Sheboygan Brats
User Reviews
5
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Prep Time
1 hr 30 mins
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Cook Time
20 mins
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Total Time
1 hr 50 mins
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Servings
16 links
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Calories
102 kcal
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Course
Main Course
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Cuisine
German
Sheboygan Brats
Description
Sheboygan Brats blend lean turkey or pork/veal with fatty pork belly or shoulder to achieve a rich, moist sausage. The seasoning mix includes kosher salt, black pepper, marjoram, fresh-ground nutmeg, ground ginger, dry milk powder, caraway seed, and mustard seed. Binding ingredients such as egg white and heavy cream are added to create a cohesive sausage mixture. The meat is ground using two die sizes—coarse and fine—to provide a complex texture that is both chunky and smooth.
The casing preparation involves soaking hog casings in warm water before stuffing. Proper chilling of the meat mixture and grinder parts is essential to maintain texture and safety. Once stuffed, the brats can be cooked by grilling, roasting, or used in stews. The spice combination gives these sausages a distinctive flavor influenced by Midwestern traditions.
Serving traditionally on buns with sauerkraut and mustard is common, but they also work well alongside potatoes or in hearty stews. The recipe is ideal for grilling during gatherings and features a balanced flavor from the blend of spices and herbs.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds turkey pork or veal
- 1 pound pork belly or fatty shoulder
- 25 grams kosher salt
- 2 grams black pepper about a teaspoon
- 1 gram marjoram about a teaspoon, dried
- 5 grams ground ginger about 1 1/2 teaspoons
- 2 grams nutmeg freshly ground
- 50 grams dry milk
- 3 grams caraway seed about a teaspoon
- 2 grams mustard seed about a teaspoon
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- Hog casings
Instructions
- Get out about 10 feet of hog casings and soak them in warm water.
- Cut the meat and fat into chunks you can fit into your meat grinder. Mix together the salt, pepper, marjoram, ginger and nutmeg, then mix this with the meat and fat until every piece has a little on it. Refrigerate overnight if you want, but let it marinate at least an hour or so; this helps develop myosin in the mixture, which helps the texture of the finished sausage. When you are ready to grind, put the meat in the freezer until it is between 30°F and 40°F. Put your grinder parts (auger, dies, blades, etc) in the freezer, too, and put a bowl in the fridge.
- Grind one-third of the mixture through the coarse die on your grinder, and the rest through the fine die. This creates a more interesting texture. If your meat mixture is still at 35°F or colder, you can go right to binding. If it has heated up, you need to chill everything back down. Use this time to clean up the grinder.
- Once the meat is cold, put it in a large bin or bowl and add the dry milk, caraway, mustard seed, egg white and heavy cream. Mix well with your (very clean) hands for 2 to 3 minutes — a good indicator of temperature is that your hands should ache with cold when you do this. You want to to mix until the meat binds to itself. You can also do this in a stand mixer set on its lowest setting, but I find you don’t get as good a bind as you do when you do this by hand.
- You now have bratwurst. To make links, put the loose sausage into a stuffer and thread a casing onto it. Stuffing sausage is easier with two people, one to fill the links, the other to coil, but I do it solo all the time. Stuff the links well but not super-tight, as you will not be able to tie them off later if they are too full. Don’t worry about air pockets yet. Stuff the whole casing, leaving lots of room on either end to tie them off; I leave at least three inches of unstuffed casing on either end of the coil.
- To form the individual links, tie off one end of the coil. Now pinch off two links of about six inches long. Rotate the link between your hands forward a few times. (This video shows how I make links.) Look for air pockets. To remove them, set a large needle or a sausage pricker into a stovetop burner until it glows (this sterilizes it), then pierce the casing at the air pockets. Twist the links a little and gently compress them until they are nice and tight. Repeat this process with the rest of the sausage.
- Poach your links to set the sausage. Get a large pot of water to about 160°F, which is steaming. Gently poach your sausage in this for 20 to 30 minutes. Don't let the water get too hot. Take the sausages out and plunge them into a big bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.
- Hang your links for an hour or so to dry. Once you’ve taken the links down, they can be refrigerated for up to a week, or frozen for up to a year.
Notes
- Chilling the meat mixture and grinder parts keeps the fat firm, aiding clean grinding and texture.
- Grinding part of the meat coarse and part fine creates a more appealing texture.
- Marinating the meat mixture before grinding helps develop muscle proteins for a better texture.
- Sheboygan brats can be served grilled with sauerkraut and mustard or roasted with potatoes.
Nutrition Information
Show DetailsNutrition Facts
Serving: 16links
Amount Per Serving
Calories 102 kcal
% Daily Value*
| Calories | 102kcal | 5% |
| Carbohydrates | 5g | 2% |
| Protein | 7g | 14% |
| Fat | 6g | 9% |
| Saturated Fat | 3g | 15% |
| Cholesterol | 27mg | 9% |
| Sodium | 758mg | 32% |
| Potassium | 205mg | 4% |
| Fiber | 1g | 4% |
| Sugar | 3g | 6% |
| Vitamin A | 144IU | 3% |
| Vitamin C | 1mg | 1% |
| Calcium | 41mg | 4% |
| Iron | 1mg | 6% |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
User Reviews
Overall Rating
5
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