Types of German Sausage, Explained

Short answer:

German food law (the official food code, the Leitsätze für Fleisch und Fleischerzeugnisse) names these three families Brühwurst, Rohwurst and Kochwurst. Once you know which family a sausage is in, you know whether it was cured, whether it was smoked, and how it gets cooked. Below is every German and Austrian style in the DeepWoodz library, what it is, and how to tell them apart.

What are the main types of German sausage?

• Brühwurst (scalded sausage). Raw meat ground with salt and ice, then cooked by poaching, baking or smoking hot. This is the biggest family: bockwurst, knackwurst, weisswurst, rindswurst, Krainer and Leberkäse. Bratwurst is legally in this family too, but it is usually sold raw for you to cook.
• Rohwurst (raw sausage). Cured raw meat that is fermented, smoked or dried and eaten without cooking. Some slice (landjäger, salami) and some spread (raw mettwurst).
• Kochwurst (cooked sausage). Made mostly from meat that was cooked before it was ground, like liver sausage and blood sausage. None of the styles on this page are in this group.

German sausage comparison chart

Which German sausages are fresh?

Fresh means raw and uncured. You buy it raw, or make it raw, and the cooking happens on your grill. No cure, no smoke, and it has to stay cold and get cooked through.

Bratwurst

The everyday grilling sausage. German food law lists several regional bratwursts (Franconian, Palatinate, Hessian and more) and describes them the same way: mostly pork, sometimes veal or beef, not cured, in sheep or hog casings, and often sold raw to be fried, grilled or scalded. The flavor is mild and savory. Our Camp Classic Brats lean on white pepper with nutmeg, mace, ginger and marjoram, and the Iron Kettle Beer Brats add beer, then simmer in beer and onions before they finish on the grill. Our brats go in 32-35 mm hog casing and come off at 160°F internal. The full set is on the bratwurst recipes page.

Thüringer Rostbratwurst

Thuringia's bratwurst, and an EU protected name, so the real thing comes from Thuringia. The protected description is a medium-fine bratwurst in a narrow natural casing, at least 15 cm long and 100 to 150 g, made from pork with possibly some veal or beef. Beyond salt and pepper it is seasoned with caraway, marjoram and garlic, and it is grilled, traditionally over charcoal, and served in a roll with mustard. Our Thüringer Rostbratwurst is a long, thin 7-8" link in 26-28 mm sheep casing, marjoram forward with caraway, garlic and a little lemon peel, grilled to 160°F. The link should hang out both ends of the roll.

Which German sausages are poached?

These are made fully cooked. You build the sausage, cook it in hot water (most also get a short smoke first), cool it, and reheat it later. The water stays well below a boil, 165 to 175°F in our recipes, because boiling splits the casings.

Weisswurst

The Bavarian white sausage. The Münchner Weisswurst is at least 51% veal, with pork back fat, parsley, onion, pepper, mace and lemon, about 12 cm long in a 28-32 mm hog casing. German food law requires it to be uncured, which is why it stays white, and the Munich style includes cooked rind or calf's-head skin for its soft bite. It is heated in water (the Bavarian register gives 25 minutes at 70°C, about 158°F), and it is never smoked. The casing is not eaten: you peel it, or suck the meat out of it. It is a morning sausage, served with sweet mustard, a pretzel and beer, and the Bavarian saying is that it should never hear the noon bells.

Our Weisswurst uses veal, wild turkey breast or pork loin, so it stays white. It is emulsified in a food processor, stuffed in 28-32 mm hog casing, and poached in 170-175°F water to 160°F internal. It has no cure, so eat it within 3 days or freeze it.

Bockwurst

The German bockwurst is in the same legal group as the Wiener sausage: finely chopped, cured and in a narrow casing. It is mostly pork and pork fat, often with some beef, in hog casing usually 28-30 mm and always under 32 mm. It gets a short hot smoke, which turns it brownish, then a poach. It is served hot from the water with mustard and a roll.

