Bratwurst – The Thuringian Art

Germany is recognized for its mastery of beer, sausage, and pretzels. However, when it comes to the ‘grilled sausage’, the German state of Thuringia has the market cornered. Even packaging of bratwurst in the US often touts that the sausage was made in the “Thuringian Art”.

The word ‘bratwurst’ is, like many German words, a compound noun: ‘brat’ means to grill and ‘wurst’ means sausage. Here in Thuringia, the links are a bit shorter than one-foot long and are served in a four-inch long bread roll. It is rumored that a German once used ketchup on his bratwurst, but this is likely inaccurate – please only use mustard.

The availability of bratwurst is impressive in the summer as warm weather not only means that locals relax around a grill, but also that every grocery store will have a brat-grilling booth stationed right outside the door. This all leads to a high demand for these pork-filled sausages.

In order to make delicious bratwurst, one may be surprised at the relative simplicity of the spice bill. However, in addition to the spices, one will also need to pay attention to the meat/fat ratio and have access to a good meat grinder and some pork casing.

Recipe (for each kilogram of pork):

• 1 kilogram Pork (approximately 60% shoulder, and 40% back – shoot for a little more than 10%)
• 17 gram salt (i.e., 1.7% of the weight)
• 7 gram pepper (i.e., 0.7% of the weight)
• A heaping tablespoon of fresh garlic (i.e., a good amount)
• A tablespoon of nutmeg (i.e., an okay amount)
• A pinch of caraway (i.e., a small amount)
• A bit of emulsifier (each is different; read the instructions)
• Pork casing

Use a 3 mm blade in the meat grinder.

Fully mix the mixture until the meat begins to clump.  Transfer to a sausage stuffer.  Prepare the pork casing and fill.

Sausage links should weigh approximately 120 grams (a quarter pound).

Pro tip: create a template link of the right length/weight.  Then proceed to form measure other links to this template, spinning the sausage like a jump rope, alternating toward and away from link to link.

For those reading this who are Wisconsinites, please proceed to boil these in beer/water solution with onion, grill, then use those onions on the brat.

All others, do whatever you do with bratwurst.

Know that if the casing explodes during grilling, the heat is too high. Poke with a fork before they explode, if all else fails.