Landjaeger Sausage Recipe - Specialty Sausage 103

[Jonathon]

Landjaeger Sausage Recipe

What is Landjaeger?

Landjaeger is a German sausage that is made from a combination of beef and pork. It is stuffed into natural casings and can be smoked and semi-dried or just smoked. Before smoking, it will be pressed either flat or formed with a mold to give it its classic flattened look.

Meat Block

6 lb of Untrimmed Pork Butts
4 lb of Lean Beef
1 Bag of Landjaeger
6 tbsp + 2 tsp (2.4 oz / 67.8 g) of Sure Gel
4 tbsp (1.6 oz / 45.2 g) of Encapsulated Citric Acid
2 1/2 tsp (.4 oz / 10 g) of Sure Cure (Included with purchase)

Equipment

Walton’s #12 Grinder
Walton’s 11 lb Sausage Stuffer
Walton’s 20 lb Meat Mixer

Process

Landjaeger needs to be stuffed into a natural hog casing for it to really be an authentic landjaeger sausage, and we also want to press and form it, so natural hog is the best choice. I’m using a home pack of hog casings, so they need to have the salt rinsed off of them, then the insides need to be flushed with running water, and then let them soak for an hour in warm water.

We need to cut up our beef and pork into pieces that a grinder will easily handle. The smaller the grinder you are using, the smaller you will need to cut up your product. With something like Walton’s #12 Meat Grinder, we want to cut our product into chunks between 2 and 3 inches.

I have had our meat in the freezer for about 45 minutes to make it ice cold; cold meat will always grind better than warm meat. We are going to grind the beef once through a 3/16th plate; before we started, we made sure our plates and knives were well oiled to prevent any friction between the plate and knife, this would cause the plate to heat up, and it would add unnecessary wear and tear on our equipment. Then we will grind the pork twice, first through a 3/16th-inch plate to break down the meat and then through a 1/8 plate to finish it off.

Meat Mixing

We are going to smoke this, so we need to get good protein extraction when mixing. Place in a mixer with water, seasoning, and cure, and mix until you have achieved protein extraction. Remember to mix it an even amount of time forward and reverse; about 8 minutes should do it. Remember, if you are using Encapsulated Citric Acid like we are, it needs to be added during the last 60 seconds of mixing, or you run the risk of breaking the encapsulation.

Sausage Stuffing

Before you load your sausage stuffer, you should oil your piston gasket with White Oil to make sure it moves smoothly along the walls of the canister. Load your stuffer, being careful not to create any air pockets in the canister, and stuff it somewhat loosely into the casings; you will want to stuff them loosely so you can form them before smoking.

Thermal Processing & Smoking

Lay them out on screens in a smoker and cook with no smoke at 120° for 30 minutes, then 140° for 1 hour, again with no smoke at this stage and dampers still wide open, then at 145° with smoke for an hour, and finally 180° until internal temp reaches 160°. The smoking process is a lot easier with something like the Grilleye Pro Plus thermometer that can track your temperature and alert you when you have reached your desired temps. Adding a water pan is also a good idea to help add some moisture to the smoker.

Cooling

Once you are done smoking, leave them out for an hour at room temperature to allow them to cool, and then place them in a fridge for 24 hours before vacuum packing.

Wrap-Up

All in all, the largest difficulty we faced was flattening the Landjaeger out. Other than that, it was really very similar to making any other cured sausage. Adding more water might have made flattening the meat out easier and allowed it to hold its shape better; if we do this again, we will try that.

I would also use less Encapsulated Citric Acid, as the seasoning appears to have some tang to it by itself. So if you still want to use a cure accelerator, I would recommend Smoked Meat Stabilizer or Sodium Erythorbate.

Additional Tips

• As always, make sure you keep your meat as cold as you can before grinding. This not only helps speed up the grinding process but also helps with food safety which is especially important here if you are going to try to flatten it out.
• In the end, flattening out the sausage was the hardest part; getting it between two hard surfaces with a LOT of weight is important.

Other Notes

We also tried to take an extra stuffing tube and flatten the opening with a vice to give us the desired flattened look. I was limited in how much I could flatten it out and still be able to get the hog casing over the flattened-out portion. Once I stuffed the meat into the casings, it immediately took on the shape of the casing, so it did not work.

Watch WaltonsTV: Specialty Sausage 103: Landjaeger

Shop waltonsinc.com for Cured Sausage Seasoning

Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders

Shop waltonsinc.com for Sausage Stuffers

Shop waltonsinc.com for Boning Knives

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[woodduck]

In the ‘Meat Block’ you don’t list using a cure. The packet of Landjaeger seasoning I purchased came with a packet of Cure.

As this is a sausage that is ment to be consumed without cooking shouldn’t a cure be used. I know you put in the wrap up about using Smoked Meat Stabilizer or Sodium Erythorbate are they equivalent to using a true cure.

[Austin]

woodduck
A cure should be used. We’ve updated the recipe above to reflect that.
Jonathon was probably just sleeping when he posted this one… haha!

For this version of Landjaeger, we did actually cook it. It could be made differently, but for our entry level MeatgisticsU course, it’s easier and safer to give instructions on doing a proper thermal processing. (Someday we will have to try to get to doing a completely traditional dry cured version.)

Smoked Meat Stabilizer and Sodium Erythorbate are similar to each other, but definitely not a replacement for a real cure, like Sure Cure. They simply act as cure accelerators, speeding up the conversion of nitrite in sausage during thermal processing. Using an accelerator (like one of these, or Encapsulated Citric Acid) allows you to skip the holding stage after stuffing and go straight into the smokehouse.