American recipes often mean something else by bockwurst: a pale, uncured veal and pork sausage bound with milk and egg, flecked with herbs, and poached without smoke. That one is a close cousin of weisswurst.

Our Bockwurst is the German smoked kind, with bock beer in the batter. It is emulsified, stuffed in 28-32 mm hog casing, smoked at 130°F and then 150°F, and poached in 170-175°F water to 152°F internal.

Knackwurst (knockwurst)

German food law defines knackwurst as beef, fatty pork and fat, usually finely chopped and stuffed in hog casings or beef rounds. It is cured, smoked and poached, and the natural casing gives it a crack when you bite it. In North America, knockwurst is the short, plump link made with fresh garlic. Our Knackwurst leads with fresh garlic and a little German lager, goes into 35-38 mm hog casing twisted into short 4" links, gets 1 hour at 130°F and 2 hours of smoke at 150°F, then poaches in 165-170°F water to 152°F internal.

Rindswurst

The all-beef link. It sits in the same legal group as knackwurst, but the food code says rindswurst contains only beef and beef fat. No pork at all. It is seasoned with pepper and paprika, smoked, then cooked in water, and traditionally made as a long link. Our Rindswurst uses beef chuck or lean wild game with beef fat, white pepper, paprika and mace, in 32-35 mm casing twisted into 12" links. It smokes at 130°F then 150°F and poaches at 165-170°F to 152°F internal. Use collagen casing if you want it completely pork-free. Serve it with sharp mustard and rye bread.

Käsekrainer (Austria)

Austria's sausage-stand classic. The base is a Krainer, which German food law describes as a cured sausage with a fine base and pieces up to pea size, usually in hog casing. Cubes of Emmentaler are mixed in before stuffing, then it is hot smoked and scalded in water that is not boiling. You grill or fry it to serve, and the cheese runs out when you cut it. Our Käsekrainer is mostly pork with some lean beef or game, seasoned with garlic, black pepper and paprika, with real Swiss or Emmentaler in 1/4" cubes. Real Swiss is the point. High-temp cheese is built not to melt. It goes in 28-32 mm hog casing, smokes at 130°F then 150°F, and poaches at 165-170°F to 152°F internal.

What is Leberkäse?

Leberkäse is not a link at all. It is a cured, finely ground meat batter baked in a loaf pan until the top has a dark crust, then cut into thick warm slabs and eaten on a roll with mustard. Despite the name it has no cheese. In Bavaria it normally has no liver either. The German food code puts Fleischkäse, Leberkäse and Bavarian Leberkäse in one entry, notes that Bavarian Leberkäse usually contains no liver, and requires Stuttgarter Leberkäse to contain at least 5% liver. Fleischkäse is the name used for the same liver-free loaf in western Austria, parts of Germany and Switzerland.

Our Leberkäse is the Bavarian, liver-free kind, built on lean wild game or beef with pork and pork fat, and seasoned with marjoram, white pepper, mace, nutmeg, ginger and mustard. The batter has to stay below 53°F in the food processor or it breaks. The top is scored in a diamond pattern, and it bakes at 375°F for 20 minutes, then at 300°F until the center reads 160°F, about 60 to 75 minutes more. It is never smoked.

What is mettwurst?

The name covers very different sausages. In Germany, much of it is raw: cured pork, sometimes with beef, smoked and eaten without cooking, either spread on bread or dried firm enough to slice. Germany also has cooked mettwurst. In the US, mettwurst is usually a smoked link that has to be cooked before you eat it.

Our Mettwurst is the American smoked kind, and it is cooked all the way. It is pork-heavy with some lean game or beef, seasoned with white pepper and whole yellow mustard seed, in 32-35 mm hog casing. It dries at 130°F, smokes at 155°F, and finishes at 175°F to 152°F internal. Serve it split and seared, or simmered in beer and onions and finished on the grill. Never try to make the raw spreadable kind from a smoked-sausage recipe.

Is Thuringer a bratwurst or a summer sausage?

