When I was in Germany, I tried the local Nuremburg sausages, which are a skinny little bratwurst that taste so good. Now, I can get “bratwurst” anywhere around here at home, but would I actually eat it? Hell, no! Not unless it was organic! So that means I have to make my own. But I’m a little bit of a lazy sausage maker, in that I am not really ready to deal with the whole concept of sausage casings—either animal or vegetable. So what I did was make the recipe and then form them into patties, which were good like burgers. I also made a bratwurst and pasta dinner—which was totally yum. (I added whole wheat pasta, green peppers, fennel, parsley, and a bit of Romano cheese—kind of like a German-Italian hookup).
It took me a while to figure out how to use my meat grinder. But now that I have, I think I will use it a lot. It’s manual, and easy to set up and to clean. I got my meat grinder from Amazon.com, but there’s also one now available on Rodales.com. Who knew!
Just make sure the meat is cooked all the way through, since it is pork. And the secret to Nuremburg brats, I found out, is marjoram.
Bratwurst
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds ground pork (I used a shoulder cut)
- ½ pound ground smoked bacon OR 1 Tablespoon liquid smoke
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 Tablespoon ground white pepper
- 2 Tablespoons marjoram
Directions:
1. If the meat isn’t ground, grind the pork and the bacon (I used liquid smoke and it worked fine—didn’t have bacon at the time).
2. Add the spices.
3. Mix!
4. Fry it up in a pan with olive oil.
This makes either 8 burgers or a nice big pasta dinner.
Is there a safe liquid smoke?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_smoke
I don’t understand why you grind already ground meat. Is there a reason for this?
@Shana, I am pretty sure she started with unground pork (shoulder) then ground it to have two pounds for assembling the recipe. It could have been a bit clearer.
Looks like a great recipe though, i will have to try it!
They are delish! Try eating them at the Spital Restaurant in Nuremberg. A great place to eat on the water. An amazingly beautiful city!