Bockwurst

Weisswurst’s cured, hog-cased, keeping cousin: the same pale veal-and-pork emulsion family, but built to be stored and reheated rather than eaten within four hours. In the US it’s often sold smoked; in Germany it’s usually just scalded — both are legitimate, and which one you make is a decision the recipe puts in front of you rather than hiding.

Ingredients

MEAT BLOCK (2,270 g / 5 lb)

• 1,135 g (2.5 lb) pork — 50%
• 681 g (1.5 lb) veal — 30%
• 454 g (1 lb) pork back fat — 20%

SEASONING (per 2,270 g block)

• 41 g salt (1.8%)
• 6.8 g white pepper
• 1.1 g nutmeg or mace
• 1.1 g ground ginger
• 4.5 g onion powder
• ~5 g lemon zest, to taste

~200 ml whole milk (binding)

• 2 egg whites, OR ~90 g non-fat dry milk (binding)

CURE — a decision, not a default

• Cure #1: OPTIONAL. Marianski’s printed Bockwurst carries none, which is fine for a sausage you scald and eat within days. If you’ll SMOKE it, or hold it more than ~3 days, add 5.7 g Cure #1 = 156 ppm on the 2,270 g block (2.5 g/kg). Smoking at 60 °C parks the meat an hour in the 4–60 °C danger zone — exactly the case nitrite exists for.
• 28–32 mm hog casing

Directions

1. Key ingredients: Weisswurst (Münchner Weißwurst) is the fresh, uncured original; Knackwurst is the beefier, garlicky, definitively-smoked one that snaps.
2. Decide first — cure or not: eating it within a couple of days, scalded? Skip the cure. Smoking it, or holding it? Add Cure #1 at 156 ppm (5.7 g here) and rest overnight so it distributes.
3. Grind: through 5 mm, then 3 mm — a fine sausage, but not as fine as Weisswurst. Or grind once at 3 mm and emulsify lightly.
4. Bind: egg white + milk (or the dry-milk powder) do the work. Same rule as its cousin — keep the paste below 14 °C / 58 °F or the emulsion breaks.
5. Stuff and link: 28–32 mm hog casing, linked at 10 cm (4”).
6. Optional smoke (needs the cure): 60 °C / 140 °F for 45–60 minutes, then poach.
7. Poach: 80 °C / 176 °F for ~30 minutes to internal 70–72 °C / 158–162 °F.
8. Finish: chill in cold water, air-dry, refrigerate.

Notes

Where this recipe came from — and what it isn’t. Marianski’s formula; regional variation in real Bockwurst is enormous, so treat this as one workable version, not the definition.

Telling it from its neighbors. vs Weisswurst — hog casing, coarser, usually cured, keeps, reheated. vs Knackwurst — Bockwurst is veal-forward and pale; Knackwurst is beef-and-pork, garlicky, definitively smoked, and snaps. vs bratwurst — Bockwurst is pre-cooked; bratwurst is raw.

The name. Popularly “the sausage eaten with Bockbier,” and the Weisswurst research independently turned up the Altmünchner Bockwurst served with Maibock, which supports the beer link. But a competing folk etymology (Bock = billy goat) exists and I found no primary attestation — so it’s unsettled, and I’m flagging it rather than picking.

Still open. A primary source for the etymology; Len Poli and Ruhlman & Polcyn on the emulsion.