Over the years we catered many Bavarian themed parties and German picnics and learned a few shortcuts which makes it easier.

 

 

 

 

The Wurstfest:

Your friends and family come over for a picnic. The easiest homemade menu would be:

• different types of “Wurst” such as Bratwurst, Weisswurst and Knockwurst
• Potato Salad
• Pasta Salad
• Sauerkraut, see recipe at ingeskitchen.com
• Hard Rolls or other Buns
• Condiments including mustard and ketchup
• and a variety of drinks

The 3 basic sausage categories are fresh (raw), precooked or smoked, within these the selection is getting bigger and bigger.

 

 

 

 

Fresh Sausage:

The assortment of fresh sausage included your basic Bratwurst, Country style, Italian and Polish sausage, along came the Hungarian style and together with this all the other ethnic sausages. Nowadays it goes with the whim of the sausage maker when adding jalapenos, cherries, sun dried tomatoes, cheeses, wine, beer or any other edible items they can think of, which we will buy and are willing to eat. Also the heat content within the seasonings changed from the then hot sausages which in these days would be considered mild by many  who are accustomed to the heat levels of Ghost Chili Powder or whatever the newest, hottest chili is.

Precooked Sausage:

The most famous in this category would be Munich’s own Weisswurst.  With a more open market through the Internet many of the previously only sold fresh sausages are nowadays precooked to extend their shelf life making it possible to transport them over greater distances and extending the availability to all of us.

Smoked Sausages:

We will start here with the ever famous Hot Dog with aliases like Frankfurter, Wiener or even Tube Steak and continue on to the Knockwurst and Smoked Polish. These sausages are usually also precooked, besides being smoked. Again we can add the same statement as with the fresh sausages, that the ingredients nowadays are only limited by the imagination of the sausage maker.

How much to buy?

For normal eaters we figure 1 to 2 bun size sausages for each lady and 2 to 3 for each gentleman, so do the math and add a few extras.

The day of the party preheat all the sausages. For this you would need a meat thermometer and a large pot or two. Precook all your fresh sausages in water first until they reach 160°F inside temperature, ergo the thermometer.

Do not heat the water above 170°F!

Do not bring the water to a boil as your sausages will burst wide open!

Make sure the sausages are covered with water during the cooking process. Preheat all your other precooked sausages. If you heated them in separate pots combine everything into one large pot and keep them hot in water.

Light up your grill at the appropriate time and set the pot with the sausages next to it. As they only take a minute to brown on the hot BBQ you can custom serve them to your guests and even have the late comers throw on their own. The beauty of this is that if you have any sausages left over in the pot you can cool them down to use them later, as they are just “precooked” they are just like the precooked product you buy in the store. No waste!

By preheating your Wurst you make sure all product is heated to a safe level, be able to serve a large crowd in a short period of time (at our church picnic over hundred people are served in less then 45 minutes) which gives you more time to socialize with your guests and no dried up, half burned left overs.

As a little variety, a friend of ours slices some onions and bell peppers adds beer and heats them in a washed out coffee can right on top of the BBQ. Once the sausages are brown he immerses them into the beer for a short period of time and returns them to the BBQ to dry. If you are nice to him he even shares some of the cooked “veggies” with you.

For our salad recipes you can visit ingeskitchen.com