Zwiebelmettwurst – A Classic German Spread With Onions

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!

Making your own Zwiebelmettwurst – What do you need?

Ingredients for your Zwiebelmettwurst

For 1000 g of Zwiebelmettwurst:

• 50 % pork shoulder (500g)
• 50 % pork belly (500g)

Spices per 1000 g of Zwiebelmettwurst:

• 22 g salt
• 2,5 g Cure #1
• 3g paprika, sweet
• 2 g white pepper
• 2 g sugar
• 1 g mace
• 75 g onions white or red

Variant with wild garlic:

• Additional 20-50 g wild garlic per kg of meat

Equipment for making Zwiebelmettwurst

Meat Grinder

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.

Making Zwiebelmettwurst – Step-By-Step Instructions

1. 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.

2. Quarter your onions and add them to the meat.

2. Grind your spices to a fine powder.

3. Add the spices to your meat and massage them in. 

4. Put the meat in the freezer for 1 hour to freeze. 

5. Grind the meat and onions through the smallest perforated disc of your meat grinder. 

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. Twist the casing 2 to 3 times and tie a knot with a kitchen string. 

9. Leave the sausage in the refrigerator overnight. Afterwards it is cured and ready to eat. 

10. Your Zwiebelmettwurst is ready. I wish you good luck and have fun making it! 🙂

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.