Mass produced brats have nothing on this delicious home made version.
Classic bratwurst is an emulsified sausage mixture, which means it has a fine even smooth texture and gets all of its snap from the casing. To achieve this finely ground texture the meat is passed through a fine grinding disc then usually pureed in a food processor. Brats have distinct flavor that comes from the mace and ginger in the seasoning blend so make sure to use mace and not substitute nutmeg.
Your own homemade German style bratwurst is sure to be a hit with guests at your next BBQ and grilling cookout.
While you are at it, be sure to check out our “brat tub” recipe for preparing the home made bratwurst!
Bratwurst Recipe
Makes:
Takes:
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 pounds pork shoulder or butt
- 1/2 pound beef or pork fat or a blend
- 1 tablespoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 4 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons dry mustard
- 4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon savory
- 1/2 teaspoon mace
- 1/2 cup ice cold milk
These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page
Method
- Prep. Before making sausage, please familiarize yourself with best practices as described in our article on The Science Of Sausage Making.
- Slice the meat and fat into cubes removing gristle and sinew. Place it on a plate or pan in the freezer, along with the grinder parts that will contact the meat. Leave it there for about 20 minutes until it is firm but do not let it freeze. This makes grinding easier.
- Grind it with a 1/4" (6.3 mm) die. Mix in the other ingredients. To get the right classic brat texture, transfer the mix to a food processor and pulse till smoothly emulsified.
- Pinch off a small piece of the sausage and cook it in a frying pan let it cool and taste to see if the seasoning is to your taste. Brats are almost always served as links, but if you wish, nobody will arrest you if you form it into patties, meatballs, or skinless tubes. At least not outside of Wisconsin.
- Cook. You can then grill or smoke it, or store it in the fridge for about 5 days or in the freezer for about a month.
High quality websites are expensive to run. If you help us, we’ll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and a lot of freebies!
Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for high quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 2,000 pages and we don’t have a big corporate partner to subsidize us.
Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club. But please don’t think of it as a donation. Members get MANY great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial, and help keep this site alive.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators