Author | Dominic Trimboli

Brand | MEAT!

When the crew from MEAT! bags a boar it’s just a matter of time before we break out our favorite brat recipe, Wild Boar Cherry Beer Brats. Today, we’re starting from scratch and teaching you how to grind, stuff, smoke and serve these sausages in your kitchen.

We’ll be using MEAT! Grinders, Sausage Stuffers, Mixers and Scales to make the entire sausage making process as easy as possible. Then we’ll take it a step further and smoke our brats on a Grilla Pellet Grill, adding an extra layer of smokey flavor!

For more recipes like this, or to see the gear we used to make everything, go to meatyourmaker.com and grillagrills.com.

Prep Time: 1 Hour

Sausage Grinding Time: 20 Minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 

Estimated Servings: 5lbs of Sausage

Ingredients:

  • 4 lbs. Boar Shoulder
  • 1 lbs. Pork Fat
  • 6-8 Cloves Garlic
  • 2-3 C. Fresh Cherries, Pitted and Quartered
  • Kosher Salt
  • Coarse Ground Pepper
  • ¼ C. Red Wine
  • 3-5 Tbsp. Fennel Seed
  • 2 Tbsp. Sage
  • 2 Tbsp. Thyme
  • 15 Dashes Worcestershire Sauce
  • Beer (Cherry Wheat Ale is preferable)

Equipment Needed

MEAT! .5 HP Dual Grind Grinder

MEAT! 5lbs. Vertical Sausage Stuffer

MEAT! 20lbs. Meat Mixer

MEAT! 44lbs. Stainless Scale

Silverbac Pellet Grill

Homemade Sausage Making Directions:

  1. Cube your meat into roughly 2” pieces and then partially freeze your meat and fat to make grinding easier.
  2. Remove the sausage casings from their original packaging. To remove excess salt, thoroughly rinse and set in cool water overnight, or for at least 1 hour in lukewarm water prior to stuffing.
    1. Pro Tip: Freeze the grinder throat as well. This will keep it from getting hot and will help with grinding the meat.
  3. Peel and mince your garlic, de-pit and dice your cherries and prepare your dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
  4. Place your partially frozen meat in a bowl and add half of your Thyme, Sage, Fennel Seed, Salt, Pepper, and all your garlic. Mix until well incorporated and place back in the freezer if necessary to harden again.
  5. With your meat and fat still partially frozen, put small chucks through the grinder. We are using a 25-30% ratio of fat to wild game.
    1. Grind your meat and fat with the fine grind plate attached.
  6. Once you’ve finished grinding, add your ground meat-and-fat mix to the MEAT! 20lb Meat Mixer with the rest of your wet and dry ingredients. Add in your diced cherries as well and thoroughly mix until your meat has taken on a slightly sticky texture.
  7. Using the MEAT! 5-lb Stuffer, press your final meat mixture into the canister. You will want to make sure you get it packed down to remove any air bubbles from the meat.
    1. We suggest lightly throwing the meat into the canister with a little force and lightly packing it down every so often.
  8. With the canister full, attach the casing to the stuffing tube. Leave an inch of casing hanging off and do not tie until you have pumped in some of the meat into the casing.
  9. Twist off the size brats you want as you pump.
  10. Using a sanitized sausage pricker or fine needle, prick sausage to pop air bubbles.
  11. Hang sausages for 3-4 hours then place in fridge for a couple hours to allow casing to shrink and adhere to meat.

Cooking Directions:

  1. Start by heating up your Silverbac Pellet Grill to 220 degrees.
  2. Place your brats in a cast iron skillet or similar cooking container you can safely place on the smoker.
  3. Pour your beer into the container with your brats, the more you pour the heavier the beer flavor will be.
  4. Place your brats onto your smoker and allow them to smoke until they reach an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees.
    1. Pro tip: Remove the brats from the pan before they reach 165 degrees and finish by searing on a grill for an extra bit of fire roasted char flavor and texture!
  5. For additional flavor, add chopped white onion, bell peppers and cherry tomatoes to the pan as well as they cook.