim the shoulder considerably? Any idea on the overall fat to meat ratio?
Really like your sink!

Steve

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

i sent my wife out (she was grocery shopping for the 4th) with weird instructions like "3 pounds of boneless pork butt if they have it, other wise four and a half pounds bone-in". the store used to carry whole butt and picnics, but sometimes they split them, sometimes they put them out bonelss.

she found three pounds of boneless, and in that pic you can see i did no more than cube it (1"). leave all the fat on. there's probably at least 20% fat in the shoulder. then another 20% from the veal. that pound of fat means, then, that i have one pound of pure fat to every four pounds of meat. that's be 20% if the other meat had no fat at all, but it does. we are easily close to 25% fat.

i haven't read ruhlman's other book "ratio",but in charcuterie he talks quite a bit about the master ratio of fat to lean in sausage. usually 25% or more.

i like that sink, too. the faucet is one i put on, replacing a crappy mid-70s thing. the original wall-mounted faucet was similar to mine, but we have the potfiller swing-arm top, which reaches each side board.

if you like the sink, you'd love the bath. all surface mounted shower fittings in nickel silver, big old 10" rain head at 8 feet. house is 20s era....

BENTE

thanks do you have a better shot of the stuffer? i never seen where the mixttrue goes or comes from before it gets to the casings..

never seen one of them water stuffers :blink:

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

i think i'm having a heart attack just from eating two of those brats in one week's time.... :laugh: :ermm:

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

it's a fun book. pencil drawings are great, too. they don't talk down to you, and they aren't obscure either. nice read.

you'll never need me as your duck prosciutto connection again :(

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

funny thing about cooking them in a big reel is that in cutting them, all the gorgeous fat ran out. they were still moist, but man, there wasa puddle on the ground. i think that's what yer dog tucker was eating. hahaha

got it all over my shoes (the ones your brother would never be caught dead in). fat is supposed to be good for the calfskin though. we'll see :laugh:

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

there have been a few guys that posted it through the years. just my turn to do it

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

no biggie, maximus. thx

Little Chef

Great post Stike....I am a sucker for sausage making as well. It's true....home made can NOT be beat!! Rhuelmans is a great book. Do you also have American Charcuterie, Recipes from Pig-by-the-Tail by Victoria Wise? She's got some great recipes as well.
Thanks for sharing. Hopefully it will encourage a few more folks to take the leap!

Little Steven

Rainhead at 8'. Water would be cold 'fore it got to me :laugh:

Steve

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

that nozzle end unscrews, and the meat (all five pounds) goes into the body. before you put the meat in, there's a round disc with a couple O-rings on it. that keeps the water in the rear. as the water comes in, it pushes forward steadily and squeezes the mix out the nozzle end.

I got the 5-pounder. they make a ten-pounder, and it has a clear body so you can see how much meat is in it.

click the link:>>> Hydraulic Stuffer

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

I do have the "Pig by the Tail" book. Some very wise person recommended it to me a while back. I forgot it also had some sausage recipes, and will definitely check it out. Thanks for the reminder

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

hahaha
not mine. my water heater is at 140

i know, it shouldn't be....

BENTE

cool thanks i saved this whole thread

cookn biker

Nice!! I gotta get me a stuffer. I'll be talking to my knife guy on Tuesday about ordering one. Sausage is my chocolate.

AZRP

Nice Jeff, I've made a few brats in my time too. I use the boneless butts from costco and don't add any extra fat. They come out very juicy. -RP

eenie meenie

Nice tutorial on sausage making. The photos were nice. I will look forward to your cranking up the water pressure during your next sausage making episode. I want to see you stuff 5 lbs in 5 minutes, lol.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

be careful. as you saw, eating these things can turn you into a pale fat orange 'thing' :laugh:

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

nice pricey stuffer there. you could go into biz selling sausage!

do you include veal in your brats?

i would imagine you could leave out a lot of fat and still have juicy sausages, since pork butt is pretty fatty as is. the veal is supposed to be lean. so four pounds of meat, a pound of it lean, perhaps that's why ruhlman adds the fat like he does.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

what was funny was that it took a while to build pressure, so that you were inclined to keep opening the tap. but then it would literally start shooting the sausage out. even when you got it going just right, after shutting the water off the sausage would keep coming for another 30 seconds. but a heckuva lot easier than the kitchen aid stuffer, by far.

AZRP

Yeah, I never used veal, prolly makes a diff. -RP

AZRP

The KA stuffer needs at least 2 people to work, impossible alone. -RP

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

knocks it into a little milder kinda category. the double grind of the veal gives it a finer texture too

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

took me an hour to do one length of casing with the KA. with my wife, we can do two in 45 minutes. still, today i did both in 20 minutes by myself, and that was my first time using the thing. quarter turn faucet was turned MAYBE ten degrees open out of 90 (full open)

Jeffersonian

Beautiful, Jeff. I've been reading Ruhlman's sausage chapters, too, and he's gotten me so worried about keeping things cold that I've decided to put it all off until cooler weather. Am I wrong to wait?