Seasonings in the pork can include salt, pepper, nutmeg, garlic, ground caraway, etc. If chopped onion is mixed in, it’s called “Zwiebelmett.”
It is usually served on a bread roll. This is called a “mettbrotchen.” It may be garnished with chopped fresh onion. It is available in most bakeries as a morning sandwich.
At butchers in Germany, the minced pork for Mett is sold separate from regular ground pork. Fresh batches are made several times in the day, but mostly in the morning. Under the “Hackfleischverordnung” law that governs its production, it must be sold on day it is ground, unless pre-packaged.
Starting in the 1970s, people got the habit of forming it into hedgehog shape for buffet tables, using thin pieces of onion as spikes, olives as eyes, etc. This can be called a “Mettigel”, a “Hackepeter-Igel”, or a “Hackepeterschwein.”
Not the same as Mettwurst.
Language Notes
Aka Hackepeter , Thüringer Mett.