Currywurst
Not a curried sausage, but a bratwurst cut into rounds and coated in a tomato sauce with curry powder. An institution in Berlin, which devoted a museum to it.
| For the sausage (Bockwurst type) | — |
| Lean pork | 700 g |
| Back fat | 300 g |
| Fine salt | 18 g |
| Ground white pepper | 2 g |
| Ground mace | 1 g |
| Iced water | 80 ml |
| Hog casing (Ø 28–32 mm) | — |
- Preparing the sausage: Follow the bockwurst recipe: mince finely, emulsify with the iced water and the spices, then stuff and poach.
- Cooking: The traditional currywurst is grilled or fried (not poached). Fry in oil or grill until golden.
- Cutting: Cut into rounds of 2 to 3 cm.
- Preparing the curry sauce: Mix 200 g of ketchup with 2 tbsp of curry powder, 1 tsp of paprika and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Some add honey or mustard.
- Serving: Arrange the sausage rounds, then coat generously with the curry sauce. Dust with additional curry powder. Serve with chips and a small wooden fork.
The currywurst is not a curried sausage but a bratwurst (or sometimes a bockwurst), grilled or fried, cut into rounds and coated in a tomato sauce seasoned with curry powder. The sauce is the central element of the dish; the sausage is its support. This configuration sets it apart from sausages elaborate in their composition: the currywurst is a street dish assembled at the moment of serving, whose identity owes as much to the sauce as to the sausage.
On 4 September 1949, Herta Heuwer, who kept a street stand in Charlottenburg, mixed ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and curry powder to create the sauce, for which she registered the trademark Chillup. Today, a commemorative plaque marks the site of her stand. The origin remains disputed: some historians trace similar preparations to Duisburg as early as 1936, but the available sources do not allow the matter to be settled. In reality, the currywurst probably owes its birth to the simultaneous presence in Berlin in the immediate post-war years under the Allied occupation of three influences: the curry and Worcestershire sauce of the British zone, the ketchup of the American zone, and the German tradition of the grilled sausage.
The basic structure of the sauce is the same from one stand to the next, but each owner keeps their recipe secret. The sausage is the object of a well-established distinction among regulars: mit Darm or ohne Darm, with or without natural casing. The ohne Darm version absorbs the sauce more evenly; the mit Darm version cracks under the tooth and develops a more pronounced taste on contact with the frying fat.
It is eaten standing, cut into rounds in a cardboard tray, with a small wooden fork and chips. It is served at the Imbiss (street stands) at all hours of the day. Currywurst accounts for more than 800 million units consumed annually in Germany. Berlin has more currywurst stands than international fast-food chains. The Deutsches Currywurst Museum, opened in 2009 in Berlin-Mitte, received nearly a million visitors before closing in 2018 at the expiry of its lease. No attempt to protect the Berliner currywurst has succeeded to date, and the dish, surprisingly, has not seen any significant international spread in its original form.
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