If they started specialising in Bratwurst then it stands to reason they already had it on the menue before. Possibly all back to the 12th Century. And arguably this specialisation started at a time when progress in various technologies (meat processing, faster transport, refrigeration) made Bratwurst reliably available in larger quantities all year round.
3 Likes
This is not the stuff of which proof is made.
I agree that the argument can be made, but itās not enough to refute my above statement.
And the Upper Palatinate is just south east of Franconia. As with Thuringia, weāre not leaving the general region.
2 Likes
And historically Taunton is a part of Minehead already. Fine.
Iām off to the dentist now.
There are Akkadian cuneiform tablets speaking of a dish of intestine casings filled with some sort of forcemeat. Find me a citation that says they didnāt grill those.
3 Likes
Bratwurst != grilled sausage
Itās a very specific grilled sausage, regarding spices, size and degree of mincing.
I would never argue that the grilled sausage itself was invented in Franconia. I have had and made grilled sausages from historic recipes (such as pseudo-Apicius) too often for that.
4 Likes
And @FGD135
Added to Endless Arguments wiki
14 Likes
Love it
6 Likes
Well, uh, thank you very muchā¦
10 Likes
I worked at a German deli/shop in southern Coliforniyah which had a good sized deli counter and a small dine-in menu. Many of the German customers made V long drives to go there: there were no other such shops inland, and the place was renowned for high quality, authenic noms and goods.
Whenever a certain German gentleman showed up, Tante Inge (the coolest Aunt I never had) would swear under her breath and immediately pour water into the electric fryer and fire it up.
āOh, Godt! Not this guy again!ā sheād mutter, while waving back with a smile. āHeās a pain in the ass!ā XD He always ordered the same thing. Heād just wave and say hello, and weād start making his lunch.
He always had German potato salad (warm, of course), extra sauerkraut, a big blop of spicy Lƶwensenf, a thick slice of Klƶsterbrot, and a big bratwurst or two. Said brat/s had to be boiled before frying, and Tante Inge hated doing that. She was even annoyed when Iād have to do it! One day I quietly said, āWell, at least heās nice,ā but Tante Inge just hissed, āBah! Nice people donāt make us go through this shit!ā
I usually asked our regular customers where they were from, if Tante Inge hadnāt told me, but I never thought to ask him & sheād never said. She knew all sorts of intimate details of her regular clienteleās lives - it was a family.
That reminds meā¦
One V nice German chap always bought lots of both kinds of head cheese, the big blood sausage, and the little ThĆ¼ringer Rotwurst. I asked him where he was from, at a moment when we had several other Germans in the shop. He laughed and quietly said, āTheyāre going to laugh at me, because Iām a country bumpkin.ā Then in a loud voice, he said he was a ThĆ¼ringer himself! Sure enough, they all laughed at him. He added that that was why he always got a ton of the most disgusting things we sold! Tante Inge and the other Germans laughed again, at and with him this time.
After I rang up and bagged his ahem goodies, he explained that during and after WWII the people of ThĆ¼ringen, esp the forest and country folk, had to really scrounge for food when the commercial transport ended and foodstuffs were no longer coming in. They couldnāt afford to waste anything, so wound up creating many foods which a typical Yankistani would never fancy. Since heād been a V smol child at the time, heād grown up on the stuff, and still liked all of it.
While Tante Inge and her honey Onkle Willi the godly Swiss baker were on summer vacation, the temp manager and I transformed an invariably brusque and V serious regular German customer into one who always smiled and joked with us. This is already far too long, so thatās a tale for another Tag.
15 Likes
I love kohlrabi! It looks like a alien weapon, but is delicious. Makes great pickles or shredded to make slaw, or just steamed like broccoli srems (which is kinda what it isā¦)
9 Likes
Germans debating the origins of a sausage. Stereotypes really do have a grain of truth somewhere!
