Bratwurst Recipes

WISCONSIN BRATWURST

Steps:

• Prick bratwurst with fork to prevent them from exploding as they cook. Place in a large stock pot with the onions, butter, and beer. Place pot over medium heat, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Preheat grill for medium-high heat.
• Lightly oil grate. Cook bratwurst on preheated grill for 10 to 14 minutes, turning occasionally to brown evenly. Serve hot off the grill with onions on hoagie rolls.

BRATWURST BAKE

Steps:

• Rub the defrosted brats with the garlic and leave it stuck to the brats.
• Lay the brats in the bottom of a foil lined pan, leave enough foil on the sides to tent it over the brats later.
• Quarter the onion and apple and spread the pieces out over the brats.
• Sprinkle the pepper over the whole thing and seal the foil over the top.
• Bake in a 350 oven for an hour.

GERMAN BRATWURST

Steps:

• Place pork, veal, and fatback in a large bowl. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Set parts of meat grinder, including large cutting die, in freezer. Set bowl and paddle of stand mixer in freezer.
• Grind meat and fat mixture through chilled meat grinder fitted with a small cutting die, into a large bowl set in another bowl filled with ice. Add salt, white pepper, ginger, mustard, and nutmeg in with the meat. Using chilled paddle attachment and chilled bowl of a standing mixer, mix at low speed for 1 minute. Add eggs and heavy cream and mix at medium speed until liquid is incorporated and sausage is uniform and sticky, about 1 minute longer.
• Form a small sausage patty; place rest of sausage mixture in refrigerator. Cook patty in a small frying pan over medium-high heat until cooked through. Taste and adjust seasonings of sausage if necessary.
• Stuff sausage into hog casings and twist into 6-inch links.
• Light one chimney full of charcoal. When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill, and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Clean and oil grilling grate. Place onion slices in foil tray and pour in beer. Place tray on hot side of grill. Nestle sausage in tray and cook until beer begins to simmer, about 4 minutes. Slide tray over to cool side of grill, cover grill, and continue to cook until sausages register 140 to 145°F on an instant-read thermometer, 10-15 minutes, flipping occasionally during cooking.
• Uncover grill and remove sausages from liquid and place on hot side of grill. Cook, turning occasionally, until sausages are browned and crisp all over, about 3 minutes total. Place each sausage in a roll and top with onions and desired condiments; serve immediately.

HOMEMADE BRATWURST

Steps:

• Cut the pork and beef into 2 inch cubes.
• Grind through a 1/4 inch grinding plate.
• If you do not have a meat grinder you can pulse it in your food processor in SMALL batches.
• In a small mixing bowl beat eggs and beer together until well blended.
• Add dry ingredients.
• In a large mixing bow combine the ground meat and wet mixture until well incorporated.
• Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours, up to 24.
• The longer the better.
• At this point you can either stuff into casings or wrap in 1 pound packages which is what I do, then freeze.

SHEBOYGAN BRATS

Steps:

• 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.

BEER BRATS

Steps:

• Place brats in a Dutch oven with onions and butter, cover the brats with beer. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer until brats are cooked. Remove brats and set aside beer mixture. Grill brats until golden brown and return to beer mixture until ready to serve. Serve brats on fresh baked brat buns with sauerkraut, onions, green peppers, ketchup, and/or mustard.

BRATWURST STEWED WITH SAUERKRAUT

Steps:

• In a large pan, heat oil over high heat. Brown bratwurst in oil and reduce heat to medium. Add onions and garlic and cook until lightly caramelized. Add stock, paprika, caraway seeds, and sauerkraut and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in fresh dill. Serve on baguette.

BRATWURST SUPPER

Steps:

• For each of 2 foil packets, arrange a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 17x15 in.) on a flat surface. , Cut brats into thirds. Divide the brats, potatoes, carrots, onion and mushrooms evenly between the 2 double-layer foil rectangles. Dot with butter. Sprinkle with soup mix, soy sauce and pepper. Bring edges of foil together; crimp to seal, forming 2 large packets. Seal tightly; turn to coat., Grill, covered, over medium heat for 23-28 minutes on each side or until vegetables are tender and sausage is no longer pink. Open foil carefully to allow steam to escape.