Sous Vide Medisterpølse (Danish Spiced Sausage)

June 22, 2010

Sous Vide Medisterpølse (Danish Spiced Sausage)

Medisterpølse is one of the most humble sausages in the Danish kitchen - coarsely minced pork with a good dose of fat, seasoned with allspice and pressed into natural casing. Traditionally it is boiled in water or fried whole in the pan, but sous vide solves a problem that both of those methods struggle with: the risk that the sausage turns dry or bursts before it’s heated through.

In sous vide cooking, the sausage sits vacuum-sealed in a water bath held at a steady, low temperature, so the meat never comes anywhere near boiling. The result is a juicier, more evenly cooked sausage than you normally achieve in a pot or a pan alone. On the other hand, the skin doesn’t take care of itself - it becomes neither tender nor edible from the water bath, so a hard browning in the pan afterward is a required step, not a cosmetic detail.

Because the medisterpølse filling is raw, minced meat, it’s also worth knowing the difference between the two schools of time and temperature. At a low temperature, around 140°F (60°C), an hour is enough to heat the sausage through, but it doesn’t fully pasteurize the minced meat - so two hours are used to ensure food safety. The alternative method runs at a higher temperature, where the sausage pasteurizes itself along the way but in return takes on a firmer texture, closer to a traditionally boiled medister.

Medisterpølse belongs on the everyday table year-round, but in some places it also shows up at the Christmas lunch. It is classically served with boiled potatoes, brown gravy and red cabbage, or quite simply on a slice of rye bread - grønlangkål (creamed kale) is also a standard accompaniment in many families.

Ingredients

Serves 4

600 g medisterpølse, about 3-4 cm in diameter
1-2 tbsp clarified butter, for browning

Directions

Place the medisterpølse in a vacuum bag and seal it at medium vacuum - avoid pressing the sausage too hard together, so it doesn’t deform.

Preheat the sous vide bath to 140°F (60°C). Put the bag in the water bath, fully submerged, and cook the sausage for 1 hour. If the sausage is extra thick, or if food safety for the minced filling is the top priority, extend the time to 2 hours, since 1 hour at 140°F (60°C) doesn’t fully pasteurize the raw meat.

Take the bag out of the water, open it, and dry the sausage thoroughly on all sides with paper towels. The surface must be completely dry before it goes into the pan.

Heat clarified butter in a pan to around 356°F (180°C), and brown the sausage for 1-2 minutes on each side, until the skin is golden-brown and crisp. Alternatively, it can be grilled gently to the same result. The step is mandatory, because the natural casing’s skin becomes neither tender nor edible from the sous vide process alone - without browning it stays pale and tough.

Cut the browned sausage into diagonal pieces of about 8-10 cm (3-4 in), and plate and serve it at once, while it’s still hot and crisp on the outside.

Notes

If you’d rather use the more traditional, self-pasteurizing method, cook the sausage instead at 167°F (75°C) for about 2 hours 30 minutes, until the core temperature reaches the bath temperature. This gives a firmer texture, closer to a normally boiled medister, but doesn’t require extra hold time for food safety reasons.

Leftovers can be cooled quickly in the sealed bag and kept refrigerated for up to a week. Reheat in warm water, and brown the sausage again in the pan just before serving.