I made a five-pound batch of smoked beef knackwurst (“knockwurst’) this weekend. It’s a pretty simple recipe and I had all the ingredients in-house. Knackwurst that I’ve had in the past remind me of a large ‘garlicky hot dog’—in this adaptation of a Len Poli recipe, the addition of the beer I found intriguing. Nothing fancy: just a good basic smoked sausage. :)
Here are the ingredients:
The local store had beef chuck roasts on sale so I stocked up. Here’s the start of the 3.75lb icy BEEF grind:
Always good to keep extra or leftover pork fat in the freezer!
Just need a little over a pound of the fat ground & added to the ‘lean’ beef:
After adding the spices, NFDM, and the beer, I mixed the batch until a nice, sticky paste formed (hand-mixed in about 6-9 minutes). I then stuffed 32mm natural casings and twisted off 3-4” lengths. All stuffed & ready for the smoker:
The links were hung in a pre-warmed 120°F smoker (no smoke yet ) and allowed to dry for a bout an hour & a half. I used a few SS s-hooks to help maintain the spacing between links on the support poles.
For the smoke, I used the A-Maze-n pellet smoker with a new mix of pellets: “Pitmaster’s Choice”—a blend of hickory, cherry & maple.
Two hours into the smoke:
Five hours in. The IT was getting close to being done (155°F), so I prepped a lug full of ice-water.
After the ice-bath, the knackwurst are drying & blooming on racks:
Although I prefer to let sausages rest overnight in the fridge before ‘sampling’ (they seem to firm up and ‘mellow’ a bit by doing this), this time I sliced into one of the knacks—just cuz I couldn’t wait! My concern after nearly 7 hours in the smoker is they’d be a bit dry! My normal procedure is to smoke for about 3 hours or so & then hot-water poach them until done. Using the poaching process, the links tend not to shrivel or wrinkle as much. But I got lazy & just let them finish in the smoker...
The results: A very juicy sausage. with a slightly coarse texture, and with garlicky, oniony taste. The beer adds a slightly unexpected ‘tang’ to the links. These knackwursts go VERY well with a hot mustard!
If you’re interested in making these, they are pretty basic—a single medium grind, mix & stuff, then smoke. If you wanted a smoother texture (more like a hot dog) you could run the meat through a fine (3.0mm) grind a second time, or do a second mix ('chop') in a food processor.
Kevin
Smoked Beef Knackwurst
3.75 lb. Beef Chuck 1700.0 g
1.25 lb. Pork fat 570.0 g
1 cup Non Fat Dry Milk 73.0 g
1.5 Tbs. Salt 30.0 g
1.5 Tbs. Dextrose 25.0 g
1.5 Tbs. Onion, powder 12.0 g
1.0 tsp. Cure #1 6.0 g
2.0 tsp. Garlic powder 6.0 g
3.0 tsp. Paprika 6.0 g
2.0 tsp. White pepper 5.0 g
2.0 tsp. Ginger 3.6 g
1.5 tsp. Mace 2.5 g
0.5 tsp. Allspice 0.8 g
12.0 oz. Beer*
* I used gluten-free beer. Option: use water in place of beer
1. Grind meat through a 3/16 (4.7mm) plate. Grind fat separately.
2. Add spices, NDFM and beer, mix until you get a good sticky bind.
3. Stuff into 32mm casings & twist off 3-4" lengths.
4. Place in smoker at 120°F with NO smoke for 90 minutes to allow casings to dry.
5. Increase temp to 140°F and add smoke.
6. Increase temps over the next 3-5 hours up to 180°F
7. Pull links when IT of 155°F is reached.
8. Plunge into ice-bath to cool.
9. Hang or rack–dry to bloom.
Here are the ingredients:
The local store had beef chuck roasts on sale so I stocked up. Here’s the start of the 3.75lb icy BEEF grind:
Always good to keep extra or leftover pork fat in the freezer!
Just need a little over a pound of the fat ground & added to the ‘lean’ beef:
After adding the spices, NFDM, and the beer, I mixed the batch until a nice, sticky paste formed (hand-mixed in about 6-9 minutes). I then stuffed 32mm natural casings and twisted off 3-4” lengths. All stuffed & ready for the smoker:
The links were hung in a pre-warmed 120°F smoker (no smoke yet ) and allowed to dry for a bout an hour & a half. I used a few SS s-hooks to help maintain the spacing between links on the support poles.
For the smoke, I used the A-Maze-n pellet smoker with a new mix of pellets: “Pitmaster’s Choice”—a blend of hickory, cherry & maple.
Two hours into the smoke:
Five hours in. The IT was getting close to being done (155°F), so I prepped a lug full of ice-water.
After the ice-bath, the knackwurst are drying & blooming on racks:
Although I prefer to let sausages rest overnight in the fridge before ‘sampling’ (they seem to firm up and ‘mellow’ a bit by doing this), this time I sliced into one of the knacks—just cuz I couldn’t wait! My concern after nearly 7 hours in the smoker is they’d be a bit dry! My normal procedure is to smoke for about 3 hours or so & then hot-water poach them until done. Using the poaching process, the links tend not to shrivel or wrinkle as much. But I got lazy & just let them finish in the smoker...
The results: A very juicy sausage. with a slightly coarse texture, and with garlicky, oniony taste. The beer adds a slightly unexpected ‘tang’ to the links. These knackwursts go VERY well with a hot mustard!
If you’re interested in making these, they are pretty basic—a single medium grind, mix & stuff, then smoke. If you wanted a smoother texture (more like a hot dog) you could run the meat through a fine (3.0mm) grind a second time, or do a second mix ('chop') in a food processor.
Kevin
Smoked Beef Knackwurst
3.75 lb. Beef Chuck 1700.0 g
1.25 lb. Pork fat 570.0 g
1 cup Non Fat Dry Milk 73.0 g
1.5 Tbs. Salt 30.0 g
1.5 Tbs. Dextrose 25.0 g
1.5 Tbs. Onion, powder 12.0 g
1.0 tsp. Cure #1 6.0 g
2.0 tsp. Garlic powder 6.0 g
3.0 tsp. Paprika 6.0 g
2.0 tsp. White pepper 5.0 g
2.0 tsp. Ginger 3.6 g
1.5 tsp. Mace 2.5 g
0.5 tsp. Allspice 0.8 g
12.0 oz. Beer*
* I used gluten-free beer. Option: use water in place of beer
1. Grind meat through a 3/16 (4.7mm) plate. Grind fat separately.
2. Add spices, NDFM and beer, mix until you get a good sticky bind.
3. Stuff into 32mm casings & twist off 3-4" lengths.
4. Place in smoker at 120°F with NO smoke for 90 minutes to allow casings to dry.
5. Increase temp to 140°F and add smoke.
6. Increase temps over the next 3-5 hours up to 180°F
7. Pull links when IT of 155°F is reached.
8. Plunge into ice-bath to cool.
9. Hang or rack–dry to bloom.