Smoked Beef Knackwurst

[Kevin P]

I made a five-pound batch of smoked beef knackwurst (“knockwurst’) this weekend. It’s a pretty simple recipe and I had all the ingredients in-house. Knackwurst that I’ve had in the past remind me of a large ‘garlicky hot dog’—in this adaptation of a Len Poli recipe, the addition of the beer I found intriguing. Nothing fancy: just a good basic smoked sausage.
Here are the ingredients:



The local store had beef chuck steaks on sale so I stocked up. Here’s the start of the 3.75lb BEEF grind:



Always good to keep extra or leftover pork fat in the freezer! Just need a little over a pound of the fat ground & added to the ‘lean’ beef:



After adding the spices, NFDM, and the beer, I mixed the batch until a nice, sticky paste formed (hand-mixed in about 6-9 minutes). I then stuffed 32mm natural casings and twisted off 3-4” lengths. All stuffed & ready for the smoker:



The links were hung in a pre-warmed 120°F smoker (no smoke yet ) and allowed to dry for a bout an hour & a half. For the smoke, I used the A-Maze-n pellet smoker with a new mix of pellets: “Pitmaster’s Choice”—a blend of hickory, cherry & maple.

Two hours into the smoke:



Five hours in. The IT was getting close to being done (155°F), so I prepped a lug full of ice-water.



After the ice-bath, the knackwurst are drying & blooming on racks:



Although I prefer to let sausages rest overnight in the fridge before ‘sampling’ (they seem to firm up and ‘mellow’ a bit by doings this), this time I sliced into one of the knacks—just cuz I couldn’t wait!



A very juicy sausage (my concern after nearly 7 hours in the smoker, they’d be a bit dry!) with a slightly coarse texture, and with garlicky, onion-ey taste. The beer adds a slightly unexpected ‘tang’ to the links. These knackwursts go VERY well with a hot mustard!

If you’re interested in making these, they are pretty basic—a single medium grind, mix & stuff, then smoke. If you wanted a smoother texture (more like a hot dog) you could run the meat through a fine (3.0mm) grind a second time, or do a second mix ('chop') in a food processor.

Kevin

Smoked Beef Knackwurst

3.75 lb. Beef Chuck (1700.0 g)
1.25 lb. Pork fat (570.0 g)
1 cup Non Fat Dry Milk (73.0 g)
1.5 Tbs. Salt (30.0 g)
1.5 Tbs. Dextrose (25.0 g)
1.5 Tbs. Onion, powder (12.0 g)
1.0 tsp. Cure #1 (6.0 g)
2.0 tsp. Garlic powder (6.0 g)
3.0 tsp. Paprika (6.0 g)
2.0 tsp. White pepper (5.0 g)
2.0 tsp. Ginger (3.6 g)
1.5 tsp. Mace (2.5 g)
0.5 tsp. Allspice (0.8 g)
12.0 oz. Beer*
* I used gluten-free beer. Option: use water in place of beer

1. Grind meat through a 3/16 (4.7mm) plate. Grind fat separately.
2. Add spices, NDFM and beer, mix until you get a good sticky bind.
3. Stuff into 32mm casings & twist off 3-4" lengths.
4. Place in smoker at 120°F with NO smoke for 90 minutes to allow casings to dry.
5. Increase temp to 140°F and add smoke.
6. Increase temps over the next 3-5 hours up to 180°F
7. Pull links when IT of 155°F is reached.
8. Plunge into ice-bath to cool.
9. Hang or rack–dry to bloom.

[thsmoker]

Those look fantastic! Would love to try them.

[Jarhead]

Great job Kevin.
Those look delicious.
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[patruns]

Great stuff Kevin!
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[Blkandrust]

Those look amazing!!! I am a newbie to sausage making,in the process of gathering equipment. I look forward to the day when I can sit on the deck,enjoying a homemade knack while sipping on my infamous homebrewed German Alt!!!Prosit!!!
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