Food

Frankfurter Würstchen

German · Pork · Sausage · Smoked Foods

Frankfurter Würstchen
Prep 1 hour 30 minutes, plus an overnight chill
Cook 1 hour 15 minutes
Serves About 5 lb / 2.3 kg — roughly 30 thin links
Level Hard

The sausage the hot dog is named after, and the one the hot dog is not. A Frankfurter Würstchen is a thin, pale-pink link of pure pork — no beef at all — whipped to a smooth batter, stuffed into sheep casing, smoked over beech and then scalded, never boiled. That pork-only rule is the diagnostic detail: the same link made with beef in it is, in German usage, a Wiener, and the beef-heavy American frank is a third thing again. The name is a legal place-name in Germany. A 1929 ruling, upheld by the Federal Court of Justice in 1955, reserves “Frankfurter Würstchen” for sausage made in the Frankfurt am Main economic region; most of it actually comes from Neu-Isenburg next door.

I have made home frankfurters, and as I say on the emulsions page, I have never been satisfied with them — the snap and spring of a good one are hard to reach without a bowl chopper. This page is the next attempt written down before it is made. The formula is built from the Frankfurt definition (pork only, sheep casing, beech smoke, scald) and from Marianski’s emulsion method, and it is untested as written.

Ingredients

MEAT BLOCK (2,270 g / 5 lb), % of meat weight

  • 1,475 g (3 lb 4 oz) lean pork, shoulder or ham trim, sinew out — 65%
  • 795 g (1 lb 12 oz) pork back fat or jowl, skin off — 35%

CURE, SALT AND ICE (% of meat weight)

  • 41 g salt (1.8%)
  • 5.7 g Cure #1 (2.5 g/kg = 156 ppm nitrite on the meat block)
  • 570 g (1 lb 4 oz) crushed ice or ice water (25%)

SPICE (% of meat weight)

  • 4.5 g white pepper (0.2%)
  • 2.3 g ground coriander (0.1%)
  • 1.1 g ground mace or fresh nutmeg (0.05%)
  • 22–24 mm sheep casing, about 9 m (30 ft)

Directions

Key ingredients

Black Pepper

  1. In the collection: pork, back fat, ice and nothing else that moos. The emulsion technique is the same one behind Old-Fashioned Bologna, Weisswurst (Münchner Weißwurst) and Knackwurst; this is the thinnest, least forgiving member of that family.
  2. Cube and chill: cut the lean and the fat into 2–3 cm cubes, keep them separate, and put both in the freezer until they are stiff at the edges, about −1 °C / 30 °F. Every later step generates heat, and the batter breaks at roughly 15 °C / 59 °F, so the cold you bank now is the margin you spend later.
  3. Grind twice: lean through a 5 mm plate, then through 3 mm. Fat separately through 3 mm. A finer starting grind means less time in the processor, which means less heat.
  4. Build the batter in order — lean, salt, ice, then fat: in a food processor (in batches) or a bowl chopper, run the lean with the salt and Cure #1 and about a third of the ice until it turns sticky and glossy; the salt is pulling myosin out of the muscle, and myosin is the film that will hold the fat. Add the spices and another third of the ice, run again, then the fat and the last of the ice. Probe it after each stage. Stop at 12 °C / 54 °F at the latest. Past about 15 °C / 59 °F the protein lets go of the fat, and a broken batter cannot be repaired.
  5. Decision point — poach a test: drop a teaspoon of batter into 75 °C / 167 °F water for five minutes. It should come out springy and tight, with no fat beading on the water. Crumbly means under-processed or under-salted; greasy means it got too warm. Adjust salt now.
  6. Stuff and link: stuff the sheep casing firmly but not drum-tight (it shrinks in the scald) and twist into pairs of about 18–20 cm links. Hang them on a stick and refrigerate overnight, uncovered, so the cure works through the batter and the casing dries; smoke will not take evenly on a wet casing.
  7. Smoke over beech: dry the links for 20–30 minutes at 50 °C / 122 °F with the dampers open, then give them 30–45 minutes of beech smoke at 55–60 °C / 131–140 °F until they are a light golden brown. Beech is the traditional wood for this one and it is a real part of the flavour.
  8. Scald, never boil: into water held at 75–78 °C / 167–172 °F until the centre of a link reads 71 °C / 160 °F, usually 15–20 minutes for a sheep-casing link. Boiling water splits the casings and drives the fat out.
  9. Ice bath and bloom: straight into ice water for 10 minutes to stop the cooking and set the snap, then hang for an hour to dry and deepen in colour. Refrigerate; they keep about a week, longer vacuum-sealed or frozen.
  10. Serve: reheat in hot water just off the simmer, about 8 minutes, and never boil them. Mustard, a roll or potato salad. For the American line of descent, see Frankfurters in Blankets and Coney Sauce (Party Line Deli).

