Zwiebelmettwurst Recipe – German Spreadable Onion Sausage
- Type
- Cured sausage
- Level
- Easy
- Rating
- 5.0 (1)
In this post I’ll show you how to make Zwiebelmettwurst yourself. It is perfect for beginners! You need few ingredients and with a little effort you get an extremely tasty cured sausages.
Zwiebelmettwurst is one of the spreadable cured sausages and is served fresh, smoked, fine, medium or coarse. I opted for an unsmoked version here.
The biggest advantage of a homemade Zwiebelmett is that you can adjust the fat content as well as the taste yourself.
Enough talking, you can find the complete Zwiebelmettwurst recipe either as video or in written format.
Have fun and good luck making it!
Table of Contents
Zwiebelmettwurst – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| pork shoulder | 500 g | 50 % |
| pork belly | 500 g | 50 % |
Spices per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| Zwiebelmettwurst | |
| onions white or red | 75 g |
| salt | 22 g |
| paprika, sweet | 3 g |
| Cure #1 | 2.5 g |
| white pepper | 2 g |
| sugar | 2 g |
| mace | 1 g |
| Variant with wild garlic | |
| Additional 20-50 g wild garlic per kg of meat | — |
The equipment to make Zwiebelmettwurst
You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks with it.
Artificial casings / Jars
To fill your sausage you need either 45 caliber artificial casing or jars to boil it down.
Make Zwiebelmettwurst – Step-By-Step Instructions
Cut your meat 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.
Quarter your onions and add them to the meat.
Grind your spices to a fine powder.
Add the spices to your meat and massage them in.
Put the meat in the freezer for 1 hour to freeze.
Grind the meat and onions through the smallest perforated disc of your meat grinder.
Mix the mass well. It should have a nice binding. You can optionally add more herbs and spices. A lovely variation for example is with wild garlic.
Fill the mass into sterile natural casings or jars. Make sure that as little air as possible gets into the casing. Also pay attention to the temperature of your meat. This should never exceed 7 degrees Celsius (44 Fahrenheit), otherwise the shelf life is no longer guaranteed.
Twist the casing 2 to 3 times and tie a knot with a kitchen string.
Leave the sausage in the refrigerator overnight. Afterwards it is cured and ready to eat.
Your Zwiebelmettwurst is ready. I wish you good luck and have fun making it! 🙂
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Zwiebelmett and Zwiebelmettwurst?
What is the difference between Zwiebelmett and Zwiebelmettwurst?
They are the same thing at two stages. Zwiebelmett is the spreadable mixture; Zwiebelmettwurst is that mixture filled into a casing and left to cure. Step 7 is where the recipe splits: fill the mass into casings or jars, or keep it in the bowl and spread it straight onto bread. The seasoning does not change either way.
Filling it does buy you something. In a casing the sausage cures as one piece and keeps better than an open bowl of mett does, which is why the shelf-life answer below gives you two different windows. Which one you pick is a matter of taste rather than a rule.
Can you smoke Zwiebelmettwurst?
Can you smoke Zwiebelmettwurst?
Yes. Once the sausage has cured in the fridge you can hang it in a cold smoker, and it comes out with a deeper aroma and a longer shelf life than the version in this recipe. Nothing above changes: the smoke is a step you add at the end, not a different mixture.
I left it out here on purpose. Unsmoked, the sausage is ready the next day and the onion comes through clean, which is the whole point of a Zwiebelmettwurst. Smoke it if you want it to keep longer or if you like the darker flavour, and leave it as it is if you want the onion.
What is the shelf life of Zwiebelmettwurst?
What is the shelf life of Zwiebelmettwurst?
You should use your Zwiebelmettwurst within 1 to 2 days after cutting it open. In the casings, it should keep for about 5-7 days in the refrigerator.
Alternatively, you can freeze it, then it will keep longer.
May try ! But would like to make fine going headcheeze without boiling the head like the parents did ?
Hey Terry,
what exactly do you mean?
Cheers
Daniel
Ok but seriously
Wie finde ich in Amerika Fleisch. Das auch dog zum Konsum okay ist ?
Ich hab immer Gehör wenn man mett Macht soll man frisches Fleisch nehmen. Und hier sind die aber ja alle schonmal gefroren. Auch wenn du zu nem Farmer gehst ?!
Oder ist das gefrorene okay ?
Danke vielmals
Hey Ella, wenn du zu einem Butcher gehst, ist es meines Erachtens nicht zwangsläufig gefroren, sondern abgehangen. LG Daniel
Where do I get cure #1. Or how do I make it. Whenever I’m in Germany I have Mett everyday
Hey Rick,
depending on where you live sausagemaker.com would be a website where you can purchase it from.
Cheers
Daniel
Hi Daniel,
I have lived in the Uk for 16 years now and I miss it so much and today I stumbled across your tutorial and I can’t wait to try it!
