Bockwurst

It is smoked before it has ever been cooked, and boiling it splits the casing.

Pork, Veal. Not vegetarian — contains pork, sausage casings, which are gut unless it says otherwise, veal.

Ingredients

• 700 g veal shoulder, diced and well chilled
• 300 g pork belly, diced and well chilled
• 150 g ice, crushed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground white pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground mace
• 2 tablespoons chives, chopped
• 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• natural hog casings

Method

1. IT IS SMOKED BEFORE IT HAS EVER BEEN COOKED, AND BOILING IT SPLITS THE CASING. The article gives the first in one line -- a PARBOILED SAUSAGE THAT IS SMOKED IN HOT SMOKE FOR AROUND 30 TO 60 MINUTES BEFORE COOKING, which GIVES IT ITS CHARACTERISTIC BROWNISH COLOUR -- and the second in the next: BOILING IS AVOIDED AS THE CASING MAY SPLIT OPEN and the sausage LOSES FLAVOR TO THE COOKING WATER.
2. SO THE SAUSAGE YOU BUY IS ALREADY FINISHED, and what the cook does is warm it through. The article's own words for that are SIMMERING OR STEAMING, with grilling allowed. Nothing in it needs cooking by the time it reaches you.
3. AND THE SPLIT CASING IS NOT COSMETIC. Once it opens, the flavour goes into the water, which is the article's reason and a better one than appearance.
4. IT LEANS TOWARDS VEAL, which is what separates it from the wider sausage family: ground pork or veal, TENDING MORE TOWARDS VEAL. So the pork here is the smaller half and is there for fat.
5. THE NAME IS A BEER AND NOT A GOAT. It WAS ORIGINALLY EATEN WITH BOCK BEER, and its season in both Bavaria and Berlin was the bock beer season. The article also records a Berlin urban legend crediting a restaurant owner in 1889, while the first mention it can date is Bavaria, 1827.
6. EVERYTHING COLD, AND THE ICE GOES IN WITH THE MEAT. Warm meat will not emulsify and the sausage weeps fat in the smoker.
7. MINCE TWICE, THEN PASTE IT WITH THE ICE. Fine enough to be smooth, because this is a scalded sausage and not a coarse one.
8. THE HERBS GO IN LAST AND BY HAND. Chives and parsley through a processor turn the whole paste grey-green.
9. FILL, TWIST INTO LENGTHS, AND HANG THEM TO DRY AN HOUR before they go near smoke. A wet casing takes smoke patchily and goes streaky.
10. HOT SMOKE FOR THREE QUARTERS OF AN HOUR, then into water held at seventy-five degrees until the middle reaches seventy. Boiling is the one thing the article tells you not to do, and this is where it would happen.
11. SERVED WITH MUSTARD AND A BREAD ROLL, which is the article's own portion, or in the roll with mustard over it. It notes potato soup as the pairing in some parts of Germany.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes