It’s pretty obvious that we love sausage at Lake Geneva Country Meats. We’re well known for our many award-winning sausage flavors, and we’ve even dedicated a 3 week celebration to sausage, beer, and German culture that we call Brat-Tober Fest. During Brat-Tober Fest, we make special, limited time only sausage flavors, and our favorite favorite is the currywurst. These are adored by many, but we often get asked…
What exactly is a currywurst?
We’re going to answer this question for you with a little history, background, and then tell you how we make this sausage. Keep reading to learn all you could possibly want to know about this wurst!
Currywurst was invented in Berlin, Germany in 1949 when a food stall operator named Herta Heuwer mixed together ketchup and curry powder, then squeezed that mixture on top of grilled pork sausages. The British and American soldiers in Berlin loved this unlikely mixture and it quickly became a hit. You can learn more about the history in this BBC Travel article.
Today, you will find currywurst stands all over Germany. If you’ve ever been to Germany, maybe you’ve tried a plate of sliced sausages with a generous helping of the ketchup-based sauce on top along side a heaping pile of french fries. It’s an incredibly tasty dish that combines the deliciousness of sausage with sweet tomato flavor and just a touch of curry spice.
We wanted to re-create this German streetfood icon (over 800 million are eaten every year!) at LGCM, but instead of squeezing curry ketchup on top, we wanted to fill the sausage with the perfect proportion of curry sauce on the inside. We set out to create the perfect curry sauce that had the right balance of sweet and spicy flavor – it needs to be both sweet like ketchup while having just a little touch of spice – a hard thing to do.
After many attempts, we got the recipe exactly the way we want, and every Wednesday night during Brat-Tober Fest, we scratch make a new batch of curry sauce to use in the next day’s brats. We are proud of the flavor of this sausage and look forward to enjoying it every year. Check out this video of Nick making a batch in 2020:
If you’re someone who likes to experience foods from around the world, what are you waiting for? You need to try this sausage! It’s not too sweet, and not too spicy, just a perfectly balanced, completely delicious sausage. You can top it with more curry ketchup if you like (or regular ketchup does just fine), and be sure to have a big plate of fries on the side. Of course, you need to pair it with your favorite German-style beer on the side. We love a lager or wheat beer.
Stop by Lake Geneva Country Meats during our next Brat-Tober Fest and enjoy one of these delicious sausages for yourself.
Prost!