I just wouldn’t know where to buy a good meat grinder, do you have any recommendations?
Thank you
Sarah
Hey Sarah,
just make sure it is stainless steel and is sturdy and has enough power. Then it will last you a long time. If you want to experiment first go with a cheap manual one and switch to a electric one later on.
Cheers
Daniel
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you. After living in the states for 34 years the only thing I still miss is Zwiebelwurst. I’ve learned to substitute or do without everything else. When I visit Germany every 3 years or so I’m eating nothing but zwiebelwurst on my sandwiches for 4 weeks straight. I am beyond excited to have this recipe and I’ve made it trice. Nothing better on good Bauernbrot from the Fresh Market or Whole Foods. You are my hero!
And thanks for throwing in the word Schuppdiewupp in another recipe. I haven’t heard that word since I’ve arrived in 1987.
Haha Regine, that sounds awesome. Good luck making it and enjoy!
Lecker! I am drooling already. Just came back from 3 weeks in Germany and yes Zweibelmettwurst was had everyday. Can you please tell me where I can get the casings? I looked on The Sausage Maker site but a verbatim search did not pull it up.
Thank you so much for posting these recipes!
Hey just checked their website and they call it fibrous casing.
where to get wild garlic while in Germany we had mettwurst mitt garlic severaal times week. we lived in Kusel Platz and Loved it.
Propably only when it is in season. You could use normal garlic or garlic powder if you want to. Even without it tastes amazing.
Hey Daniel
Do I need instant cure,
Thank you
Yes for this type of cured sausage you’ll need it.
Thank you so much
Daniel,
I wanted to thank you for the ZwiebelMettWurst recipe. I tried this as my first ever wurst receipe and it came out so good. I used the fine plate but will use a coarse plate next time as I like it more coarse. I have done a lot of Charcuterie and have been doing old Bavarian recipes but this is a bucket list and you helped. Thank you so much. Now if I can just make Leberkäse correctly instead of it coming our like German Meatloaf / Falscherhase. Haha.
Hey Ken, sounds awesome. I am pretty sure if you follow my Leberkäse recipe you will achieve the desired results.
I’m making the Zwiebelwurst for the second time today.
For those asking where to buy cure 1 (pink salt)…I bought it from Amazon. They sent me enough to last a lifetime.
Thanks for your looking after us “Ausländers”, who just can’t live without our Wurst.
Is your Cure #1 the same as Prague Powder 1?
I also understood Cure #1 is used for meat that requires cooking, brining, smoking or canning while Cure #2 is used or dry cured meats. From the recipe I take it that the Zwiebelmettwurst is neither cooked, brined, smoked or canned, and I wonder why the recipe uses Cure #1? Thanks
Hey Brat,
yes, it is the same. As for the Cure #1 or #2. In Germany we use Nitritpökelsalz which is a premixed salt + cure #1 for every cured sausage. If you want you can exchange it for #2 however it also works completely fine with #1.
Hope that helps
Daniel
Hi, I can’t wait to try this and have missed it so much since last visit to Germany. How can I be sure that there is no danger of trichinosis in the pork? Is it sufficient to use the cure?
Thanks so much for your speedy reply. I have all my ingredients ready.
I have never heard of such thing. I googled and it seems like it should not be in your pork if it is slaughtered, checked and processed right.
Thanks so much. I am looking forward to making Zwiebelmettwurst.
Thank you, I love onion/Zwiebel mettwurst. Maybe it was a different suprmarket chain, but I did find there was a difference between ZM in Saxony (good) and Bavaria (not so good). Is Hackepeter the Berlin version.
Danke Sehr.
Sollte man es mit Rauch machen wollen, räuchert man das Fleisch als es noch ganz ist (bzw. in Stücken) oder nach dem Zerhacken (Fleischwolf)?
Schau dafür am besten mal bei den Mettenden vorbei.
Hallo Daniel,
Ich habe vor das in kleine Einmachgläser zu füllen. Was muss ich dabei beachten?
Viele Grüße,
Mike
I love zwiebelmettwurst! But I don't think the product I have purchased in the past had paprika in it. There was no reddish coloring at all. Can I make it without paprika? Is ther another spice I should use as a substitute?
Just found your website and I am also eating my breakfast of toast and Z/mettwurst , yum yum yum .
I was introduced to this delicacy over forty years ago and having been told raw pork was bad for I was sceptical but I have been ‘hooked’ ever since .
When I buy it from the German Deli in London Uk I can keep it frozen for over 2/3 years and it fine and once open in the refrigerator for over a fortnight and it is still good .
Many thanks and best wishes ,
David .
In your recipe for Zwiebelmettwurst, one of the ingredients is 'cure'. Could you please say what 'cure' is because when I google it, all I get is different types of glue or hairspray?
Thank you
There is a link to it the ingredients list
Do you have a recipe for CZECH. JATERNICE