Weisswurst: The Golden Rules

Although my Opa Wolfgang is from the north of Deutschland, it was not long before my robust Germanic bones felt right at home in Munchen, further south. Conveniently, we were able to set up camp just a hop, skip and metro ride from the city. It soon became clear that we would need at least three days to even scratch at the surface of Munich's rich cultural landscape. Having covered little German history in my schooling, I was blown away by the beauty and revival of the Bavarian capital, which I learnt played such a significant role in the Thirty Years War, was once the Hauptstadt der Bewegung (capital of the [Nazi] movement) and was subject to seventy-one air raids over six years in WW2. Luckily for us, we were able to undertake a self-guided, mp3 tour. This allowed for plenty of breaks, during which we were able to feast on street vendor goodies to our hearts content. Yay!

For as long as I can remember, a big juicy Bratwurst with sauerkraut and mustard has remained somewhere between 1 and say, 7, on my top-treats list.  So naturally, prior to this visit, my Deutschland-related day-dreams were mostly occupied by large quantities of wurst, served  by Bavarians dressed in lederhosen, entertaining me with traditional folk dance, whilst smashing beer mugs together  - exclaiming  'Prost!!' Not to have tested these expectations, would have been unthinkable!

I'm not really one for guided tours, however, I jumped at the chance to attend a Bavarian Food Tasting tour for just 22 euro, including all food and beverages. On meeting beneath the Rathaus Glockenspiel in Marienplatz, our local guide announced that there would only be 3 attendees. Brill.

Rathaus-Glockenspiel (New Town Hall, Munich, Germany)

My learnings from the half-day experience far exceeded my expectations surrounding the Bavarian culinary scene. Let's skip straight to the highlights. Weisswurst (meaning 'White Sausage'). Essentially, a short and stout, predominantly veal sausage, boiled and served in a bowl of hot water containing fresh herbs. Un-bloody-believable. Admitting this next fact of life is not going to be my classiest moment. They served me two; I could just about have inhaled twenty. When it comes to the degustation of  Weisswurst, there are a number of time honoured traditions with which most Bavarians comply (NB: inhalation is NOT one of them).

Weisswurst: The Golden Rules

•  Must be eaten before the  church bells strike noon. 
• This practise arose prior to the invention of ice-boxes and refrigerators, when the un-smoked meat was at risk of perishing and therefore, had to be consumed soon after production.

• One draws/sucks the meat from the casing, using their teeth. 
• As the story goes, in 1957, a butcher was making Weisswurst in Marienplatz. Being Mardigras, the celebrating masses ate with hearty appetites. Eventually, the butcher ran out of wurst casings (made from sheep intestine) and sent his assistant to fetch more. However, when the assistant returned, he presented the butcher with much thicker, tougher intestine of hog. Being more difficult to chew, the patrons sucked the meat out, leaving the casings to be disposed of.

• Weisswurst are boiled gently (for about 10 mins), not grilled, baked or fried! 
• When the butchers assistant was only able to obtain hog intestine casings, they were concerned that it was more susceptible to splitting if fried over direct heat. As a result, the decision was made to cook the wurst in simmering water. Weisswurst are usually served in hot water. This prevents them from becoming cold and unappetising!

• Always served with senf, a sweet Bavarian mustard

My re-creation of the Weisswurst experience back at camp. Breaking the third golden rule because we didn't have an unlimited supply of serving bowls. 

Aware of the fact that I am rarely able to beat my foodie experiences into neat, minimalist paragraphs, I have done my best to summarise the rest of my Bavarian culinary experience with a few [lengthily] captioned photographs Hooray! 

Cheese deli in the Munich food markets.

 I found it interesting that particular retail spaces in the food market will always be reserved for sale of particular products. For example, if this cheese seller had to close his doors, only another distributor of  artisan cheese could take his place.

Sharing platter of cured meats.

 Our guide had a good insight into the history and making of each and every one of these! Leberkase (located 12-3 o'clock on the plate above) is a fast food favourite throughout Bavaria. If ever in need of a quick bite, we would pull over and order a thick hot slice of leberkase on a bread roll with senf mustard. Really delicious.The name translates to 'liver-cheese' BUT, in actual fact, the product contains neither liver, nor cheese!! Our guide told us that the meat, which contains ground pork, beef and onion, gained its name through the word changing form a number of times. My university linguistics lecturer would have loved to have wrapped his teeth around that one! haha, pun intended.

Creating a campervan cookery masterpiece using fresh strawberries and raspberries from the markets

Tadaaaa!!! :D

Beer garden in the Munchner food Markets...just as you would imagine.


That's all folks. 

Auf Weidersehen! Tschuss! Goodbye!