Famous Bavarian white sausages with pretzel
According to legend, it was on February 22, 1857, exactly 160 years ago, that white sausages – Weißwurst – were first served at the Munich beer hall "Zum ewigen Licht." Today they are famous worldwide – not least because they are consumed by the ton at the annual Oktoberfest beer festival. Bavarian white sausages (wieners, sausages – they are called by different names) are made from a mixture of ground veal and pork with various spices, boiled in hot but never boiling water. They are eaten "properly" with sweet mustard and a salted pretzel. And, of course, washed down with beer.
Germany is famous for its sausages (frankfurters, wieners). A traditional breakfast or dinner here is hard to imagine without cold cuts. You can choose from many varieties and types: boiled sausage, ham, salami, garlic sausage, liverwurst, tongue sausage, blood sausage. No matter which corner of the country you find yourself in, the menu of any German restaurant will surely feature some local sausage dish. For a true German, regional "sausage" specialties are inseparable from the concept of "homeland."
Here are some exotic examples. "Bread with cracklings" (Möpkebrot) is the name of a traditional type of blood sausage in Westphalia, Münster, and neighboring regions. "Möpkes," i.e., cracklings, then blood, salt, spices, and обязательно soaked bread or flour – these are the ingredients of the sausages, which are usually served with mashed potatoes, fried apple rings, and onions. Or they are eaten simply with bread, but обязательно with rye bread.
The name of another sausage (popular in northern Germany) is deceptive: literally translated, "Aalrauchmettwurst" means "smoked sausage made from minced eel." In fact, it is not about fish but about meat. The only thing this sausage has in common with eel is the smoking method. This method was once used on the north German coast to preserve perishable fish. Later, residents of the Hanseatic cities began to smoke sausage the same way.
The cunning Hessians, once deciding to do things thoroughly, invented a kind of complete meal: they started making potato sausages from meat with a side dish. One kilogram of boiled potatoes, 2 kilograms of pork belly, and 2 kilograms of shoulder meat are ground through a meat grinder, salted, and mixed with ground nutmeg, pepper, minced garlic, and the mixture is stuffed into casings. Potato sausages can be boiled or fried (in a roasting pan or sauté pan).
To prepare the so-called "pressed bag" or "pressed head" (Presssack or Presskopf), butchers from Franconian Ansbach take pork, pork head, and lean belly. The ground mince is mixed with boiled cracklings, chopped herbs, and caraway seeds, and tightly stuffed into a prepared stomach or linen bag.
Berliners know their tongue. Zungenwurst or tongue sausage is a true delicacy made from pickled pork tongues, boiled bacon, cracklings – with the addition of aromatic herbs and a special type of marjoram from Thuringia. They also love particularly tender varieties of liverwurst with various, sometimes quite exotic additions: from pink, almost mild pepper to truffles and various types of honey.
As for salami – a well-known variety – it belongs to the category of delicacy dry-cured sausages. The original Italian name "Cervello" means "brain." Once upon a time, pork brain was indeed added to this sausage, but today it is replaced simply by fatty pork. Classic salami, by the way, despite its classification, was originally not smoked but scalded with boiling water.
Franconian blue tips rise like the pointed peaks of snow-covered mountains in a bowl among carrots, onions, and celery – sausages boiled in a vinegar broth with bay leaf, cloves, peppercorns, salt, and sugar. The famous Nuremberg sausages, usually eaten fried, are well suited for such a "stew."
"Blue tips" have been served by southern Germans as an afternoon snack since the Middle Ages. Today they are especially popular among partygoers. After consuming a considerable amount of alcohol, revelers waking up in the morning happily cure their hangovers with the aforementioned soup. It is said to help a lot.
Another variety of regional sausages is Pinkel from Bremen. These smoked sausages look like little fingers. They are usually eaten with curly kale, which is very popular in Germany. Pinkelwurst is today stuffed with minced meat, oatmeal, bacon, with the addition of onions and cloves.
One of the favorite treats of the people of the Rhine is blood sausage Flönz, which was once made cheaply and simply from leftovers. Later, all waste and trimmings from the preparation of other sausages were also called "Flönz." Today, however, this regional sausage, made from high-quality ingredients and lightly smoked, is popular not only among local gourmets but also among numerous tourists.
Head cheese, as archaeologists claim, is one of the oldest sausage products. The first mentions of it date back to the third millennium BC. German Sülze is, in its "classic" form, a type of aspic. But the winemakers of the Palatinate have a particularly tender love for complex varieties of this dish.
There are countless variations for preparing head cheese. Each cook, as a rule, has their own recipe. The stomach is stuffed with two or three types of finely chopped meat, sausage mince, bacon, potatoes boiled in their skins, rolls soaked in milk, eggs, finely chopped onions, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, and marjoram. The stuffed and tightly tied stomach is cooked over low heat for about an hour and a half. Then it is placed on a dish and pressed down with a board with a heavy weight. The cooled stomach is sliced and fried. Served with white bread and braised sauerkraut. A hearty dish!