German Mettenden – Delicious sausage for snacking or stews
- Type
- Cured sausage
- Level
- Medium
- Rating
- Rate this recipe
In this post I’ll show you how to make your own Mettenden.
Mettenden are cold smoked and a subgrouping of the Mettwurst. They are small sausages that you can use as a snack, or very well in stews.
If you want to make a spreadable Mettwurst? No problem, you can find my Mettwurst recipe here.
For the production, you should definitely have some time. After filling, the Mettenden have to ferment for 24 hours and are then cold-smoked twice for 48 hours in total.
But now enough talking!
Here you can find the complete Mettenden recipe as a video or to read through.
Table of Contents
Mettenden – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| lean pork | 700 g | 70 % |
| pork back fat | 300 g | 30 % |
Spices per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| salt | 22.5 g |
| mustard seeds | 10 g |
| paprika | 3 g |
| Cure #1 | 2.5 g |
| black pepper | 2.5 g |
The equipment to make Mettenden
You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks with it.
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 starters, a filler attachment for your meat grinder or a hand filler funnel will work for this. I use this one.
Natural casings
For filling your mass you need natural casings. I use here pork intestine caliber 28/30.
Smoker
You need the smoker to smoke your Mettenden.
Smoking screw and smoking flour
The smoking screw burns for about 12 hours. This saves you to constantly refill the smoking flour.
Make Mettenden – Step-By-Step Instructions
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.
Now it’s time to grind the meat. Grind the meat through the medium perforated disc (4.5 mm).
You can fill the mass into the casings. I use a 28/30 caliber pork casing, make sure there is no air trapped in the sausage.
Twist off your Mettenden to the size you want.
Remove any air holes with a needle or sausage pricker.
Hang the Mettenden at room temperature and let them ferment for 24 hours. The humidity should be around 80%. You can spray them with water from time to time and hang a damp towel next to them.
You can now hang them in the smoker and cold smoke. I smoked them for 2 passes. One “pass” means 12 hours of smoke and 12 hours of no smoke. The temperature should ideally be between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius (64.4 -68 °F). If you want to avoid smoking, it is now ready to eat. But I recommend you to let it mature a few days in any case.
After the second pass, the Mettenden will have a nice color. If you want them firmer, you can also let them ripen and dry for a few more days in a cool basement.
Your Mettenden are ready 😄. Enjoy them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Mettenden and Mettwurst?
What is the difference between Mettenden and Mettwurst?
Mettwurst is the umbrella term and Mettenden are one branch of it. Both are raw sausages made from pork, cured and matured rather than cooked. What separates them is the format. Mettenden go into a narrow casing, the 28/30 calibre this recipe uses, are cold smoked and are eaten whole, while a spreadable Mettwurst is ground finer and goes onto the bread rather than beside it.
They come from Westphalia, and they are as firm as you decide to let them get. Straight out of the smoker they are still soft, which is exactly what you want if they are going into a stew. Hang them longer in a cool place, the way step 10 suggests, and they tighten up into the snack sausage most people picture when they hear Mettenden.
What is the shelf life of Mettenden?
What is the shelf life of Mettenden?
Thanks to smoking and drying, your Mettenden will keep longer.
To prevent the sausages from drying out or losing their flavor, it’s best to pack them in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
In general, I would also recommend eating them within 2-3 weeks.
This should not be a problem because of the delicious taste ;).
