Making Homemade Wine and Beer Dot Com

Almost all wurst features pork (and sometimes beef or veal), spices, and peppercorns, but the other ingredients make each wurst distinctive. More than a thousand varieties of wurst exist, some being available everywhere and others are local specialties. Here are a few of them:

    Bierschinken—a large slicing sausage with chunks of ham and pistachios

    Bierwurst—coarse-textured slicing sausage flavored with juniper berries and cardamom

    Blutwurst—blood sausage, which comes in many varieties; it is eaten sliced and cold or fried like black pudding

    Bockwurst—smoked and scalded, usually made from finely ground veal; spiced with chives and parsley; resembles a large frankfurter; gently heat in liquid before eating; traditionally served with Bock beer, especially in the spring

    Bratwurst—a pale, smoked sausage made of finely minced veal, pork, ginger, nutmeg and other spices; usually comes raw and must be cooked, but precooked bratwurst is also available (reheat before serving)

    Braunschweiger—a spreadable smoked liver sausage enriched with eggs and milk; the most well known of the liverwurst sausages

    Cervelat—similar to Italian salami, a slicing sausage of pork and beef, spices and often mustard or garlic; Thuringer is a common variety of German cervelat

    Frankfurter—the genuine German variety (not the same as an American frankfurter) contains finely chopped lean pork with a bit of salted bacon fat, and is smoked; reheat in simmering liquid

    Knockwurst; knackwurst—a short, plump smoked sausage needing poaching or grilling; contains finely minced lean pork, beef, spices and, notably, garlic; often served with sauerkraut

    Wienerwurst—believed to be the origin of American frankfurter; beef and pork flavored with coriander and garlic

    Weisswurst—German for “white sausage” and is very pale and delicately flavored; made of veal, sometimes beef and pork, cream and eggs; a specialty of Munich and traditionally served at Oktoberfest with rye bread, sweet mustard and of course, beer.

What to serve with your wurst? Mustards: sweet, hot, spicy, coarse and smooth; set out a variety of mustards to complement the wide range of sausages. Breads can be soft rolls; dense rye or black breads; caraway, poppy seed, and other seeded breads and rolls; sour doughs and whole grain breads; and hot, soft pretzels (especially good with mustard). Don’t forget the sauerkraut; if you don’t make your own, pick up a bag of sauerkraut in the refrigerator case at the supermarket—it tastes fresher and crisper than the canned variety. Perk up the flavor with a pinch of lightly toasted caraway seeds.

Authentic German beer, of course, is the drink of choice. Oktoberfest style beers are amber colored, sweet, very malty and traditionally the first beers of the season. Weissbier is the perfect complement to Weisswurst, as it’s lighter body and flavor won’t overpower the delicately seasoned sausage.

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