Homemade German Sausage

Making German homemade sausages (especially when stuffing them in casings) may seem intimidating, but is easier than you think! Nothing screams authentic German food quite as much as a nicely grilled German bratwurst like this variety packing tons of fresh flavor from the cilantro, chili, garlic, and citrus zest.

With a bit of practice, you will find that the rewards of this sausage recipe far outweigh the effort. I hope my tips will help you find the confidence to make these at home, too. So if you want to kick things up a notch, try this homemade sausage recipe inspired by the German Grillabende (BBQ evenings) of my childhood!

Serve your homemade German sausages with some authentic homemade pretzels and a variety of salads like my Oma's creamy potato salad, this Bavarian potato salad, or my creamy German pasta salad.

OR cook your bratwurst in a skillet indoors and serve it with some mashed potatoes and some homemade raw sauerkraut or cooked sauerkraut.

What you'll need for homemade sausage

If you don't want to stuff your bratwurst and cook it as is instead, then do that! This is actually not common to do in Germany, but I do love using uncooked bratwurst to make bratwurst meatballs, cook, and then add to flatbreads or Flammkuchen or Brizza (my pretzel pizza) or my German-inspired ham and cheese sliders.

You could even shape your homemade sausage into meat patties and grill them for Bratwurst burgers (best served on my Laugenbrötchen, pretzel buns).

However, if you feel up for the challenge of stuffing your sausages, you will need the following.

Skip grinding your own meat by buying ground pork and finely dice your bacon OR use the meat grinder attachment for our Kitchenaid stand mixer (or Fleischwolf, meaning "meat wolf" in German).

There is also a stuffer attachment, which you will need in combination with the meat grinder attachment for stuffing your bratwurst into the casings.

I found this amazing recipe for a spiced, German Bratwurst, featuring hot peppers, fresh cilantro, fresh garlic, lemon and lime zest, pork shoulder, and bacon! It sounded too good and too easy not to make!

After purchasing a good starter amount of sausage casings online at Syracuse Casing Co., I was all set and ready to try this out!

These sausages turned out to taste phenomenal! There is a slight hint of spiciness from the pepper, but much less than I thought and they are super moist and flavorful!

Ingredients

Ingredients for homemade sausage are easy to find, but you may want to think ahead on ordering some casings. You could also ask a local butcher for some casings.

• Pork shoulder. Cut up the pork shoulder into small pieces, so you can really combine all the ingredients before grinding them. Alternatively, use ground pork.
• Bacon. Chop up the bacon before adding it to the sausage mixture.
• Cilantro. Remove the stems and chop up the leaves.
• Chili. I use small, red chilis and remove the seeds. Depending on your heat tolerance, you can experiment with using milder or hotter chilis.
• Garlic. Use fresh garlic and mince it before mixing together with the other bratwurst ingredients.
• Lemon. Since you'll use the zest, you'll want to use organic lemon if you can find it.
• Lime. The same goes for the lime. Since you're using the zest, try to use organic.
• Brown sugar. A bit of brown sugar really helps to bring warmth and extra flavor.
• Salt and Pepper. I use Himilayan pink salt and freshly ground black pepper in this recipe.
• Casings. Order your casings in advance (I tried a few and these ones worked the best) or see if your butcher can give you some and give you a couple of tips on how to use his/her casings.

Which sausage casings to use for homemade sausage

I found that these hog sausage casings are great and easy to work with because of the "helper tube," making it easier to stuff them. And they last for up to a year when stored in the fridge! Here some additional instructions from this sausage casings vendor on how to stuff sausages.

You only need one to two sausage casings for this recipe, so store any remainder in the fridge for later use.

Why do my sausages break?

It's important to soak the casings and to keep the casings moist when using them, so your casings don't break. Always fill them using even pressure and don't overstuff them. You will still need to twist the sausages to separate them after stuffing them, which puts extra pressure on them. It helps to have a second person available to help with stuffing and placing the sausages on a wet tray as they come out of your meat grinder/stuffer.