Homemade Jagdwurst – Delicious Goodness

In this post I’ll show you how you can make Jagdwurst yourself. The Jagdwurst is one of the best known cold cuts in Germany and relatively easy to make. 

The literal translation is “Hunting Sausage”. The sausage easily transportable and was taken along on the hunt as rations. This is probably how the hunting sausage got its name.

You use a Schinkenwurst mass as the base and then add some coarsely ground meat to it. Typically chuck was coarsely minced and added to the fine base sausage meat along with mustard seeds.

Enough talk! Here you can find the complete Jagdwurst recipe as a video or to read through.

Have fun and good luck making it!

Make your own Jagdwurst – what you need for it

Ingredients per 1 kg base

• 40 % lean pork (400 g)
• 30 % pork back fat (300 g)
• 20 % lean beef e.g. shoulder (200 g)
• 10 % Crushed Ice / Ice Water (100 g)

For the insert:

• 50 % pork belly
• 50 % pork shoulder

You need 50 % of base mass as insert. This means that you need 500 g of insert for every 1 kg of sausage base.

Important: The insert should be salted and seasoned 24 hours before preparing the final sausage. For more details, see the step-by-step explanation below.

Spices per KG base:

• 15.5 g salt
• 2.5 g Cure #1
• 2 g white pepper
• 0,5 g coriander
• 1 g onion powder
• 0,5 g ginger
• 0,5 g garlic powder
• 0,5 g mace
• 3 g Cutter Phosphate
• 3 g mustard seeds

Spices per KG insert:

• 17.5 g salt
• 2.5 g Cure #1
• 0,5 g pepper
• 0,5 g allspice 
• 0,5 g mace

Equipment needed to make Jagdwurst

Meat Grinder

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.

Spice grinder / mortar

To grind your spices, it is best to use a spice mill. Alternatively, a mortar is also suitable. Or you can use already ground spices. I recommend to grind them yourself.

Sausage filler / attachment for the meat grinder / hand filling funnel

You need this to get your meat mass into the casing. For the beginning you can also use a filler for your meat grinder or a hand funnel. 

Artificial casings / Jars

To fill your sausage you need either 45 caliber artificial casing or jars to preserve it.

Homemade Jagdwurst – Step-By-Step Instruction

Day 1: We prepare the “Insert”

1. Cut the “Insert” meat into strips. You can adjust the size depending on the size of your grinder.

2. 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).

3. 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

4. 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.

5. Put the meat in the freezer for 1-2 hours. This will help later on with the grinding process and the temperature.

6. Now grind the spices (except for the mustard seeds and cutter phosphate) to a fine powder

7. 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.

8. Then grind the “Insert” through the coarse perforated disc. 

9. Put the finely ground meat mixture into a sausage cutter or your food processor.

10. Add the spices, salt, cure and cutter phosphate and let it mix. 

11. 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.

12. Add the mustard seeds and the coarsely ground “insert” to the sausage meat and mix the mass.  

13. You can fill it into artificial casings or jars. Make sure that not much air gets into the jars.

14. Cook the jars cook them at 100 °C / 212 °F for 120 minutes. For the artificial casing version poach the sausage for about 45 minutes hours in 80 C° hot water (176 °F). Depending on how thick your casings are, this may take longer.

15. Let it cool down and there it is… Your Jagdwurst. Enjoy!

What is the shelf life of the sausage?

The sausage can be kept in the refrigerator for about 4 – 5 days when cut open. In one piece it can be kept refrigerated for about 14 days. Cooked in jars it can be kept for several months.