Austrian Cheese-Filled Sausage

Cut pork shoulder and belly into grinder-ready pieces and pre-freeze at -2°C for 1-2 hours. Cut cheese into 7-8 mm cubes and freeze for at least 4 hours. Soak casings in lukewarm water.

Grind meat and belly through the 5 mm plate. Then pass through the 3 mm plate for a finer texture. Immediately sprinkle all spices and nitrite curing salt over the meat.

Knead ground meat with ice water intensively until the forcemeat is cohesive and slightly stringy (adhesion test: forcemeat sticks to palm). Quickly fold frozen cheese cubes into the forcemeat – do not knead, only loosely combine. Forcemeat temperature must not exceed 8°C.

Immediately stuff the forcemeat into the prepared casing, evenly and without air bubbles. Twist off sausages at 110-130 g each. Important: Do not overfill, as the cheese expands during heating. Let stuffed sausages cure in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Dry the sausages well on the outside (surface must be dry for smoke absorption). Hot smoke at 60-65°C with beech wood for 30-40 minutes until the surface is golden to light brown. Monitor temperature precisely.

Heat water to exactly 75°C. Submerge sausages and poach at a constant 72-75°C for 20-25 minutes until core temperature of 72°C is reached. Never exceed 78°C or the cheese will run out. Monitor with a core temperature probe.

Briefly refresh sausages in cold water and cool to 4°C. Shelf life: 5-7 days at 4°C vacuum-packed. To serve, grill or pan-fry at medium heat until the cheese inside melts and begins to ooze slightly. Serve classically with mustard and bread.