Homemade Medister - Danish Dinner Sausage

Homemade Medister - Danish Dinner Sausage © kvalifood.com

I had never thought of medister as anything special. Until I had Asta’s homemade version. It was juicy and full of flavour. Without straying too far from what medister is supposed to be. It was a completely new experience that opened my eyes to the fact that it could be something other than the tasteless thing I had tried before.

Ingredients

  • 1 portion frikadeller meat mix
  • 100 g lard, without rind (smoked works too) (optional)
  • ½ tsp allspice, ground
  • ¼ tsp coriander, ground
  • ¼ tsp ginger, ground (Asta’s secret)
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg, grated

casing

  • 5 meters cleaned pork intestine casing (the smallest pack you can get)

Directions

Rinse the casing.

Chop the lard finely in a meat grinder or food processor.

Mix everything together.

Use a sausage stuffer to fill the casing. There are many different kinds of stuffers, and if you have one, it probably came with instructions.

In general:

  • wet the nozzle first
  • put all the casing on the nozzle at once, as close to the tip as possible
  • do not tie a knot at the end — it will trap air bubbles and cause problems
  • gently pull and squeeze the casing while filling it with the mince

It is important not to fill the casing all the way. Use roughly half of what you think it needs. It should be very soft and loose. The mince expands a lot when heated and the sausage will split.

Cooking

Brown it in a pan and turn down the heat. Let it cook through on low heat for 10–15 minutes.

You can also poach it first in lightly simmering water for 10–15 minutes, then brown it in a pan before serving.

It is done when the internal temperature reaches 160–165°F (70–75°C). A meat thermometer helps here.

Notes

Ister: Medister means “med ister” — “with ister”. Ister is the fat surrounding the intestines of the animal. Since you can’t buy ister in most supermarkets, lard is the natural substitute.