Both, and it depends where you are standing. In Germany, Thüringer means the Thüringer Rostbratwurst above, a fresh grilled brat. In the US, Thuringer means a tangy, semi-dry beef and pork summer sausage. The University of Connecticut's extension sausage guide groups it with cervelat as a tangy sausage that is sometimes called summer sausage.

Our Thuringer Summer Sausage is the American one, Wisconsin style. It is cured with Cure #1, gets its tang from encapsulated citric acid or Fermento (never both; see ECA vs Fermento), and has whole mustard seed and whole white peppercorns you can see in the slice. It goes in 2-2.5" fibrous casing, dries at 130°F, smokes at 150°F, and steps up to 170°F until it reaches 155°F internal, the same pull temp as any summer sausage.

What is landjäger?

The flat, square stick sold in pairs. German food law defines landjäger as a raw cured sausage made from beef, fatty pork and fat, usually in hog casing and pressed flat. The traditional method presses the links, ferments them, cold smokes them and dries them for weeks until they lose about 30% of their weight. Caraway is the classic seasoning.

We make it both ways:

• Hunter's Carry is the traditional fermented kind. It uses Cure #2 and a starter culture, is pressed flat, fermented, cold smoked at 65-70°F and dried until it loses about 30% of its weight. It is never cooked, so the cure and culture are locked. Black pepper, caraway, mustard seed, coriander and garlic.
• Tree Stand Landjäger is the smoker version some American shops make. It uses Cure #1, is stuffed loose into 32-35 mm hog casing as 7" pairs, and pressed overnight in the fridge under about 15 lb. It smokes at 130°F, then 150°F, then 170°F until it hits 155°F internal (160°F for bear, wild boar or feral hog). Then it dries uncovered in the fridge until it has lost about 30% of its stuffed weight, usually 4 to 7 days. Toasted caraway and coriander, black pepper, a little red pepper and dry red wine.

If you want the difference between the two cures, read Cure #1 vs Cure #2.

Knackwurst vs bratwurst: what's the difference?

• Cure: knackwurst is cured and pink inside. Bratwurst is uncured, so it is not pink.
• Cooking: knackwurst is smoked and poached before you ever buy it, so you only reheat it. Bratwurst is raw until you grill it.
• Meat: knackwurst is beef and pork by definition. Bratwurst is mostly pork.
• Shape and flavor: knackwurst is short, plump and garlicky with a snap. Bratwurst is milder.
• Our numbers: knackwurst poaches to 152°F; brats grill to 160°F.

Bockwurst vs bratwurst: what's the difference?

• Cure: German bockwurst is cured. Bratwurst is not.
• Texture: bockwurst is finely chopped and smooth, close to a frank. Bratwurst comes both coarse and fine, depending on the region.
• Cooking: bockwurst is smoked and poached, then reheated in hot water. Bratwurst is grilled or fried from raw.
• The American catch: a pale, uncured US bockwurst made with veal, milk and egg is closer to weisswurst than to either.

What temperature are German sausages done?

These are the finish points in the DeepWoodz recipes. Always go by a probe, not the clock.

Cure #1 in every cured recipe is held at 0.25% of the meat weight, about 156 ppm, and the app does not let you change it. If you are mixing it yourself, see How Much Cure #1 Per Pound of Meat.

Every sausage on this page is in DeepWoodz Smokehouse. Enter the weight of meat in front of you and the app works out every ingredient for that batch, with the cure locked at a safe rate and the smoke schedule, poach temperature and pull temperature laid out step by step.

Bottom line

Ask two questions and most German sausages sort themselves out: is it cured, and is it cooked before you buy it? Bratwurst and Thüringer are fresh and uncured, grilled to 160°F. Weisswurst is uncured but poached. Bockwurst, knackwurst, rindswurst and Käsekrainer are cured, smoked and poached. Leberkäse is a cured loaf you bake. Landjäger is pressed and dried, and in its traditional form it is never cooked at all.

Common questions