Most recent attempt to duplicate Old Family Recipe - German Mettwurst

[Rednose]

A coupla times a year, my Dad and I get together to try to refine and duplicate an old family recipe. The original was never properly passed on by the ol' timers, that is, it was never written down. Not uncommon IMO. Anyhoo, here's a coupla shots from our latest attempt.

The three guys on the right side of the family pic were the sausage makers in the family. My grampa is second from left. Pic is prolly in the late *30s.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of sliced product to post right now. As for our attempt, we're gettin closer to the ol' timers stuff. Love makin me some sausage with my Pop!!

Thanks for lookin!

[Mark R]

Cool beans, great lookin stuff! Cool workin on the family recipe with your Pops!!!

[Slanted88]

Stay after it! Time well spent!

[Critterhunter]

Good Looking SausageThink of all the good Stuff you get to eat while your trying to get it right.

[MossyMO]

Thanks for sharing Rednose, enjoy hearing the history and seeing the pics...
Be sure to involve the younger generation of your family in this!

[barkonbutts]

looks great!!! those will be good!

[Rednose]

Thanks for sharing Rednose, enjoy hearing the history and seeing the pics...
Be sure to involve the younger generation of your family in this!

You're spot on with that one! With his great-grampa helpin' a little, our six year old grandson did most of the linking in this batch. Real proud of him.

[merrell]

Good lookin meat there Rednose. Keep up the good work. Luv food porn.

[RowdyRay]

Very nice. Look great. Love the history too.

[Beaver Camp Sausage Company]

I love the ladder for hanging. :thumbup:

[Meat Hunter]

Nicely done. Nice thing about trying to get your recipe to where you want it is all the ones you get eat getting there

[DanMcG]

good looking sausage Red, I wish ya luck on finding the right mix.

[Fishawn]

Very cool!..... Love the history behind it .. Thanks for posting it.... I gotta get some of these going with my kids also

[curious aardvark]

great idea and love that you and your dad do it together.
Have some generational sausage making :-)

Now here's the thing (lol)

Given that you don't actually have any of the original recipe sausage to compare what you make to. And that people's taste buds change quite significantly over the course of our lives. And also that memories are never 100% reliable.

You will probably never be able to duplicate the sausage your grandfather made. Just as he probably never made exactly the same recipe as his grandfather.

However if you WRITE your recipe down - your grandkids WILL be able to make your sausage.

So if I were you I would probably stop concentrating on trying to reproduce the impossible and instead concentrate on producing the best Genuine family recipoe you can.

And if you think all that was simply a lead up to asking for the recipe so we can all help you fine tune it You're partially right.

I Grew up in germany, lived there till I was 14. never came across a sausage called mettwurst. So very interested in your recipe :-)

But also don't wnat you and your dad to spend the rest of your lives on a hopeless quest, when the family tradition is more likely to actually be each generation producing their own version of the 'family sausage'. You can be the first to write it down :-)

[Gunslinger]

Here's what I came up with for mettwurst.

From Cooks Thesaurus:

mettwurst = metts Pronunciation: MET-wurst OR MET-vursht Notes: At least two kinds of sausages answer to the name mettwurst. People in Cincinnati use the name to describe a kielbasa-like sausage that's made with beef and pork, seasoned with pepper and coriander, and smoked. They like to grill it and serve it on a bun. Elsewhere, mettwurst is soft like liverwurst and ready to eat. It's usually spread on crackers and bread. Substitutes: kielbasa (for Cincinnati's mettwurst) OR bratwurst (for Cincinnati's mettwurst) OR teewurst (for spreadable mettwurst)

And

From Wikipedia (Not that I trust everything from Wikipedia, but the part about Mineola Iowa it true. I grew up about 10 miles north of there and my wifes family pretty much owns the town.

This article is about the German sausage, for the similarly named Dutch sausage see Metworst





Mettwurst is a strongly flavoured German sausage made from raw minced pork, which is preserved by curing and smoking. The southern German variety is soft and similar to Teewurst. Braunschweiger mettwurst is smoked somewhat but still soft and spreadable, while other northern German varieties such as the Holsteiner are harder and more akin to salami, due to longer smoking. The Low German word mett, meaning minced pork without bacon, is derived from the Old Saxon word meti (meaning food), and is related to the English word 'meat'. Mettwurst can be cooked or fried or spread on rye bread with onions and eaten raw.

Due to the large German immigration to South Australia (for example, the town of Hahndorf), mettwurst (sometimes spelled metwurst) is very common and is created in the North German style. It is often used in school lunches and for snacks during parties. Well-known South Australian brands include Linke's, Steiney's, Kalleske, Wintulich, Smallgoods of the Riverland and Barossa Fine Foods.

The town of Mineola, Iowa, which was settled almost exclusively by immigrants from Schleswig-Holstein, hosts an annual heritage dinner with "Schoening-style" cold-smoked Mettwurst known in the Low German dialect as "Metvuss".

It is important that high quality, fresh ingredients are used otherwise deadly microrganisms and toxins can develop. In January 1995, 23 children became very ill, one of whom died, which the coroner found was a result of eating garlic mettwurst on 20 January 1995 made by Garibaldi Smallgoods Pty Ltd of Adelaide, South Australia.[1]

Finnish meetvursti resembles the Dutch metworst or salami: it is dry, hard, strong-flavored and dense, and is eaten as a cold cut on bread.

One thing we have to remember is, Europe is as diverse as the US. And Germany is (or was) extremely diverse from north to south. My grandparents came from Southern Germany, close to Austria. Their dialect was completely different than the rest of the country.
And when it comes to food, something I'm learning more and more is that apples aren't apples. Especially when it comes sausage. Mexican chorizo is not the same as Spanish chorizo. Cajun andouille is not even close to French andouille. Etc is not the same as etc.
I wish I would have paid more attention to my grandparents German heritage. Only now do I find myself wanting to know more about them and their culture, but from Germany and not from their German/American culture.