In this post, I’ll show you how to make Brühpolnische yourself. The Brühpolnische is a strongly smoked boiled sausage with coarse fillings: on the outside, a finely bound casing of ground meat; on the inside, clearly visible pieces of pork belly. It has a hearty flavor of caraway, mustard, and garlic and tastes just as good served warm with mustard and bread as it does cold, sliced on a snack platter.
The recipe is of moderate difficulty: you’ll be mincing the fine sausage meat in a food processor, working at cold temperatures (max. 15 °C; 59.00 °F), and cooking the sausages in a smoker and in a water bath. If this is your first time working with fine sausage meat and a food processor, plan on spending a little extra time—the reward is a sausage like the ones you’d normally only find at the butcher’s.
If you’d rather make the air-dried version, check out my post on Rohpolnische. You can find more boiled sausage recipes to try, such as Vienna sausages and the classic Bockwurst.
Here you can find the complete brühpolnische recipe as a video or to read through.
Have fun and good luck making it!
Brühpolnische – What do you need to make it?
With the right ingredients and a little patience, you can whip up this specialty in no time.
Ingredients per 1 kg
- 40 % pork belly (400 g)
- 33 % lean pork (330 g)
- 18 % pork back fat (180 g)
- 9 % Crushed ice / ice water (90 g)
Spices per kg
- 15.5 g salt
- 2.5 g Cure #1
- 3 g Cutter Phosphate (e.g BRIFISOL 414, PhosThis!, Ames Phos)
- 6 g mustard seeds
- 4 g garlic powder
- 3 g black pepper
- 2 g caraway seeds
- 1 g onion powder
- 1 g mace
The equipment to make Brühpolnische
You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks and can then be mixed.
Sausage stuffer / Grinder attachment / Funnel
You need this to get your sausage mass into the casing. If you do not have one, you can also use a filling attachment for your meat grinder or a hand filling funnel.
Smoker oven
You need the smoker to smoke your Brühpolnische.
Natural casings
The Brühpolnische is stuffed into natural casings. I recommend you to use pork casing caliber 28/30.
Make Brühpolnische yourself – Step-By-Step Instructions
These instructions will guide you step by step to the perfect Brühpolnische.
1. Cut the lean pork, the pork back fat, and the pork belly separately into pieces suitable for the meat grinder. Important: Keep all three types in separate bowls, because the fine mixture (lean meat and fat) will later be ground differently and more finely than the coarse mixture made from pork belly.
2. Place the sliced lean meat, back fat, and pork belly in the freezer for about 1 hour, until everything is well chilled but not completely frozen. This step is crucial for making brühpolnische: only meat that is truly cold will reliably stay below 15 °C (59.00 °F) during mincing and cutting, ultimately giving you a firm, clean texture in the fine sausage meat.
3. Wolfe, grind the lean pork and the pork back fat separately using the fine-hole disc. Do not mix the fat and lean meat: this will give you full control over the temperature and the texture later on during the culling process. A cleanly separated fine mince is the key to a brühpolnische sausage that doesn’t break apart.
4. Now switch to the medium-sized perforated disc and grind the pork belly completely. The coarse texture should remain clearly visible when the meat is sliced: it is the visual and flavor signature of Brühpolnische.
5. Place the ground lean pork in a cutter or a powerful food processor along with the crushed ice, salt, Cure #1, Cutter Phosphate, mustard seeds, garlic powder, black pepper, caraway seeds, onion powder, and mace. Mix everything thoroughly until a sticky, homogeneous mixture forms. The ice cools the mixture and provides the binding agent for the sausage meat.
6. Now add the ground pork back fat little by little to the running cutter. Important: Check the temperature frequently with a thermometer—the mixture must not exceed 15 °C (59.00 °F), otherwise the sausage mixture will separate and the sausage will become greasy and dry during cooking. If it gets too warm, pause briefly or add a little more ice.
7. Now set the food processor to low speed and briefly mix the coarsely ground pork belly into the sausage mixture. It should be evenly distributed but remain clearly visible: the shorter the processing time, the coarser the pieces will be when you cut into the sausage. I want to be able to clearly see the pieces at the end.
