Weißwurst
White sausage of Munich, poached and unsmoked, which local tradition holds should be eaten before noon. Its creation is attributed to an innkeeper at the Marienplatz, who is said to have improvised the recipe one Sunday in February 1857 for want of suitable casings.
| Lean veal (shoulder) | 500 g |
| Lean pork | 200 g |
| Back fat | 250 g |
| Crushed ice | 100 g |
| Fine salt | 16 g |
| Ground white pepper | 2 g |
| Ground mace | 1 g |
| Ground ginger | 0.5 g |
| Grated lemon zest | 3 g |
| Fresh parsley, finely chopped | 20 g |
| Hog casing (Ø 28–32 mm) | — |
- Preparation: The meats must be of the first quality. Cut into cubes and part-freeze at −3 °C.
- Mincing: Mince very finely in a bowl cutter or through a 2 to 3 mm plate. The texture must be ultra-smooth.
- Emulsion: Add the crushed ice gradually while mixing to obtain a stable emulsion. Add the spices, the zest and the parsley.
- Stuffing: Stuff gently into the casings. Form sausages 12–15 cm long.
- Poaching: Poach in salted water at 70–75 °C (never above) for 15–20 minutes. The sausages must never boil.
- Serving: Serve at once in hot water (to keep them warm) with pretzels, sweet Bavarian mustard (süßer Senf) and wheat beer (Weißbier).
The weißwurst is a poached sausage whose white colour results from the absence of curing salt, smoking and fermentation. It carries no preserving treatment at all, which makes it quickly perishable and explains the traditional rule of eating it before noon.
Its creation is attributed to Joseph Moser, known as ‘Moser Sepp’, innkeeper at the Gasthaus zum ewigen Licht on Munich’s Marienplatz, who is said to have improvised the recipe one Sunday in February 1857. Lacking sheep casing, he is said to have used hog casing. The first written sources mentioning the episode postdate the reported facts by several decades. Historians have no contemporary record confirming this version, which is common for the origins of culinary inventions, whose narratives are often constructed after the fact.
The fresh parsley and lemon zest, added at the end of mixing, are the aromatics that set the weißwurst apart from other German poached sausages. They give it its characteristic freshness, which is absent from the Frankfurter, the bockwurst, and the knackwurst.
Before widespread refrigeration, a poached sausage in untreated natural casing would begin to ferment quickly as ambient temperature rose. The rule of eating it before noon derives from this sanitary constraint. It persists as a convention, even though refrigeration now technically allows longer keeping. The weißwurst is traditionally served in its poaching water, in a ceramic bowl or a small copper cauldron. Sweet Bavarian mustard (süßer Senf), lightly sugared and grainy, is its usual accompaniment, with pretzels and a weißbier.
The practice of zuzeln consists of lightly nicking the skin, holding the sausage in both hands, and sucking out the flesh directly, without cutlery. It coexists with the practice of cutting the sausage into sections before peeling it. Both usages are widespread, no authority having laid down a norm. The weißwurst is served in the beer gardens of Munich from 9 in the morning. It is governed by a Bavarian regional charter and lacks a European PGI, and its consumption remains essentially Bavarian.
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