German Presskopf Recipe: Bavarian “Head Meat” Sausage
Presskopf is a traditional German sausage made by cooking a mix of various animal parts and internal organs in a flavorful broth. Common ingredients include pork meat, heart, blood, muscle meat, rinds, and meat from the head of a calf or pig.
Ingredients
Meat
- Pork head meat : 600g
- Pork, lean meat
- with connective tissue : 100g
- Pork belly (medium fat): 100g
- Pork jowls : 100g
- Pork hocks and legs with skin : 100g
Spices per 1000g (1kg) of meat
- Salt : 3 tbsp
- Cure : 1/3 tbsp
- Pepper : 1 tbsp
- Paprika : 1/4 tbsp
- Nutmeg : 1/4 tap
- Coriander : 1/4 tbsp
- Cardamom : 1/8 tbsp
- Ginger : 1/8 tap
- Garlic (smashed) : 1 clove
Instructions
- Cure (preserve) split pork head and hocks in a brine solution ( 333g salt, 1 gallon water, 120g cure ]. 1kg meat requires about 1 quarter (946 ml) brine.
- Leave the meats in curing solution (completely submerged) for 4-5 days.
- Wash it gently after draining the solution.
- After removing the skin and meat from the cured head and legs, boil it at 95°C (203° F) until a finger easily slides through it. Grind it through a 3 mm plate.
- Cut about 25 mm chunks of the lean meat.
- Through a 3 mm plate, grind all the other meats.
- With the aforementioned spice ingredients, mix the ground meat thoroughly.
- Stuff the mixture into beef blind caps or beef middles or pork caps.
- For 60 minutes straight, hot smoke it at 70°C (158° F).
- At 80° C (176° F), cook the meat in water. Follow the rule: for each 1 cm (10 mm) diameter casing, cook for 15 minutes. Ensure the internal temperature of the meat reaches 71°C (160° F).
- For about 10 minutes, immerse the meat in water. Let the sausages cool in air until the temperature drops to about 18°C (64°F).
- Cold smoke it for 12 hours at this temperature and refrigerate.
- Your flavourful presskopf is ready to be served.
Nutrition
Calories: 280kcalProtein: 16gFat: 23gSaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 70mgSodium: 840mg
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