Book recommendation: The Full Guide On Making Sausages Easily At Home – Step-by-step instructions & 37 delicious recipes
8. Use the sausage stuffer to fill the prepared mixture into soaked pork casings (caliber 28/30) Do not overfill them, or the casings will burst later in the smoker or in the scalding bath. The filled casing should still give slightly when pressed with a finger.
9. Twist the Brühpolnische to your desired length. The standard length is about 12 to 15 cm per sausage, which is roughly the serving size of a real Brühpolnische from the butcher. Hold the sausage between two fingers, twist it forward, leave a length of sausage untwisted, and repeat the process in the other direction.
10. Hang the stuffed sausages in the smoker and let them dry at 50 °C (122.00 °F) for about 30 minutes, without smoke. Drying brings the surface of the casings to the optimal condition for the subsequent hot smoking: only a well-dried sausage absorbs the smoke properly and takes on the typical golden-brown color.
11. Now raise the temperature in the smoker to 80 °C (176.00 °F) and let the brühpolnische sit in the hot smoke for another 30 minutes. During this phase, the sausage develops its characteristic color and smoky, hearty flavor.
12. Remove the sausages from the smoker and place them immediately in the water bath. Poach them at 80 °C (176.00 °F) for about 20 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches about 72 °C. Keep the water temperature constant; significant fluctuations above 80 °C would weaken the binding and cause fat to leach out of the sausage meat.
13. As soon as the internal temperature is reached, place the sausages directly into an ice bath. Plunging them into ice water stops the cooking process, prevents the casings from shrinking further, and ensures a crisp bite when you take a bite. Leave them in the ice water for about 5 to 10 minutes until they are thoroughly chilled.
14. Your Brühpolnische is ready. You can eat it warm with a dollop of mustard, a slice of hearty bread, and a pickled gherkin, or serve it cold, thinly sliced, on a snack platter. When you cut into it, you’ll see the coarse pork belly filling surrounded by the fine, compact sausage meat—exactly how a good Brühpolnische should look. Enjoy! 🙂
Frequently asked questions
How long does homemade Brühpolnische last?
Your Brühpolnische will keep well in the refrigerator for 5 to 7 days. If vacuum-sealed in individual portions and frozen, it will keep for 3 months without any problems. Important: After the ice bath, drain the sausages well and store them in a dry place; otherwise, the surface will quickly become greasy.
Can I make Brühpolnische without a smoker?
Basically, yes, but you’ll lose the smoky, hearty flavor that defines Brühpolnische. Without a smoker, you can dry the sausages in any oven at 50 °C (122.00 °F) for 30 minutes and then place them directly into a water bath at 80 °C (176.00 °F) to poach them. As a compromise, you can add a little smoked salt to the sausage mixture, but this doesn’t come close to the flavor of true cold or hot smoking.
Which casings are suitable for Brühpolnische?
I use pork casings caliber 28/30. They’re sturdy enough to withstand smoking and boiling without splitting, and they give the brühpolnische the typical appearance of a butcher’s sausage. Thinner sheep casings aren’t the right choice for this hearty sausage.
Why do my Brühpolnischen split during boiling?
This is almost always because the sausage mixture’s temperature rose above 15 °C (59.00 °F) during mixing. As soon as that happens, the protein loses its binding power and the fat separates from the mixture when heated. Therefore, make sure to use chilled ingredients (frozen meat, crushed ice) and monitor the temperature with a thermometer during mixing.
What is the difference between Brühpolnische sausage and Rohpolnische?
Rohpolnische is an air-dried raw sausage; it is not boiled but is cold-cured under controlled humidity conditions. Brühpolnische, on the other hand, is poached in a water bath at 80 °C (176.00 °F) after smoking, making it ready to eat right away. If you’d like to try the raw version, you’ll find the complete recipe in my post.
What’s the best way to serve Brühpolnische?
I prefer to eat it warm straight from the water bath with a dollop of spicy mustard, a slice of sourdough bread, and a pickled cucumber. Cut into thin slices and served cold, it’s excellent on a snack platter alongside other classic snacks. By the way, grilling works too, but be careful: only briefly and over high heat, otherwise the already-poached sausage will dry out.