Frankfurter Würstchen

It comes out square in cross-section, because it was stacked in boxes with paper between the layers.

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

Ingredients

• 700 g pork shoulder, diced and well chilled
• 300 g pork back fat, diced and well chilled
• 150 g ice, crushed fine
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mace
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
• sheep casings, 20 mm

Method

1. IT COMES OUT SQUARE IN CROSS-SECTION, BECAUSE IT WAS STACKED IN BOXES WITH PAPER BETWEEN THE LAYERS. The article gives the cause and then the consequence: after the aging and smoking the sausages ARE PUT INTO WOODEN BOXES WITH SMALL SHEETS OF PARCHMENT PAPER BETWEEN LAYERS -- and so they come out with a square cross-section, with, as it says, A FEW EXCEPTIONS WHERE THE SAUSAGE IS ROUND.
2. SO THE SHAPE IS STORAGE, NOT RECIPE. A soft warm sausage under the weight of the ones above it flattens on four sides, and the paper stops them fusing. Nobody shapes them square; they are squared by being put away.
3. THE CASING IS SHEEP AND IT IS THIN. The article's opening line is A THIN PARBOILED SAUSAGE IN A CASING OF SHEEP'S INTESTINE -- twenty millimetres, where the beef one from the same city runs to thirty-four.
4. AND THE FLAVOUR IS SMOKE RATHER THAN SPICE: THE FLAVOUR IS ACQUIRED BY LOW TEMPERATURE SMOKING. Cold smoke over hours, not hot smoke over minutes, which is why the seasoning list is as short as it is.
5. EIGHT MINUTES IN HOT WATER AND NOT A SECOND BOILING, which the article is specific about: they are HEATED IN HOT WATER FOR ONLY ABOUT EIGHT MINUTES TO PREVENT THE SKIN FROM BURSTING. A thin sheep casing goes at a boil.
6. EVERYTHING COLD AND THE ICE IN WITH THE FAT, as with any fine sausage. Warm fat smears and the finished sausage weeps in the pan.
7. MINCE TWICE AND PASTE IT SMOOTH. This is a scalded sausage; there should be no visible grain in a slice.
8. FILL THE CASINGS GENTLY AND TWIST IN PAIRS, then hang them to dry an hour before any smoke. A wet casing takes smoke in streaks.
9. SMOKE COLD, THEN POACH TO SEVENTY DEGREES IN THE MIDDLE, then chill them fast. That is the parboiling the first line refers to: the sausage you buy is already cooked.
10. SERVED WITH BREAD, MUSTARD, HORSERADISH OR POTATO SALAD, which is the article's own list. The name is protected: since 1929 it may only be used for sausages MADE IN THE FRANKFURT AREA, mainly Neu-Isenburg and Dreieich -- and outside Germany the words have swapped, because what Germany calls a Wiener Würstchen is what everybody else calls a frankfurter.

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