Nürnberger rostbratwurst
Small Nuremberg sausage whose PGI specification sets its length at 7-9 cm and its weight at 20-25 g. Marjoram is its dominant and obligatory spice.
| Lean pork shoulder | 700 g |
| Pork belly | 300 g |
| Fine salt | 18 g |
| Ground white pepper | 2 g |
| Dried marjoram | 4 g |
| Ground mace | 1 g |
| Ground cardamom | 0.5 g |
| Ground ginger | 0.5 g |
| Fine sheep casing (Ø 18–22 mm) | — |
- Preparation: Cut up and chill hard.
- Mincing: Mince very finely through the 3 mm plate. The texture should be smooth.
- Seasoning: Marjoram is the key spice. Add all the spices, then knead for a long time to emulsify.
- Resting: Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
- Stuffing: Stuff into the very fine sheep casing. Form sausages 7 to 9 cm long, about 25 g each. Twist between each.
- Cooking: Grill over high heat for 8–10 minutes, traditionally on a beech-charcoal grill. Serve in sixes (‘Sechs im Weckla’), eights or more.
The Nürnberger rostbratwurst is produced exclusively in the administrative region of Nuremberg, under a PGI specification registered in 2003, the first PGI granted to a German sausage. Marjoram is its signature spice. The very fine sheep casing gives a lightly crackling skin on the grill, distinct from the suppler texture of bratwursts stuffed into hog casing.
The municipal archives of Nuremberg mention the bratwurst from 1313 (see that entry). The first specific mentions of the Nürnberger, with its dimensions and its mode of service, appear in the fifteenth century. This documentary continuity of six centuries, down to the present specification, is one of the longest in European charcuterie.
Its small size has given rise to two legends. The first attributes the format to innkeepers who are said to have gone on serving late customers by slipping sausages through the keyhole after the city gates had closed. The second is associated with Hans Stromer, a patrician sentenced to life imprisonment in 1554, who is said to have received a sausage with every meal, passed through an opening in the wall of his cell, and thus to have eaten some 28,000 of them over his thirty-eight years of incarceration. The city chronicles mention the episode but provide no identifiable primary source. The best-documented explanation of the format remains economic: in the sixteenth century, facing rising costs, the butchers reduced the weight while keeping the unit price.
The very fine mincing produces a smooth texture that brings the Nürnberger close to the poached emulsified sausages, while keeping it within the class of grilling sausages. It is served in threes or sixes in a small roll (Drei im Weckla, Sechs im Weckla), with sauerkraut or potato salad and sweet mustard. This way of serving by number is documented as far back as the seventeenth century.
Nuremberg’s Christkindlesmarkt (one of the oldest and most celebrated Christmas markets in the world) is the product’s most visible point of sale for tourists. Annual production under the PGI exceeds several thousand tonnes, shared among some twenty certified producers.
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