Learn the steps butchers take to make the sausages you might barbeque this summer

German "wurst" cooking

    Looking for a great conversation starter for your next summer barbeque?  How about talking to your friends about how those hotdogs you're grilling were really made?

    According to Chef Hans, owner and chef at The Ambry Restaurant, these are the steps taken to make traditional German sausages (Chef Hans not only trained in Germany, he owned and operated his own butcher shop and deli in North Lauderdale and has prepared all the sausages at the Ambry Restaurant homemade for the last 31 years.)

• Step 1: Butcher selects and cuts meat into pieces.



Chef Hans checks mixture in the meat grinder.

• Step 2: Meat is ground in a meat grinder.

 
 
 
 

• Step 3: Spices are selected and weighed depending on recipe.
• Step 4: Ice is gathered.
• Step 5: Meat is now put into a meat chopper, along with spices and ice to cool it down.  This process and the end product is called emulsion.  During this process, salt opens the meat protein and binds it so it will not fall apart.  When the mixture reaches about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, it is taken out of the meat chopper.
• Step 6: Chef Hans notes that there is a slight variation in process depending on the texture the butcher desires.  Some sausage is more course.  To make it this way, more meat would be added to the meat chopper in the last four to five rounds or larger pieces of meat would be added to the mixture.



Sausage stuffer



Sausage being stuffed.



Sausage as it is stuffed.

 
 
 
 
 

• Step 7: The mixture is now put into a stuffer.  The casing is put on the stuffer and the sausages are stuffed.

 
 
 
 
 

Sausage in casing before it is cooked.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

•  Step 8: Sausage is put into hot water to cook for about 15 to 20 minutes.  They are then chilled on ice. 

Chef Hans puts sausage in water to cook.  

      To have German sausages, called "wurst" at your next barbeque, you can visit Chef Hans at The Ambry Restaurant.  He not only serves "wurst" at the restaurant, but will also prepare "wurst" for your next barbeque.