The Bavarian Weißwurst
by Julia Hanigk
The Bavarian Weißwurst. Nearly everybody has already once seen a picture of the white sausage in combination with traditional German food. It's even so popular, that Bavaria is kindly called the Weißwurst equator.
But what is it?
It's a scalded sausage, which is made out of veal or pork, pork back bacon and herbs. Originally, they were made early in the morning and eaten as breakfast - a tradition, that Germans mostly keep up until today. If you don't have the traditional Weißwurst-breakfast, you still eat it before noon. This comes from the early history of making the sausage: Because there was no fridge back in the days, the meat, containing no preservatives, went bad until the evening, especially in the summer.
Legend says that the sausage was invented in Munich, more precisely in an inn at the Marienplatz, on 22nd of February 1857, which was a Sunday during carnival. But it wasn't on purpose! Actually, the chef wanted to create a Bratwurst, what went wrong and so decided to sell the failed outcome. He couldn't anticipate that it will once get the flagship of Bavarian food, that's for sure!
The problem with writing down a recipe for it is, that these special white sausages are only available at Bavarian, or at least German, butchers. If you once bought it, the cooking is really easy: You put them in a pot with boiling water and let them boil for approximately ten minutes.
But Germans would be shocked to see somebody eat it with dipping it in mayonnaise or ketchup. You would make a total gaffe! Or at least point out that you are a foreigner who has no clue how to eat it, haha)
The Weißwurst gets served together with fresh-baked lye pretzels and sweet mustard, which is not yellow, but brown and tastes sweet. Before you start eating it, it's also important to peel off the sausage casing since it is usually really hard. But it's not the only thing you need to know about the classic Bavarian food: To serve all the clichés, you don't drink a coke to the sausages - no way. Typically, the dish gets served together with a good, golden-coloured wheat beer.
