Knackwurst with peppers

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• Beef, lean, 35%
• Pork, lean, 35%
• Bacon, raw pork, 30%
• Spice(s) are specified for 1 kg sausage mass
• 20 g salt (nitrite curing salt)
• 3 g black pepper, coarsely ground
• 15 g paprika powder, hot
• 15 g sweet paprika powder
• 1 clove(s) garlic, pork intestines, cal 28/30

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 1 day 12 hours; Total time approx. 1 day 13 hours

A raw sausage with a delicious spicy paprika flavor

Cut the meat, removing the tendons, into thin strips so they fit easily into the meat grinder. After cutting, freeze the meat slightly in the freezer. Run the meat through the middle disc of the grinder, along with the spices. Mix the very cold sausage mixture thoroughly, ideally using a robust kneading machine. Be careful to avoid any pockets of spice. Season the mixture to taste and add more seasoning if necessary. Now prepare the casings. After removing them, I rinse them with plenty of warm water. This makes them cleaner and you can immediately see if they are airtight. For stuffing, you need a sausage stuffer or a meat grinder with a sausage stuffer nozzle. I then thread one end of the casing onto the nozzle, and the mixed sausage meat goes into the sausage stuffer. I then tie the beginning of the casing with a knot, and the stuffing begins. It is very important to stuff carefully and tightly. The smallest air pockets in the raw sausage can spoil the sausage later. Small air bubbles in the casing are rarely avoidable; these can be punctured with a pin. I always fill a sausage with around 100 to 130 g, then simply fold the sausage over several times, once right and once left. This keeps the raw sausages closed. You can also tie them with sausage twine, but it’s more time-consuming. Once the entire mass is in the casings, I tie them, usually in pairs of 10, onto wooden slats whose length is adapted to the smoker. I then hang the sausages on the slats in a cool, dry room to mature. Depending on the thickness, this takes 2 to 3 days. When the maturation begins, you can see how the nitrite slowly begins to redden. Now cold smoke the matured sausages in the smoker. Usually 3 to 4 smoking sessions are sufficient, with a maximum of 6 to 8 hours of cold smoke. The sausages are now ready and can be eaten. Dry, draft-free rooms are suitable for storage. After some time, the sausage will become quite hard and take on a salami-like flavor. If you can’t store it this way, wrap it thickly in aluminum foil and store it in the freezer. The sausages are also delicious when eaten hot and cooked.