Homemade beef sausage in the oven

Beef, Natural casings, Nitrite salt, Table salt, Garlic, Black pepper, Nutmeg

Slice: 15 min. Cooking: 15 min. Chill in the refrigerator: 8 h. Let it stand: 30 min. Cooking: 30 min. Bake in the oven: 5 h. Cool down: 10 min. Chill in the refrigerator: 12 h.

Take beef (1 kg) that is medium-fat: small pieces of fat should be visible in the minced meat. Pass the meat through a meat grinder with a coarse grate.

Add table salt (6 g), nitrite salt (10 g), minced garlic (6 g), black pepper (2 g), and nutmeg (2 g). Mix the minced meat very thoroughly, cover it with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours.

Nitrite salt is essential here: it helps preserve the taste, aroma, and pink color of the sausage after cooking. Do not increase its amount beyond the specified weight.

Soak natural casing (1 piece) in water at room temperature for 20-30 minutes. Slide the casing onto the sausage-making attachment of the meat grinder, leaving a free end for air to escape.

Fill the casing with the minced meat without dividing it into separate sausages right away. Once all the minced meat is used, shape the sausages into lengths of about 20-35 cm. Tie the ends with smooth, lint-free thread. If there are air pockets inside, gently distribute the minced meat and pull the casing to ensure the sausage is tightly packed.

Place the sausage in a cold oven and insert a cooking probe into the center of one sausage. Set the oven to 60 °C and cook until the internal temperature of the sausage reaches 45 °C.

Without opening the oven, increase the temperature to 80 °C. When the internal temperature of the sausage reaches 60 °C, place a tray with boiling water on the bottom rack of the oven.

Continue cooking at 80 °C until the internal temperature of the sausage reaches 69-72 °C. Typically, the entire cooking stage takes about 5 hours.

Transfer the finished sausage to a container and cool it under cold running water for about 10 minutes. Pat it dry with a lint-free towel.

Store the sausage in the refrigerator for 12-16 hours to mature. After cooling, slice it and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 7 days at a temperature of 5-7 °C.