German Bier Wurst

[Kevin A]

Made a simple sausage this past weekend & was really pleased with the results. I came across a recipe for 'German Bier Wurst' and since I had most of the ingredients on-hand already, I thought, 'why not?' In hind-sight, I should have started earlier in the day, but live n' learn....

The Ingredients: nothing fancy. The recipe called for 1/4 tsp cardamom (15lb recipe), but since I had no cardamom in the house, I figured for 5lbs, a  missing 'pinch' of the spice would hardly be noticed.


I made a 5-pound batch coarse-grinding 2.5lbs of beef and 2.5lbs of pork shoulder. Spices mixed & re-ground through the fine plate (3mm). I only had 44mm collagen chubs so I used those. Filled four of them with enough left over to fill a collagen ring casing.
Once stuffed, these sat overnight in the fridge.

Next day, I hung 'em in the smoker. no smoke for the first 90 minutes; 130° to dry them well before applying smoke.


After 90 minutes, I lit the a-maze-n smoker (cherry wood dust). I used an electric hot-plate for the first time in the smoker and found it to be an outstanding addition in keeping the temps constant at 150°—no easy chore with a large propane smoker. Smoked the chubs for 4 hours.

After nearly 2 hours of smoke @150°


I then cranked up the temp (propane) to 170° for the next two hours, then bumped it up to 180°. FINALLY, the IT made it to 155°  but not until midnight(!), some 12 hours after I first put them in.

Hanging to bloom in the early morning hours.....


After 2 hours, I moved them to the fridge.

The results the next morning:



Very tasty & they smell great! Next time I'll use a larger diameter casing (3.5-4") for sandwich-sized slices.
Mild flavor; pleasing texture. A little 'tang' would be a nice addition next time too. I fried some up & sure enough, very similar to a good fried bologna!

—Kevin

[KyNola]

Those look great Kevin.

[ghost9mm]

If they taste as good as they look, at least one of them would have disappeared... :D

[OU812]

Lookin gooood.

The thought of fried bologna reminds me of my younger days when times were real tough.

[squirtthecat]

There is a biker bar on the N end of Springfield that serves fried bologna sandwiches for lunch.  A buck a pop.   Fried on a flat top and served on cheap hamburger buns from the Wonder Bread outlet store.

No, I haven't been in there...   


And I'm sure the quality of the meat is nowhere near Kevin's final product!   That looks fantastic.....      Can you share the full recipe?

[Kevin A]

Can you share the full recipe?

Here's the original recipe for 15lbs. To do a five-pound load, some of the 1/3 adjustments were easy (1 TBL > 1 tsp); For the smaller & odd measurement conversions (1/3 of 4TBL salt) I did it by weight (grams). Since I use kosher salt and most recipes use standard non-iodized table salt, I wind up weighing the recipe's amount for 'regular' salt in grams, and measure out an identical weight in kosher (which is always a much greater volume). I didnt add the cardamom (1/4 tsp divided by 3), but a 'pinch' would suffice. I did a 50/50 pork/beef ratio.

Bier Wurst

7 lbs. beef
8 lbs. pork
1 Tbs. black pepper
1 Tbs. whole mustard seeds
1 Tbs. cure #1
¼ tsp. cardamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 Tbs. dextrose
4 Tbs. salt
1 cup powdered milk
½ tsp. garlic granules
15 oz. ice water

Grind meat together through a 3/16 " plate, add spices and water. Mix until you get a bind. (at this point I ground the mixture again using a fine plate (3mm). This may 'grind up' some of the mustard seed, so if you wish to have more visible seeds, add them after the fine grind).
Stuff into 3-4" cases. Let rest overnight in the fridge to meld to spices and cure.
Place in smoker at 120 F for 2 hrs, no smoke.
Increase temp to 150 F apply smoke for 4 hrs, increase temp to 170 F and continue until internal temp of 155 F. (*For me, this step took nearly 8 hours...  :o)
Remove from smoker and shower with cold water for 5 minutes then hang at room temp for 2 hrs to bloom. Place in cooler overnight then slice or package.

[Sailor]

Man dem looks good nuf to eat  ;D  I think you did a fantastic job!

[Meat tooth]

Shmecks goot!

[3rensho]

Das sieht ja aber gut aus.  Zum wohl

[Kevin A]

Das sieht ja aber gut aus.  Zum wohl

Vielen dank für das kompliment!
Die würste sind köstlich...... und viel besser als mein Deutsch!

[3rensho]

Yours looks just like the stuff we get from a butcher Germany - mustard seeds and all. I love the stuff.  I think you've got this one knocked.

[KyNola]

There is a biker bar on the N end of Springfield that serves fried bologna sandwiches for lunch.  A buck a pop.   Fried on a flat top and served on cheap hamburger buns from the Wonder Bread outlet store.

My favorite butcher shop sells bologna sandwiches at a buck a pop too!  His is on white bread and you put the condiments on it.

[pensrock]

Just wondering..... what if you used beer instead of water?
Looks great, I never heard of that kind of sausage before, may have to try it out.