The recipe for homemade Alsatian cervelas, a smooth, tender sausage to serve in a salad, grilled or with mustard
A nicely chilled cervelas salad on a summer evening, or a few warm slices with good mustard: it doesn’t take much to treat yourself. Cervelas is a traditional sausage much loved for its tender texture and subtle flavor, which comes from a balanced blend of meats and spices. Made at home, it keeps a fine texture and a delicate hint of nutmeg and clove. The first slice, still warm, often disappears before it reaches the table.
What Is Cervelas?
It’s a fine-textured sausage made from beef, pork and pork rind, ground together until they form an emulsion. You’ll find it everywhere in Switzerland, Alsace and Germany.
Its name comes from the Italian cervellata, itself derived from the Latin cerebellum, “little brain.” It harks back to the pork brains that went into the original recipe.
A Swiss National Sausage, Adopted by Alsace
In Switzerland, cervelas is considered the national sausage.
Over time, the recipe evolved to include other meats and other spices, depending on each region’s tastes and what was available locally. In Alsace and Germany, cervelas became an everyday deli meat, as good in a salad as it is grilled on the barbecue.
The Main Ingredients in Cervelas
Beef provides the meaty base, lean pork adds texture and flavor, and pork belly brings fat and tenderness. Pork rind contributes body and helps bind the ingredients together.
Ice (frozen water) helps create a smooth, sticky emulsion during grinding. Salt serves both to preserve and to season.
The seasoning stays subtle: fresh onion for sweetness, pepper, coriander for a spicy, lemony note, nutmeg, garlic and a hint of clove, warm and slightly sweet. The mixture is then stuffed into beef casings.
A recipe contributed by Fabian Hardy
Equipment
- bowl cutter
Ingredients
Meat Mixture
- 300 g beef
- 100 g lean pork
- 220 g pork belly
- 150 g pork rind
- 230 g ice water
Seasonings
- 17 g salt
- 5 g onion fresh
- 1 g pepper
- 1 g coriander
- 1 g nutmeg
- 1 g garlic
- 0.5 g cloves
Instructions
- Chop all the ingredients in a bowl cutter, adding the ice last, until you get a fine, sticky emulsion.
- Stuff into beef casings, size 34/36 or 36/38.
- Hot-smoke for 50 min at 80°.
- Cook for 20 to 25 min at 75°, to reach an internal temperature of 70°.
- Cool in very cold water.
