Oktoberfest Brats

[PolishDeli]

Happy Oktoberfest all! Bratwurst are in order. Recipe and pictures below:

Ingredients:
2500g Boston butt
3 Whole eggs
27mL Whole milk
50g Salt
5.5g White pepper
3g Fresh lemon zest
1.5g Mace
1.5g Dry ginger powder
1.5 Cardamom powder


Grind Pork using a 3mm plate

Whisk the eggs and milk together, then mix it into the meat and spices

Stuff into hog casings


Vacuum sealed

Sous vide to 155°F and refrigerate/freeze

Pan fry.
Served with sauerkraut, mustard, and home made pretzels.

Thanks for looking!

 

[indaswamp]

First I've seen lemon zest in a brat. Looks interesting. Is that a traditional recipe you used?

 

[chef jimmyj]

The Lemon Zest is unique for me as well. The plate looks good to me...JJ

 

[indaswamp]

I found this over and the Marianski site:

Nutmeg and lemon zest is another spice combination which is popular with finely minced (emulsified) bratwurst sausages.

https://meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/fresh/bratwurst-austrian

So I guess it is traditional... I may have to give this one a try seeing as I am out of brats anyhow. I like how you substituted MAce for the nutmeg... I much prefer mace to nutmeg, it's more sweet, floral, and not as bitter....more complex.
And I picked up some fresh yard eggs today at the farmers market....

 

[chilerelleno]

Color me the oddball, yeah, everything looks good... But, but I want the pretzel before anything else.

Can I get the pretzel recipe, pretty please?

 

[indaswamp]

So...I found this as well:

Bratwurst originating in the city of Coburg in Franconia was first documented there in 1498.It is made from a minimum of 15% veal or beef, and its seasonings include only salt, pepper, nutmeg, and lemon zest. It is coarse in texture and measures about 25 cm in length.

So I guess brats with lemon are Coburg Brats....
http://www.mybestgermanrecipes.com/german-sausage-bratwurst/

 

[indaswamp]

P PolishDeli , Thank you for posting your recipe. I plan on trying it out next pork butt sale I see...will let you know how it goes.

 

[DanMcG]

Thanks for the recipe PD, it sounds good.
As far as lemon goes, you'll find it in L. Poli's weisswurst and Marianski's weibwurst and we have a locally produced (but have recently gone national) white hot made by Hofmann's that uses it.
And like Chile, I'd start with the pretzel!!

 

[SmokinAl]

Good looking brats!
The pretzel looks darn good too!
Al

 

[chopsaw]

Great looking plate . That's a good recipe for sure . I use whole eggs and milk in mine , and have started adding ground ginger . The ginger really adds to it .
I've used lemon extract in weisswurst and gelbwurst . Great flavor .
Thanks for posting .

 

[Johnny Ray]

Looks good. I love brats. My question is, do you have to Sous Vide the brats or can you just freeze them raw?
I don’t have a stuffer so I would have to make patties.

Thanks,
Johnny Ray

 

[bill ace 350]

Nice!

 

[Bearcarver]

Oh Yeah!!
All looks Outstanding!!
Nice Job!
Like.

Bear

 

[Braz]

Here's another request for the pretzel recipe. I just made a batch of Bavarian Beer Mustard and now need some pretzels to put it on.

 

[zwiller]

HUGE LIKE! Wo ist das Bier? Appears to be a very traditional German brat recipe. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Braz]

Looks good. I love brats. My question is, do you have to Sous Vide the brats or can you just freeze them raw?

We freeze them raw then cook as needed. Poach them in water with a beer and some chopped onion then finish on the grill.

 

[indaswamp]

Found a sale on pork steaks. I'm gonna pick some up and do a small batch of your brats with lemon...

 

[PolishDeli]

Thanks for the likes everyone!

...Is that a traditional recipe you used?

It’s not a traditional family recipe; but I do believe it is a traditional German recipe.
It’s from Marianski: https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/german/bratwurst-egg-milk.

To me, the main flavor is white pepper. My wife really picks up on the lemon zest though.
Once I used fresh ginger for this recipe; but it throws off the balance, makes it too lemony.
Mace is a more subtle than nutmeg. Nutmeg always takes things in the direction of pumpkin spice.

Can I get the pretzel recipe, pretty please?

The pretzel recipe is from Martha Stewart:
https://www.marthastewart.com/348881/soft-pretzels

My wife made these. They were excellent. She reduced the salt by ½. If you’re going sprinkle them with pretzel salt as the topper, you might want to reduce the amount of salt even more.

...do you have to Sous Vide the brats or can you just freeze them raw?

No need to sous vide. You can just freeze them. I tent to sous vide all of my non-smoked sausages mostly to ensure proper IT and to seal in flavor.

I stated doing this because traditional Polish sausage recipes call for boiling prior to grilling/frying. Doing that always resulted in loosing flavor to the water, and in exceeding the nominal IT. Sous videing solved both of those problems.

 

[zwiller]

Many thanks on that info! I have similar findings. Agree the definitive german flavor is the the white pepper but with the support of underlying notes of nutmeg/mace. To me, dialing in the balance between the two is the real art. The other spices can make it more complex or give it a regional influence. No real right or wrong here and a matter of opinion. I have weisswurst on deck but dying to fool with Thuringer (with garlic and caraway). https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/fresh/german/thuringer-rostbratwurst

Not saying Martha can't make brezel but if you want a more traditional (made with lye) recipe: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Brezels_and_other_Laugengebäck

 

[PolishDeli]

more traditional (made with lye) recipe

Thanks for the link, perfect timing!
My wife was looking for a traditional lye recipe, and I actually ordered some food grade NaOH just a few hours ago.