Notes

Where this recipe came from — and what it isn’t. The definition is from the German sources: pure pork, sheep casing (Saitling), beech smoke, scalded. The method and proportions follow Marianski’s emulsion procedure at meatsandsausages.com. Deviations, numbered: (1) Marianski’s “frankfurter” is 60% beef. That is the American frank, not the Frankfurt one, so the beef is gone and the block is 65/35 pork and fat. (2) Cure #1 is included. The Frankfurter Würstchen was traditionally made without nitrite curing salt and cold-smoked. This recipe warm-smokes at 55–60 °C, which parks the batter in the bacterial growth range for most of an hour, and nitrite is what makes that safe. Leave it out only if you cold-smoke (under 25 °C) and scald the same day; the links will be grey-white rather than pink. (3) Ice at 25% of meat weight is a home figure, chosen to keep a food processor cold. It is not taken from any German specification. UNTESTED as a whole.

Where the Frankfurter came from. Meat sausages are recorded as a Frankfurt speciality in medieval sources, often in connection with the imperial coronation feasts at the Römerberg. The name was treated as a protected indication of origin in Germany from about 1860. On 28 September 1929 a Berlin court ruled that only sausage made in the Frankfurt am Main economic region may be sold as “Frankfurter Würstchen”, and the Federal Court of Justice confirmed it on 13 December 1955. Much of the production has long been in Neu-Isenburg and Dreieich, just south of the city. The pork-only rule is often explained by the Frankfurt butchers’ trade being limited to one kind of meat; that explanation rests on a single trade source.

The name — why Vienna and Frankfurt swap. Johann Georg Lahner (1772–1845), a butcher trained in Frankfurt, moved to Vienna and from 1805 sold his own “Frankfurter” made of pork and beef. So in Austria the sausage is a Frankfurter, named after where the method came from, while in Germany the pork-and-beef link is a Wiener, named after where it was sold. The American frankfurter and wiener descend from both. Marianski’s line that “the frankfurter was invented in Vienna” collapses the two into one. The Frankfurt sausage is older; Lahner’s is the Vienna version of it.

Variations. Wiener (Wiener Würstchen): add beef and veal — Marianski’s wiener is 40% beef, 30% veal, 30% fat, with paprika and onion powder. American frankfurter: mostly beef, often skinless (stuffed in cellulose casing that is peeled after cooking). Brühwurst cousins in the collection: Bockwurst, Knackwurst, Weisswurst (Münchner Weißwurst).

Sourcing and gear. Sheep casing is the whole texture: 22–24 mm, sold salted in hanks. A probe thermometer in the batter is not optional. A food processor works in batches of about 700 g; chill the bowl and blade in the freezer between batches. Phosphate (sodium tripolyphosphate, 0.3–0.5%) closes some of the gap to a commercial frank’s juiciness. It is left out here on purpose, as the dive’s additives page argues, and is the first thing to try if the texture disappoints.

Still open. Whether the 1929 ruling came from the Berlin Kammergericht or a Landgericht — sources differ. Whether the Frankfurt producers today use nitrite curing salt, and what their spice list is: no published Frankfurt formula gives quantities. The 1864 pork-only explanation is single-sourced.

Read more on the site. Germany