Rolled sausage (rullepølse) is a classic on the Danish lunch table. Neck fillet is always available, and the rolled sausage (rullepølse) is relatively lean and full of flavour
Serve the rolled sausage (rullepølse) with homemade aspic
Homemade rolled sausage (rullepølse) made from pork neck
I don't know a butcher here in Prague well enough to venture into explaining what the special cut of pork breast used for rolled sausage (rullepølse) is like, so I use fillet of neck. I can always get it, it tastes fine and the fat percentage is on the reasonable side. I use dried onion and parsley to avoid too big ‘pockets’ in the rolled sausage (rullepølse) - then it becomes difficult to cut. But you can season and fill with exactly what you like best.
Equipment
- 1 Meat press (mine was meant for pressing ham)or 2 identical baking tins of suitable size
- 1 Sous videor a large pot
Ingredients
Salt/sugar brine
- 4 % salt 4% of the total weight of meat and water
- 1,5 % sugar 1.5% of the total weight of meat and water
- 25 g nitric salt (can be omitted)
- 20 whole peppercorn 5
- 5 pcs bay leaves
The rolled sausage (rullepølse) itself
- 1 Boneless pork neck
Filling
- 40 g gelatine powder
- 2 tsp allspice
- 2 tbsp freshly ground pepper
- 4 tbsp onion powder
- 4 tbsp dried parsley
- Other To your personal taste
Method
Preparation for salt/sugar brine
- If you (like me) get your hands on a whole fillet of pork neck, it's probably too wide. Cut it to the right width and thickness. Mine weighed about 1.6kg after cutting, the rest went into the mincer for meatballs (frikadeller). Cut the fillet of neck lengthways over a few rounds so that it is spread out into a roughly rectangular piece that has a uniform thickness. If possible, avoid making holes in the piece.Cut 1-1.5 cm from one side towards the bottom until you are 1-1.5 cm from the bottom. Turn the meat over on its side and cut again towards the bottom, turn and cut - until you have reached the centre of the meat. The finer you make this cut, the larger and smoother surface you will have for seasoning the meat.
- Weigh the meat and find out how much water you need in your container to cover it. In my case, the total weight of meat and water was 3800 grams, so I needed 152g of salt (4% of the total weight) and 57g of sugar (1.5% of the total weight). I also added 25g of nitrite salt for shelf life and colour. Of course, you don't need that.
- Boil about ½ litre of the water and dissolve the salt and sugar in it. Add the rest of the water, bay leaves and peppercorns and make sure it's cold before you put the meat to brine. You can put a plate on top if the meat will float on top. Place in the fridge for 2 days.
Seasoning and rolling
- Remove the meat from the brine, pat it dry with a paper towel so that it is reasonably dry. Spread the gelatine powder over the entire surface. Mix allspice, salt, pepper, parsley and onion powder and distribute evenly over the meat - but leave 4-5 centimetres free where the ‘opening’ will be. Then it will close better.
- Roll up the meat. The opening should not face directly downwards, but to the side, at the bottom, and carefully tie the rolled sausage with a suitable string.
Preparation, traditional boiling
- Cook the rolled sausage (rullepølse) in enough water to cover it. Cooking time 2½-3 hours, it should reach a core temperature of around 75°. Some people prefer to wrap the rolled sausage (rullepølse) in plastic film before cooking - you can do this, but you need to use film that is designed for high temperatures to avoid harmful particles ‘migrating’ into the meat.
Sous vide cooking:
- Vacuum pack it and give it 10 hours at 65°.
Pressing
- If you are using sous vide, cut a hole in a corner of the bag and let the juices run out. Squeeze the hole back together and close it with a sturdy paper clip or similar.
- Press the rolled sausage (rullepølse) while it is still warm. The easiest way to do this is with a sausage roll press (a meat press). Tighten it well, but not so tight that you squeeze too much juice out of the rolled sausage (rullepølse). Or use 2 identical baking moulds and weigh them down with 6-7 kilos. Leave it under pressure in the fridge for 10-15 hours. Enjoy!
Notes
English (UK) 
Dansk
5 Comments
[...] is perfect with Homemade Rolled Sausage (rullepølse) and maybe also Homemade [...
Hi Laus
Thanks for a great recipe for rolled sausage (rullepølse).
Incredibly popular, so use four fillets of neck for Christmas, yes 8kg of rolled sausage (rullepølse).
So here's a little Christmas greeting from Farum.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Hi Frank;
Thank you for your kind greeting. I am somewhat amazed by the amount 🙂
4 kg i december 2024 og 4 kg i januar og det er slet ikke nok i forhold til efterspørgelsen 🙂
God nyt rullepølse år.
Godt nytår!
Hvor er det skønt at høre, at I er glade for opskriften og vender tilbage til den igen og igen 🙂