In this post I show you how you can make Kaminwurzen yourself. With a moderate effort you achieve a super tasty result.
The Kaminwurzen is a specialty from South Tyrol. It is cold smoked.
The original recipe is made with beef. But you can also replace the lean part of the recipe with pork, venison or wild boar. It should just be a lean piece of meat.
Here you can find the complete Kaminwurzen recipe as a video or to read through.
Have fun and good luck making it!
Table of Contents
Making your own Kaminwurz – What do you need?
Ingredients per 1 kg
- 70 % lean beef (700 g)
- 30 % pork back fat (300 g)
Spices per 1 kg
- 21.5 g salt
- 2.5 g cure #1
- 2 g black pepper
- 2 g garlic powder
- 2 g dextrose (alternatively normal sugar)
- 1,5 g coriander
- 1 g white pepper
- 0,5 g mace
- 50 ml dry red wine
Equipment for making Kaminwurzen
You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks with it.
You need a sausage stuffer to get your meat mass into the casing. If you are starting out you can also add an attachment to your grinder or use a modified plastic bottle or funnel.
Sausage casings
The Kaminwurzen is filled in natural casings. I use sheep casings caliber 24/26.
Smoker
You need the smoker to smoke your Kaminwurzen.
Cold Smoke Generator and smoking flour
The cold smoke generator burns for about 12 hours. This saves you to constantly refill the smoking flour.
Sewing needle or sausage picker
You will need the needle if air got into the sausage during filling.
Make Kaminwurzen yourself- Step-By-Step Instructions
1. 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.
2. Put the meat in the freezer for about 1 hour. This will help later on with the grinding process.
3. Grind the spices. This ensures that they can later be well distributed in the sausage.
4. Now it’s time to grind the meat. Grind the meat through the finest perforated disc (3mm).
5. Add the spices and the red wine to the meat.
6. Now mix the mass with your hands for a few minutes until a nice binding is formed.
7. You can now fill the mixture into casings. Which one you use is up to you. I use sheep casing caliber 24/26
8. Twist off the filled Kaminwurzen. You can choose the length to your liking. To do this, press the sausage to the desired length with two fingers on each hand and rotate it forward a few times. Then leave out one sausage length and repeat the process.
9. Poke out the air holes with a needle or a sausage picker.
10. Hang the Kaminwurzen for an additional 24 hours at room temperature 20 C° (67°F) so that they can dry. The humidity should be >75%. This is best achieved with a damp cloth nearby. The Kaminwurzen should be able to dry but not lose moisture too quickly.
10. You can now hang them in the smoker and cold smoke them. I did 2 runs here. One run means 12 hours of smoke and 12 hours of no smoke. The temperature should ideally be between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius (59 – 68 °F).
11. Your Kaminwurzen are ready😄. You can either eat them directly or let them ripen further in the basement < 15 degrees Celsius (59 Fahrenheit). Depending on how firm you want them. I typically let them rest for 3 weeks. Enjoy them.
What is the shelf life of Kaminwurzen?
Thanks to smoking, your Kaminwurzen will keep longer.
To prevent the sausages from drying out or losing their flavor, it is best to pack them in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Never heard of this before, sounds interesting. The only question I have how do you cook it, is it safe at only 20C out of the smoker?
yes it is, because of the cure, the time, the smoke.