The original Failenschmid butcher shop is located a little hidden in the village of St. Johann-Gächingen on the Swabian Jura, about an hour's drive through mostly rural countryside from the state capital Stuttgart. The shop and restaurant have been at the center of the village for almost 300 years: 1740 is listed as the founding year, and 250 years later, in 1990, the current owner took over the family business from his father. Since then, Ludwig Failenschmid has been combining centuries of tradition with a clear focus on the years and decades to come: he trains specialized butchers in his own workshop to preserve and pass on craft expertise. Indispensable to the Alb butcher shop for decades: machines from K+G Wetter.
Craftsmanship meets high technology
Anyone who listens to Ludwig Failenschmid can clearly feel the butcher's passion for craftsmanship and quality. The nearly 20 butchers – all trained professionals – regularly produce around 140 products in the Failenschmid sausage kitchen. For decades, the family has relied exclusively on technology from K+G Wetter for their cutters and mixers. „My father bought the first machines back then,“ recalls Ludwig Failenschmid – the beginning of a decades-long, cross-generational, and friendly business partnership. „Another manufacturer? That thought never crossed our minds then, and it doesn't now.“
Currently in operation: A Vacuum cutter VCM 120 with cooking function and the MWW 130 mixer-cutter. „A vacuum cutter of this size is quite special in a craft business,“ says Ralf Klein, who has worked with Ludwig Failenschmid for many years as a regional sales manager for K+G Wetter. The vacuum cutter supports the butcher shop's quality standards and also offers advantages in processing time: „Let's take veal liver sausage as an example of a cooked sausage: based on experience, we save about a third of the time over the entire process.“ The technical background, as Ralf Klein explains, is the double-walled cooking bowl developed by K+G Wetter: „The steam heats our cutter bowl very quickly and energy-efficiently only through the space between the two bowl walls. This is also particularly hygienic, as the steam remains completely separate from the processed product.“ Important for the taste of the sausage: „Unlike pre-cooking in a kettle, flavors and ingredients are not lost in the cooking water here. This way, the VCM 120 retains all valuable ingredients such as protein and fat. And you can taste it.“
The Mixing angle mixer MWW 130 from K+G Wetter, purchased at SÜFFA 2024, has various tasks at Failenschmid. In addition to grinding minced meat or mixing and processing raw sausage mixture, the grinder is also used by the company to remove cartilage and sinews from meat before further processing in the cutter. Thanks to the pneumatic sorting device and the Clear Cut Knife System K+G Wetter exclusively removes the one to two percent of hard components with great care. The advantages: No meat is wasted, and connective tissue also remains in the sausage mixture – this is crucial, for example, for the good „bite“ when producing scalded sausage.
„In terms of cut quality, this is a quantum leap,“ reports Ludwig Failenschmid. „We already had sorting with the previous K+G Wetter machine – but now pneumatically and with Clear Cut, that makes a huge difference. The service life of these knives is also much longer.“ The master butcher is convinced that investments in processing technology pay off. „Our recipes haven't changed, but the quality is much better now. In the past, machines often ran for decades as long as they still somehow worked. Nowadays, technical improvements are crucial.“
To fill the wolf hopper, up to 140 kilograms per batch, the mixing-angle wolf MWW 130 was equipped with the K+G Wetter Easy Lift Crate Lifting Device equipped. Now employees no longer have to lift the boxes, but only tilt and empty them at the height of the hopper edge. „We have had very good experience with this, it really enormously eases the physical work at the machine,“ explain Ludwig Failenschmid and his master colleague Gerd Holder in unison.
A special feature of the product range of the South German butcher shop, by the way, are salami specialties of all kinds. „That's not really common for us here in the region,“ says Ludwig Failenschmid. „Salami as a raw sausage is traditionally more typical of Northern Germany. That's for climatic reasons, because in the past, suitable, cool ripening rooms were needed.“ Nevertheless, his early memories of the family business revolve precisely around salami production: „Even as a small boy, I always helped to brush and oil the raw sausages in our attic – at that time there were no ripening chambers yet – again and again so that they would ripen optimally.“
Today, technology supports the production of raw sausage specialties. And the quality already begins with the raising and selection of cattle and pigs, buffaloes, and game that supply the meat – all from the immediate region. In-house slaughtering is also highly valued at Failenschmid: „This guarantees freshness and requires fewer additives for binding in the mixture.“ In general, making salami is something for professionals at the grinder and cutter: „You have to know how to do it, and the processing places completely different demands on technology and machines. If you set one wrong parameter, the whole batch is ruined.“ It's no coincidence that Ludwig Failenschmid was immediately convinced when K+G Wetter Managing Director Volker Lauber presented him with the Recipe Management Program Cut Control imagined. „I knew immediately that's what I wanted.“ The advantage: Recipes can be stored in the program, detailed with ingredients, quantities, and processing steps. All parameters such as temperatures, bowl revolutions, or times can be precisely specified – making expensive batches a virtual impossibility.
Unique: Alb-Buffalo Specialties from the Alb Butcher Shop
A special offer from Albmetzgerei Failenschmid is sausage and meat from the Albbüffel. The impressively deep black cattle with huge, curved horns originally come from marshy areas, for example in Italy – their milk is used to make traditional Mozzarella di Buffala. However, buffalos have also been at home on the dry Swabian Jura for many years, living close to nature on extensive pastures. „The meat is completely different from normal beef,“ says Ludwig Failenschmid. „It’s much more like game, with a very dark color and long muscle fibers.“ Another special feature: Albbüffel meat has no intramuscular fat – practically the opposite of the trendy Wagyu meat with an extremely high fat content. „Albbüffel fat also has a very high melting point. So, it doesn’t melt in the mouth at body temperature and leave an unpleasant film when eating,“ explains master butcher Failenschmid. At the same time, the regional buffalo meat is lean and rich in protein, fitting well with modern diets. In sausage production, Albmetzgerei incidentally replaces the buffalo’s own fat with linseed oil – also a product from the region.
