Pinkel – A delicious sausage from Northern Germany
- Type
- Pre-cooked sausage
- Level
- Medium
- Rating
- Rate this recipe
In this post I’ll show you how to make German Pinkel yourself. It is relatively simple and quick to make.
As with most types of sausage, there are also regional differences in the Pinkel. My variation is based on a Bremer Pinkel. Bremen is a city in Northern Germany.
The Pinkel is a pre-cooked sausage which is typically eaten with kale and potatoes. Tt has a light smoke taste infused through cold smoking.
Here you can find the complete Pinkel recipe as a video or to read through.
Have fun and good luck making it! I would be happy if you leave me a comment if you succeeded.
Table of Contents
Pinkel – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| pork belly | 500 g | 50 % |
| cooked groats | 400 g | 40 % |
| onions | 100 g | 10 % |
Spices per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| salt | 22 g |
| black pepper | 3 g |
| allspice | 0.5 g |
| clove | 0.25 g |
The equipment to make Pinkel
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 Pinkel is filled in natural casings. I use pork casings caliber 28/30.
Smoker
You need the smoker to smoke your Pinkel.
Cold Smoke Generator and smoking flour
The cold smoke generator burns for about 12 hours. This saves you to constantly refill the smoking flour.
Make Pinkel – Step-By-Step Instructions
Cook the groats according to the package instructions. I cook them without salt, as I weigh the spices based on how much sausage in total I want to produce and add them later.
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 a sealable plastic bag. Alternatively, you can vacuum seal it.
Put the bag in a water bath and let it cook at about 75 °C (167 °F) for one hour. The easiest way to do this is to use a sous vide stick. Alternatively, you can cook the meat directly in the water. Pay attention to how much liquid is lost so that you can add it back to the sausage later.
Grind the spices to a fine powder.
After cooking, separate the liquid from the meat. If you cooked the meat in the pot without a bag, you can now skim off the broth proportionate to the weight that was lost while cooking.
Grind the meat together with the onions. I use the medium perforated disk. Depending on how fine you want your Pinkel, you can also use another.
Add the cooked groats together with the spices to the meat.
Mix the ingredients so that you get a nice binding.
Fill the sausage meat into casings. I use pork casings caliber 28/30.
Twist off the Pinkel to the desired length. To achieve 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.
Poach the sausage at 78 °C (172.4 °F) for 30 minutes.
Let the sausage cool down well. Then hang it in the smoker for 12 hours of cold smoking. The temperature should ideally be around 15 degrees Celsius (59 °F) and not exceed 20 degrees Celsius (68 °F).
Your Pinkel is ready 😄. Cook a nice stew out of kale and potatoes and add it to it. It will taste amazing!
Frequently asked questions
What is Pinkelwurst?
What is Pinkelwurst?
Pinkel and Pinkelwurst are the same sausage, and you will find it spelled pinkel wurst and pinklewurst as well. It is a pre-cooked sausage from the northwest of Germany built on pork belly, groats and onions, cold-smoked at the end, and it is eaten with kale and potatoes. That pairing is not a suggestion, it is the dish.
The groats are what make it a Pinkel rather than a plain smoked sausage. They are cooked first, then mixed into the ground meat, and they give the sausage the loose, crumbly texture it spreads into when you cook it in the kale.
What is the difference between Bremer and Oldenburger Pinkel?
What is the difference between Bremer and Oldenburger Pinkel?
The fat. This recipe is a Bremer Pinkel, so it runs on pork belly and oat groats. The Oldenburg version often takes beef kidney fat or pork leaf lard instead of the belly. Both are cold-smoked and both end up in the same pot of kale.
What is the shelf life of Pinkel?
What is the shelf life of Pinkel?
The Pinkel can be kept in the fridge for about 7 days.
