Bierschinken (Beer Ham) – No Beer, No Ham, Still Delicious
- Type
- Cooked sausage
- Level
- Medium
- Rating
- Rate this recipe
In this post I’ll show you how you can make Bierschinken yourself. It is a delicious classic Bavarian cold cut.
The literal translation would be “beer ham sausage”. However it has no beer and no ham in it.
The name came about because this was traditionally eaten while drinking beer and having a snack in the afternoon.
I use my Schinkenwurst as the base for this. It has beef in it but you can also go with 100 % pork.
You can watch the Bierschinken recipe as video or read it. Let’s start.
Table of Contents
Bierschinken – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| sausage base | ||
| lean pork | 300 g | 30 % |
| pork backfat | 300 g | 30 % |
| lean beef e.g. shoulder | 300 g | 30 % |
| crushed ice | 100 g | 10 % |
| Meat chunks (Einlage) | ||
| lean pork, e.g. from the leg | 350 g | |
Spices per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| sausage base | |
| salt | 15.5 g |
| cutter phosphate (e.g BRIFISOL 414, PhosThis!, Ames Phos) | 3 g |
| Cure #1 | 2.5 g |
| white pepper | 2 g |
| onion powder | 1 g |
| coriander | 0.5 g |
| ginger | 0.5 g |
| garlic powder | 0.5 g |
| mace | 0.5 g |
| Spices for the meat chunks | |
| salt | 6.2 g |
| Cure #1 | 0.8 g |
| pepper | 0.2 g |
| allspice | 0.2 g |
| mace | 0.2 g |
The version without beef can be found here.
In addition, you also need the “Einlage” (these are the meat pieces which will be added to the sausage base):
You can use between 35% and 55% of lean pork for this.
How much you use depends on your taste.
I used 35%. This means that I used 350 g of lean pork meat for 1 kg of the base sausage meat.
Important: The “inlay” should be salted 24 h before preparing the final sausage. For more details, see the step-by-step explanation below.
Spices for the 350 g “Einlage” (these are the meat pieces which will be added to the sausage base):
The equipment to make Bierschinken
You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks with it.
Food processor / Thermomix
In a food processor, the minced meat and ingredients are mixed into a very fine mass. If you have a Thermomix, you can also use it for this process.
Artificial casings / Jars
To fill your sausage you need either 45 caliber artificial casing or jars to boil it down.
Homemade Bierschinken – Step-By-Step Instruction
Day 1: We prepare the “Einlage”
Cut the lean pork into cubes. You can adjust the size depending on how big you want them to be in the final sausage.
Put the meat pieces together with the salt, seasoning and cure into a vacuum bag and vacuum seal them. Alternatively, you can use a zip-lock bag (the air should be squeezed out as much as possible).
Now let the meat rest in your refrigerator for at least 24 hours. This process is not a real curing process, but helps pre-seasoning the pieces.
Day 2: Let’s make the sausage
Cut your meat and back fat into strips. The size varies depending on how big your meat grinder is. The bigger the grinder, the bigger your pieces of meat can be.
Put the meat in the freezer for 1-2 hours. This will help later on with the grinding process and the temperature.
Grind your spices (except for the cutter phosphate) to a fine powder.
Now it’s time to grind the meat. Grind the meat through the finest perforated disc (2mm). Let the meat through the meat grinder twice.
Put the meat mixture into a sausage cutter or your food processor.
Add the spices and cutter phosphate and let it mix.
Mix the meat and add some crushed ice from time to time. The crushed ice is used to make your mixture nice and creamy. Mix until it forms a nice cohesive mass. Measure the temperature in between. The meat should not be warmer than 12 C° (53.6 °F), otherwise your mass will lose its binding and the sausage will crumble later on.
Get the “Einlage” out of the fridge and dab it dry with a clean kitchen towell. Add it to the base sausage meat and mix everything well.
You can fill it into artificial casings or jars. Make sure that not much air gets into the jars.
Now put the jars into a pot with water and at 100 °C / 212 °F for 120 minutes.
If you want to use a casing you need to poach your Bierschinken for about 1 minute per mm caliber in 80 C° hot water (176 °F). This means that if you use artificial casings caliber 45 -> You poach them for 45 minutes. The core temperature of the sausage should then be between 70 – 72 C° (158 – 162 °F).
Let it cool down and there it is… Your Bierschinken. Enjoy!
Frequently asked questions
What is Bierschinken, and where is the ham?
What is Bierschinken, and where is the ham?
Schinken is the German word for ham, and there is none in here. The name is about the table, not the recipe: Bierschinken is what you put out with a beer in the afternoon, which is where it got its name, and the intro says as much. What it actually is, is a scalded sausage. A fine sausage base is cut smooth in the cutter, and whole cubes of lean pork are stirred through it at the end.
Those cubes are the point, and they are why it reads as ham on the plate. Cut a slice and you get pale pink sausage base with clearly visible pieces of meat set into it, which is the look a slice of ham has and which no other scalded sausage gives you. That is also the difference from Bierwurst, a sausage people mix it up with constantly: Bierwurst is cut smooth all the way through with nothing set into it, while Bierschinken keeps its meat pieces whole. Same family, different cut face.
How long does the Bierschinken keep?
How long does the Bierschinken keep?
The Bierschinken can be kept in the refrigerator for about 4 – 5 days when cut open. In an airtight casing it can be kept refrigerated for about 14 days. Cooked in jars, keep it in the fridge and use it within 2–3 weeks.
What is Cure #1 and what is Cutters Phospate
Hey Aage,
I will publish some extensive articles on those topics. In short: Cure #1 or Prague Powder #1 is Salt with nitrites that help with color and shelf life. Cutters Phosphate are phosphates that help with the emulsion and binding of the meat and water without adding any taste.
Hope that helps
Daniel
Daniel, probably the best word in the English language for einlage could be ‘insert” given the context of the theme
Hey Edward,
thanks makes sense. Pretty straightforward. I thought of it but thought it would be a literal translation no one will understand 😀
Cheers
Daniel
What kind of jars are those? This can then be stored on the shelf?
They are called WECK preserving jars. You can use any preserving jar for this. And they can be stored for about 6 months yes.