Making German Sausage

- Hausgemachte Deutsches Bratwurst -

Before I begin this post, I must warn you that if you do not bode well with photos of raw meat, you may want to skip reading this. I took pictures to document the sausage making process, so that I could remember how it all worked, and to help others learn, but many of the photos involve the grinding or handling of raw meat. So if you are vegetarian, or think these photos may bother you, you may not want to look at this post. But if that is the case, you probably won't be wanting to make homemade Bratwurst from scratch anyway. I love the photos, though; it is very human to be in touch with our food, and I believe that people should be able to stomach seeing raw meat being handled if they eat meat. It almost makes you appreciate your food a little more. 

Earlier this month, my Grandpa Weber gave me the privilege of learning about, and helping out with one of our beloved family traditions: making traditional German sausage. Grandpa makes his homemade sausage every year before Easter, and I have been asking him if I could help out with it for the past few years, because his sausage is so amazing, and it's not every day you get the chance to help make sausage from scratch. I'm not sure I know anyone else who can even do it.
So, finally this year, Grandpa let me help out with the whole process, and it was a truly wonderful experience. It took the better part of a day and a half to do all of the work. We used 50 lbs of meat, and ground it all up ourselves, so that in itself all took a few hours. On the Thursday morning, we went to Superstore to by the meat, and then the sausage making supply store out on Park St to buy sausage casings (what you stuff the sausage meat into) and freezer paper for packaging the sausage. And then Friday morning, I went over to his house, where he had already cut all of the various roasts into smaller pieces so they would fit in the meat grinder, and we were busy making the sausage well into the afternoon. It was so great to finally learn how to do it, and of course it is always lovely spending time with Grandma & Grandpa.

I hope you enjoy our photos and insight. The full recipe with directions is at the very bottom of the post.

The following recipe is the meat amount that we used, but I would recommend doing about 1/5 of this amount, so just dividing the meat measurements by 5, and then adjusting the seasonings to taste. We ended up with an enormous amount of sausage, likely more than you would need or could use, unless you want to give it to everyone you know for Christmas presents, in which case, go nuts!

Ingredients for 50 lbs of meat:  

• 65 % Pork (roasts) = 32.5 lbs
• 35% Beef (roasts) = 17.5 lbs
• 1 small smoked ham
• Sausage Casings
• Freezer Paper
• Salt & Pepper
• Allspice
• Garlic
• Cayenne Pepper
• Liquid Smoke
• 3-6 cups water, for mixing

Directions:

1. Cut up the meat into strips which will fit into the meat grinder
2. Grind the meat using the coarse blade.
3. Mix 1/3 of the meat together in a roaster, ensuring you retain the ratio between pork and beef. 
4. Season this portion of meat with 3-5 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp pepper, 2 tsp allspice, 2 tsp cayenne pepper, 3 tbsp crushed garlic or garlic powder, 3 tbsp liquid smoke, and 1 1/2 - 3 cups water. Mix this together thoroughly and fry up a little patty to check the seasonings. Adjust seasonings as necessary. 
• The water is important because it makes the meat easier to mix and dissolves the spices, but also because it helps the meat keep moist when you cook it. So, don't forget the water; it is very important!
5. For the rest of the meat, season in the same way, remembering what you had to adjust after tasting the patty. 
6. To fill the sausages, push a sausage casing onto the snout of the meat grinder, twist it closed at the end, and carefully pump the meat grinder to fill the casing. When you have enough filling for a sausage, stop the grinder, twist the casing shut, snip the filled part off of the rest, and set aside. Then twist the new end of the casing closed again, and fill up another sausage. Repeat as necessary.
7. To package, put each sausage into a ziploc bag, or freezer bag closed with a twist tie. Then cover this bag with freezer paper, and put into deep freeze. The uncooked sausages keep for about a month in the freezer, perhaps longer if you have them well sealed.