Weiss-what you say? Weisswurst is a traditional white sausage from the state of Bavaria. It is made from finely minced veal and fresh bacon and a selection of herbs and spices that can range from parsley, lemon, mace, onion, cardamom, to ginger. If you're wondering why sausage in the morning, the answer is actually very pragmatic. Weisswurst is made without preservatives and since refrigeration is a relatively new phenomenon, this sausage was (and is) traditionally made and consumed before the church bell chimes twelve.
Weisswurst is a breakfast snack rife with traditional customs - one of those being that Weisswurst must be accompanied by a Weissbier (wheat beer), a Brezel (soft Bavarian Pretzel), and some sweet Bavarian mustard. The standard pretzel to sausage ratio is 1:2. (1 pretzel to 2 sausages) Finding a Weissbier didn't prove very difficult (thank you LCBO), but buying a fresh pretzel was a bit tricky. Pretzels, like baguettes, are made with little fat and consequently need to be fresh. So what's a girl to do but bake them herself?
At first I was dubious to try this endeavour at home, but in the end I'm glad I took the chance. The pretzels were A-MA-ZING when done fresh and actually weren't that tricky to prepare. They required very few ingredients (water, baking soda, yeast, brown sugar and flour) and only took about an hour. One caveat, Brezen are normally dipped in lye before baking and that is what gives them that dark pretzel look. However, any ingredient that requires googles, gloves and a face mask doesn't seem like a good idea (especially in the morning). I substituted a baking soda bath instead and still got excellent results.
Weisswurst is made with a thin pork casing that isn't eaten and makes this breakfast a little tricky to eat. Many web-sites warned of the dangers of eating Weisswurst incorrectly and the apparent dire embarrassment that would follow. The traditional method of eating Weisswurst even has a name - zuzeln.
Here's how zuzeln works: You bite off one end of the sausage and then ever so carefully suck the meat out of the casing. When you get to the half-way point you turn the sausage around and repeat with the other half leaving the used casing discreetly on your plate. Very... interesting wouldn't you say?
The Verdict:
For Ease of Preparation:
For Degree of Separation:
For Guestability:
I wasn't entirely convinced with the sausage but the pretzels are fabulously hospitable!
For Sustainability:
Yeah, lunch didn't really happen after this....
For Overall Appeal:
Like so many of these experiments I was a little anxious about trying this one. But once those hot pretzels came out of the oven I was totally game. The Germans were right, the beer, the pretzel, the mustard, the sausage - it all worked together perfectly!
There are actually several breakfast entries waiting to be written about at the moment and I'm going to try my best to get them finished soon. Because next week we travel to NYC!!! (for real, not just in my culinary imagination)
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