Special meat – special technique
The special structure of this regional meat specialty naturally also requires special knowledge and technique in its processing into sausage: „We debone the meat while it's still warm after slaughter, cut it into fist-sized pieces, and freeze it. Rapid freezing stops the breakdown of ATP and thus the lowering of the pH value, and the meat cells break open. This later aids drying during the ripening phase in the processing of buffalo salami and similar products.".
During processing in the cutter, then a Sausage knife head used. „The shape of the three sickle knives used here extends each cutting edge by about 30 percent compared to straight knives and cuts smoothly and cleanly through the meat fibers with a pulling motion. This results in a clear cut pattern,“ says K+G Wetter Sales Manager Ralf Klein, who is also a trained master butcher. This is important for both the appearance of the sausage and the ripening process.
Additionally, also the Retaining wall removed from the knife lid of the VCM 120 – another feature of K+G Wetter cutters for raw sausage with optimal consistency. In the thus enlarged cutting chamber, meat and fat flow through the knife head without resistance. This results in a cleaner cut, no protein breakdown, and no lubricating film around the particles. „The capillary flow is then unimpeded, so the sausage dries more evenly and faster later on,“ explains Ludwig Failenschmid. „If this is not the case, you often only notice it during the ripening process: the salami then seals on the outside, meaning it has a dry layer around it, while the inside remains too moist for too long and can develop a sour taste.“
Also crucial for the buffalo salami, but also for all other types of cured sausage: The Vacuum function VCM 120. „That's very important!“ emphasizes salami expert Failenschmid. „The vacuum draws air inclusions out of the farce. This positively affects shelf life, as the finished product then has less contact with oxygen – this is extremely important, especially for raw sausage!“
The vacuum function of the VCM120 is also used for all types of scalded sausage, and its advantages are fully exploited: more protein breakdown, fewer air inclusions, more stable color, longer shelf life, and more flavor.
The future needs traditional knowledge and new talents
So that the butcher tradition at Failenschmid lives on until the 300th anniversary and beyond, Ludwig Failenschmid invested in his own Training workshop invested. „We currently have six young men training with us, three in their first, two in their second, and one in their third year of apprenticeship. All from the region, from agriculture. They're great and really on the ball!“ raves Ludwig Failenschmid about his junior skilled workers. Every two weeks, the apprentices are in the company's own workshop and learn the trade from scratch.
Instructor Edgar Kuhn is responsible for this. Ludwig Failenschmid coaxed the master butcher and vocational school teacher with decades of experience out of retirement specifically for this purpose. „That was an unparalleled stroke of luck!“ With him, the aspiring butchers learn the fundamentals of the trade in practice and theory: how different types and qualities of meat feel, what this means for processing, the composition of seasonings. And not least, tricks, tips, and passion and enthusiasm for the butcher's trade. „It's important to me that the apprentices learn and understand traditional production methods, with as little technology as possible,“ says Edgar Kuhn. The technology in the training workshop is therefore also simple – but here too, cutters and grinders from K+G Wetter are used. „I still know these machines from my time at vocational school,“ recalls the instructor. In the training workshop, the apprentices learn on the SM 33 cutter and the EW 98 electric grinder.
Currently on the curriculum: Gelbwurst – a regional scalded sausage specialty. “The name comes from the fact that traditionally only regular salt is used here and no curing salt. „Therefore, the sausage has a bright, yellowish color, not a reddish one,“ explains Edgar Kuhn. With this product, his apprentices learn the so-called building-up process in scalded sausage production, using lean meat, fat, and ice in a 40-40-20 ratio. Meat, ice, salt, and phosphate are first finely chopped together to break down the protein.".
The seasonings are also added during the first processing step. For the exceptionally fresh taste, ginger, cardamom, lemon, onions, and mace ensure this, reveals Edgar Kuhn. „Once the emulsion reaches a temperature of two degrees, the fat is added. Then, everything is comminuted to a temperature of approx. 11 to 12 degrees to obtain a stable emulsion. Along with the remaining ice, the comminution process then continues until the final temperature of eight degrees,“ explains instructor Kuhn. The fresh taste of the Failenschmid Gelbwurst is visually and taste-wise enhanced by the addition of leaf parsley shortly before the end of the comminution process.
Incidentally, what the Failenschmid apprentices produce in the workshop with Edgar Kuhn is sold in the always well-attended shop in the center of Gaching and advertised as an apprentice product. „It's really popular, customers actively ask for it. That makes our boys very proud, of course,“ say the trainers and workshop managers happily. One resulting success: Failenschmid receives applications for apprenticeships instead of having to spend time searching for apprentices.
Village butcher shop, rest stop, and catering as pillars
In addition to the apprentice's yellow sausage, the Failenschmid store offers numerous other sausage and meat specialties, all produced in-house. This includes entire shelves of high-quality canned goods with ready-to-eat meat dishes, ranging from traditional home cooking to international cuisine: roulades and sauerbraten, soups and stews, scaloppine and bolognese. Practical for those in a hurry and working professionals: you can pre-order all desired products via an app and then pick them up at your preferred branch.
One of these branches is located at H-Albzeit, a large, modern service area on the A8 Stuttgart-Munich highway, operated by the regional bakery BeckaBeck. In Merklingen, this has resulted in a Swabian market hall with a bakery, butcher shop, and food service concept – a destination seven days a week for travelers as well as local residents and events. Catering here and for other celebrations is another major pillar of the Failenschmid Alb butchery.
