Sous Chef Erik's Bratwurst | Kenji's Cooking Show

Sous Chef Erik is not longer the Sous chef at Wursthall, but he’ll always be part of the wursthall family even as he moves on to bigger and better things.

Here's his recipe for the bratwurst we serve at Wursthall (it's our top-selling sausage). You should watch the video before attempting to make sausage, as there are quite a few areas where things can go wrong, and bad sausage is simply the wurst. (As it turns out, the casings he was using in this video were a bad batch so we emptied the casings and re-stuffed after shooting.)

At home I use a manual meat grinder like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Bellemain-TRTAZ11A-Manual-Meat-Grinder/dp/B010R3DCCW/?tag=kenjilopezalt-20

And here's a sausage stuffer: https://www.amazon.com/Sausage-Stainless-Homemade-Vertical-Stuffing/dp/B07WFQ343S/?tag=kenjilopezalt-20

Or a higher quality, larger one: https://www.amazon.com/LEM-Products-1606-Stainless-Vertical/dp/B01LWZ6AEI/?tag=kenjilopezalt-20

Here's a video showing you the best way to grill sausages at home. If you are cooking indoors, you should follow the same basic steps (poach in flavorful liquid, then finish by pan-searing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aVS-QWoWlw

The ingredients are for 1 kilogram of meat, but you can scale it up as much as you'd like (I'd suggest a minimum of 2kg for a reasonably-sized run). The sausage does not need to be stuffed into links, it'll be delicious as patties or loose in other recipes.

1kg pork shoulder, trimmed of excess connective tissue and cut into rough 1- to 2-inch chunks
20g salt
2.5 g curing salt (A.K.A. Prague #1 or Instacure #1)
30ml lightly-flavored beer, such as a lager
70g heavy cream
1g ground ginger
4g granulated garlic
4g ground nutmeg
6g ground white pepper
1 egg
1.5g dry marjoram
Natural hog casings (if stuffing)

1. Toss pork pieces in salt and curing salt. Pack into a container as tightly as possible, cover with a double layer of plastic wrap, and let cure at least overnight and up to three nights in the refrigerator.

2. Transfer pork to a rimmed baking sheet and place in freezer until it starts to get firm around the edges, 10 to 15 minutes. Grind pork in an electric or manual sausage grinder (we grind half of it on a large-holed die, and the other half on a medium die before combining).

3. Transfer pork to a large bowl and add remaining ingredients. With clean hands, mix thoroughly until the mixture is tacky and leaves a film around the sides of the bowl, about four minutes.

4. Sausage can be formed into patties and cooked, or you can transfer it to a piston-style stuffer and stuff it into hog casings.

Видео Sous Chef Erik's Bratwurst | Kenji's Cooking Show канала J. Kenji López-Alt