Blumenau type sausage is a nomenclature commonly used in Brazil for a type of German sausage called Mettwurst. Mettwurst sausage or Blumenau sausage is a raw, cured, smoked, fermented and dried sausage. The freshness of the meat is maintained through the processes of curing, fermentation, drying, maturation and smoking. In Europe, especially in Germany, it is also known as Teawurst and is a specialty served in sandwiches or appetizers. Because it is soft, it can be spread on bread or toast like a pâté. It can have a thick texture (small pieces of meat and fat) or thin texture (like a paste). They are great on appetizers or cold cuts served with bread and beer.
You can get a doughier texture by grinding the meat more finely or a firmer texture by grinding the meat and fat with the coarser disc (or slicing the meat finely with a knife). In this recipe I double-grinded on a fine disc to obtain a finer/pastier blumenau mettwurst sausage. In this other blumenau mettwurst sausage recipe I made it with coarse grinding. Regardless of the grinding, the mettwurst meat will always be very soft and soft, but grinding makes the sausage more uniform or more brittle.
Blumenau Mettwurst sausage ingredients
- 700g clean pork shank;
- 300g rigid pork fat;
- 2.4g curing salt 1 (6.25% of nitrite and 93.75% of salt);
- 2.4g antioxidant (with sodium erythorbate);
- 12 g salt;
- 5 g sugar;
- 2.5 g of garlic powder;
- 2.5 g ground white pepper;
- 1 g allspice pepper;
- 200 ml of liquid smoke;
- 0.2g starter culture (lactic acid bacteria) diluted in filtered water.
Preparation of Blumenau Mettwurst Fina sausage
- Clean the shank, remove the bones, as much of the hard connective tissue and leather as possible;
- If the fat present in the ham is not enough for the 30% proportion of the weight of the dough (700g meat + 300g fat), add more fat from bacon or another piece of ham.
- Cool the meat and fat well and cut into cubes;
- Grind everything twice on a fine disc and add all the ingredients. Note: grind once on a coarse disc if you want a firmer texture like this one blumenau mettwurst recipe;
- Mix until there is a uniform distribution of the ingredients, use your hands or the flat paddle of an orbital mixer at slow speed;
- Embed in edible collagen casing, natural pork or crooked bovine casing. In this recipe I used 26 gauge edible collagen casing;
- Tie in a horseshoe shape every 15 to 20 cm in length;
- Hang for 2 days to ferment in an environment with an ideal temperature between 20ºC and 26ºC;
- Immerse in powdered smoke diluted in water or liquid smoke for 5 minutes. Change the time according to the desired color and flavor intensity;
- Hang for 3 days in a cold and ventilated environment (ideal temperature between 10ºC and 14ºC);
- Refrigerate and consume within a week.
Hi, can you use yakult instead of starter culture? Would it be safe?
Yakult, as lactic acid bacteria, although not tested for this purpose, will have an acidifying/protective action. A good one starter culture it has other additional functions, so it is more complete and studied, but for this protection function, yakult will help. It just doesn't replace it completely because good crops have several types of actions in addition to protection through acidification and competition. See the list of shares of this crop that we sell: https://charcutaria.org/produto/cultura-starter/
Good afternoon, Eduardo,
I'm “bathing” my Blumenau sausage with liquid smoke. I made it with the crop I bought on your website, its appearance was perfect! Very red…I left it fermenting in a cardboard box with a humidifier…the temperature in BH is very high, around 30 degrees, even more…but, in the box I managed to maintain it up to a maximum of 26 degrees, a little more…it stayed three days… now, after the liquid smoke, I hang it in the plastic box, inside the refrigerator for three days? Is this the maturation stage? In this step do I only gain flavor, or is there some safety element that I add with this step? I say this because I already wanted to eat tomorrow
at night with some Heineken...I'll see if I can send photos in the next message...
This maturation period allows the sausage to lose some weight/water. Helps with protection and flavor. You can try one part and leave another part hanging to see the difference.
Good afternoon, I didn't find the 26 gauge collagen casing on this site.
We are out of stock of this tripe, you can replace it with crooked beef tripe or pork tripe.
https://charcutaria.org/categoria-produto/tripas/natural/
…I'm seriously thinking about buying the starter culture, but I would also like to try production without this additive, as long as it doesn't mean exposure to pathogens.
Another thing, I noticed that the percentage of common salt is lower in this recipe than in others, doesn't this weaken the protection if I don't use the starter culture?
Hello, the starter culture can have several functions depending on the composition of bacteria. But cultures almost always have a bacteria responsible for helping to protect them by exchanging carbohydrate sources (sugars) for lactic acid (acidifying the product) during fermentation. So the starter culture helps with protection. But it is not a mandatory ingredient and is generally an additional ingredient to provide more protection, flavor and aroma (depending on the composition of the starter culture purchased).
Salt can vary from recipe to recipe depending on the taste and protection you want to apply for each product. The more salt the greater the protection. The amount of salt generally varies between 1.2% and 3%. Within this range, the palate accepts salt well, depending on each person's taste. In this recipe the salt is low so if you want to omit the starter culture, increase the salt to, for example, 20g per kg of meat mass.
Thank you very much again, Eduardo. It is a great pleasure to meet people like you on our apprenticeship path.
I just bought the culture on your website, the expected arrival date and next week…I took the opportunity and bought beef bottom (I want to know) and leaf and collagen. I really wanted to buy penicillium mold too, but it would be much more expensive… I think that, at this moment, culture is more important…
From now on I will always use culture in my products, the more safety the better. I don't want to risk anything, no matter what.
Dear Eduardo,
I have been successful in my endeavors using your recipes. Everything is very well explained and clear.
I want to make this Blumenau sausage, my question concerns the starter culture...if I don't use it, you say I should skip the fermentation stage...isn't it worth fermenting with the wild culture that the mixture captures from the environment? If I really have to skip the fermentation step, won't this affect the final flavor of the sausage?
My intention is to eat as indicated, but also to grill, will it be good? (Continues in the next comment)…
Hi jbotelho. Never ferment with wild microorganisms as there is no way of knowing if any are pathogenic. It's an unnecessary risk. Fermentation helps the flavor but not to the point where it's worth the risk. In a smoked product the difference in flavor will be very subtle as the smoke flavor is striking. Either use the culture or skip the fermentation!
Good morning, Eduardo,
I bought the culture through your website on Saturday, it arrived today…I'm thinking of a way to use it…lol, I think my sausages will take a leap in quality.
Thanks!
Hi José Roberto. Yes, use it, remember to add a little sugar to the recipes (0.5%) and ferment for 72 hours at a temperature close to 25ºC. It will add a good layer of flavor and help protect, especially products with longer maturation.
Is it necessary to use the antioxidant and starter culture for homemade production where part is consumed quickly and the other is frozen to be consumed little by little?
Hi Eduardo. The use of the antioxidant and starter culture is optional. Without the starter culture, skip the fermentation step, apply liquid smoke and hang to dry.
Very good recipe