11 Likes
I donāt think theyāre any different. Wellā¦Iām sure there are some differences, but nothing other than the ordinary differences youād see between various producers of the same product. People in the US often grill brats without boiling them first. Or pan fry them without boiling first. I donāt know why J. Kenji Lopez-Alt or any other chefs do that. I didnāt learn it from them. I started doing sausages this way because the woman Iām a caregiver for likes them that way and she made me start cooking them that wayā¦and then I found I liked them better that way. You might try the technique before you dismiss it. Iām not saying youāll like it. Iām just saying I did, and I wasnāt expecting to.
I will add this. Per anotherās suggestion above, I tried cooking one in the air fryer yesterday. It tasted fine, but the casing ended up dried out, tough to bite through, and chewy as fuck. It was not a pleasant experience. So maybe boiling it first softens up the casing? I donāt know. I just know I wonāt cook it in the air fryer again, and I think Iām going back to boiling it first, and then browning it in a skillet. Because, for me at least, the texture and the eating experience are better that way.
9 Likes
I donāt know if itās for the same reasons, but Iāve seen Italians who make a dish with sausages in it (beans for example) boil the sausage before adding it to the pot, mostly to reduce the extra fat that would otherwise end up in the sauce, I wonder if a softer casing is also a bonus.
7 Likes
Yeah, the few times I have made sausages in the convection oven (which is basically just a big air fryer after all), they have come out hard as well. I guess there is a reason that when sausages are baked, theyāre usually encased in dough or batter (sausage rolls, pigs in a blanket, toad in a hole, etc.).
As for the boiling or braising: youāre right that I should try it before judging it. Maybe Iāll do that tonight. After all this discussion, Iām craving bratwurst now anyway. Any tips on how long to boil and whether or not to add aromatics?
Luckily they sell a quite adequate German style raw bratwurst here in Norway, even if they insist on adding caraway to it for some reason.
6 Likes
Oddly, Iāve been thinking about hot German potato salad for a few days now. And when I saw the discussion above about kohlrabi, I wondered if kohlrabi might be good prepared the same way.
8 Likes
Itās not quite the same, but a classic German way of serving kohlrabi is in a cream sauce, not unlike the white variety of German potato salad.
This is the only English language recipe I could find, but there are tons of German ones if you google KohlrabigemĆ¼se.
There is also a version without cream that is maybe not unlike the other (non-white) type of German potato salad
8 Likes
I just boil them maybe 6-8 minutes? Until theyāre a nice unappetizing shade of gray. Then I dry them off and cook them in a skillet with just a little oil, turning them as needed, until they develop a nice color. I havenāt added any aromatics. I feel like thereās probably enough aromatics in the sausage themselves? I dunno. Some fat and probably salt will leech out of the sausage when boiling them, so I know some people suggest adding salt to the water to prevent the de-seasoning of the sausage, but I donāt do that. I donāt think much salt leeches out. They still taste perfectly seasoned to me. But I also have to watch my salt intake because of heart issues, so if some leeches out, thatās probably a good thing in my case.
9 Likes
Interesting, thank you! 
6 Likes
Plenty of folks here in the Midwest US use beer and onions to par-cook their bratwurst. Besides softening the casing it reduces the time needed on grill or in pan to get a nice color and have the sausage fully cooked. Too often a brat is grilled to char by someone worried about food poisoning.
8 Likes
if i am not cooking brats directly on a grill, i have always done as @danimagoo suggests - boil then pan fry.
only difference is that i boil the sausages in beer, isually an amber or a bock style. 6-8 minutes, then tip out the beer bath and roll 'em aroind the hot skillet until browned and crisped casing. then, into a nice big roll. sometimes topped with grilled onions and peppers, or just a big helping of saurkraut and brown mustard!
that may seem unorthodox, but i stand by it.
10 Likes
American here, and Iām with you. The pre-cooked ones might go for a quick roast in the toaster oven for a quick meal, but uncooked bratwurst always go on the grill.
What might be more common here than in Germany is smoked bratwurst. Smoked brats are more common than unsmoked brats in the Midwestern US.
And once I started thinking about the upper Midwest, I remembered (as @BakerB and @FloridaManJefe remarked) that brats are often boiled in beer with onions, and then the onions are used to top the brats after grilling or pan frying.
7 Likes
