Bratwurst

Bratwurst are the best sausages that you can get out of Germany.  Big, meaty, flavour filled sausages that are  good chargrilled or poached in a frying pan to part seam then part fry them. Now there are any number of recipes for how to cook them and they are all very similar in one way or another but here are  two of my favourite .

But fist if you want to make your own you will need

1kg/ 2ld meat minced pork and veal mix 60% pork and 40 veal

2tsp salt

1tsp Onion Salt

1tsp Ground White Pepper

1tsp Marjoram

1tsp Parsley

1tsp Nutmeg

1tsp Celery Seed

½tsp Ginger

½tsp Mace

½tsp Cardamon

56ml/2floz Red Wine

Blend that all together and pipe in to sausage skins .

Now the first recipe is Bratwurst braised with apples, cabbage, and carrots

You will need

 8 bratwurst sausages

1 onions

2 apples

1 carrots

½ a cabbage

1tbls. Caraway seeds

1 bottle dark beer

Salt and Pepper to taste

Start by cooking the sausage in the classic way with some water in the pan let the water evaporate as you cook the sausages on both sides poaching them . when the sausages start to brown add the onions and let them cook down then the apple chopped and the cabbage cut in to wedges.

Add the caraway seed and the beer and cover the pan and let it simmer for anything from 40 minutes to an hour. You might have to add more water if it boils to dry.

Bratwurst in Beer Sauce

8 Fresh Bratwurst

1tbsp plain flour

2tsp  Vegetable Oil

½tsp Dried Marjoram

½tsp Caraway seeds

1 or 2 cups  of dark beer

Now start by cooking you sausages the same was as before, but make sure that they are fully cooked.  Now take them out of the pan and add the flour and oil and cook it into a roux. Add the dry marjoram and caraway seed then slowly add the beer to make gravy returning the sausages to the pan to warm through in the sauce.

Now you have all sort of mustard and relishes h to go with Bratwurst but this is one of the best I think, and I believe it is popular at Christmas time.

Bratwurst pepper relish

500ml/1pt white sprit  vinegar

4tbsp. salt

500g/1lg  sugar

12 red peppers

12 green peppers

12 large onions

3 celery sticks

Now it does not take long to cook , chop all the vegetables  up as fine as you can into strips. Now in a bow add boiling water all over the veg then drain it off and let it stand.

Get a large pan and add the salt, sugar and vinegar heat this until the sugar has fully dissolves then add all the vegetables. Bring this to the boil then take it off the heat and let it cool. Once cool store in sterilised jars in the fridge for about 3 months if not longer.

There are endless recipes for Bratwurst but the best must just be cooked on a barbeque  with mustard in a roll and lots of slow cooked onions as well, perfect.