Each year New Braunfels TX where I live, hosts a 10 day salute to sausage festival called Wurstfest. Sausage beer and music, what more could you want going into winter. Anyway each year I try to make bratwurst the week before. It has become kind of a tradition for me to do this plus I enjoy it too. Both my daughters and grandkids have been taught how to make sausage so I have passed it on to the next generation(s).
The basic recipe I will give credit to ShooterRick for his recipe, and to one I like in the Rytek book.
I adjusted and used a combination of the two. You can choose not to smoke and just poach, then grill later before serving.
Here is what I did :
16 lbs pork butt
4 lbs lean ground beef
4 tsp Cure #1 powder
3 TBS ground coriander
6 tsp paprika
2 TBS white pepper
2 TBS mace
2 TBS ginger
8 TBS Kosher salt
8 tsp cayenne pepper
4 TBS sage
6 TBS dry mustard
2 TBS nutmeg
1 TBS tyme
2 cups dry powdered milk
4 cup ice cold milk
1 cup water
I mixed all the spices together with the milk and water, ran it through the blender.
looking back I wish I had added a little more cayenne because it really gives it a zing, I kind of like the after taste burn.
So next I added the liquid mixture to the meat and hand mixed until evenly distributed through out and placed the covered meat lug in the cooler for the night.
The next day, Sunday i got up at like 4am to get started, warmed the smokehaus up to 120* and went to work making the brats. I did 1/2 of them and hung them up to dry the casings while I mixed no melt cheddar in the last 1/2 and stuffed them.
I then hung them on sticks in the smokehaus with no smoke for the first hour. Temp raised to 160 and heavy Alder smoke applied by lighting both ends of my AmaZ-n smoker tray. The temp probes were place in 3 different brats at different levels as the brats were at different levels.
This made it more difficult to get them all to the same doneness but I figured it didnt really matter as I was going to freeze them and then they would be grilled or steamed before eating anyway.
We coasted along for about 5 hours and I cleaned everything up while waiting. Towards the end I bumped the temp to 180-190 watching all the probes carefully. I plulled them to a water bath when the highest sausage was 162* and the lowest one was 145*.
They then went back in the air conditioned shop with a fan lightly blowing on them while they bloomed out and cooled. Last but not least I vac packed and put in the freezer.
Guess what I had for lunch Sunday ? Ok, so a post is no good without the pictures so here they are. I think I even have a short video too at the end of this post..
![IMG_4275[1].JPG](/media/img_4275-1-jpg.432688/full?d=1507237494)
![IMG_4283[1].JPG](/media/img_4283-1-jpg.432685/full?d=1507237494)
![IMG_4284[1].JPG](/media/img_4284-1-jpg.432686/full?d=1507237494)
![IMG_4286[1].JPG](/media/img_4286-1-jpg.432687/full?d=1507237494)
And last but not least a short video :
The basic recipe I will give credit to ShooterRick for his recipe, and to one I like in the Rytek book.
I adjusted and used a combination of the two. You can choose not to smoke and just poach, then grill later before serving.
Here is what I did :
16 lbs pork butt
4 lbs lean ground beef
4 tsp Cure #1 powder
3 TBS ground coriander
6 tsp paprika
2 TBS white pepper
2 TBS mace
2 TBS ginger
8 TBS Kosher salt
8 tsp cayenne pepper
4 TBS sage
6 TBS dry mustard
2 TBS nutmeg
1 TBS tyme
2 cups dry powdered milk
4 cup ice cold milk
1 cup water
I mixed all the spices together with the milk and water, ran it through the blender.
looking back I wish I had added a little more cayenne because it really gives it a zing, I kind of like the after taste burn.
So next I added the liquid mixture to the meat and hand mixed until evenly distributed through out and placed the covered meat lug in the cooler for the night.
The next day, Sunday i got up at like 4am to get started, warmed the smokehaus up to 120* and went to work making the brats. I did 1/2 of them and hung them up to dry the casings while I mixed no melt cheddar in the last 1/2 and stuffed them.
I then hung them on sticks in the smokehaus with no smoke for the first hour. Temp raised to 160 and heavy Alder smoke applied by lighting both ends of my AmaZ-n smoker tray. The temp probes were place in 3 different brats at different levels as the brats were at different levels.
This made it more difficult to get them all to the same doneness but I figured it didnt really matter as I was going to freeze them and then they would be grilled or steamed before eating anyway.
We coasted along for about 5 hours and I cleaned everything up while waiting. Towards the end I bumped the temp to 180-190 watching all the probes carefully. I plulled them to a water bath when the highest sausage was 162* and the lowest one was 145*.
They then went back in the air conditioned shop with a fan lightly blowing on them while they bloomed out and cooled. Last but not least I vac packed and put in the freezer.
Guess what I had for lunch Sunday ? Ok, so a post is no good without the pictures so here they are. I think I even have a short video too at the end of this post..
And last but not least a short video :
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