Oktoberfest Guide: 6 Different German Sausages To Get To Know Now (2024)

Features 2 minutes 02 October 2017

From brat to blood to white, here are six sausages native to Germany.

guide Oktoberfest sausage

It's a country with one people and 1,200 types of sausages. And we get why. They're tasty, they've already got the right ratio of fat and meat built in and they're so easy to prepare.

Oktoberfest Guide: 6 Different German Sausages To Get To Know Now (1)

Bratwurst
One of the most famous of German sausages, second only to the Frankfurter Würstchen, the bratwurst is typically made from veal, beef or pork. The recipe for the actual sausage vary from region to region and has to date, over 40 varieties.

Cooking method: Listen to them sizzle in a pan or over coals.
Served as: A snack, with a white bread roll and mustard or a pretzel. And as a meal, it’s often served with a side of sauerkraut or potato salad.

Oktoberfest Guide: 6 Different German Sausages To Get To Know Now (2)

Literally translating to 'white sausage', weisswursts are named so for the grey-white colour it turns into when it cooks

Weisswurst
Made fresh every day from minced veal and back bacon without the use of preservatives or curing methods, the Bavarian weisswursts are the daytime Cinderellas of the sausages; they have to be eaten before noon. In fact, the Germans have a saying that weisswursts should not be allowed to hear the noon chime of the church bells.

Cooking method: Bathe them in water just shy of boiling so the skins don’t split from the heat.
Served as: A snack after breakfast and before lunch with a pretzel, sweet mustard and a beer.

Oktoberfest Guide: 6 Different German Sausages To Get To Know Now (3)

Blutwurst
Literally translating to blood sausages, the German blutwurst is typically made with pork rind and blood cooked down with barley.

Cooking method: Although the blutwurst is already cooked before sale, it is typically served warm.
Served as: A meal. A popular dish is Cologne’s ‘Himmel und Erde’, which serves hot blutwurst alongside sweet apple sauce and mashed potatoes.

Frankfurter Würstchen
If this name doesn’t sound familiar to you, don’t worry. Chances are, you know them by their other monikers: Vienna sausage, wiener or frank. Or quite simply, hot dog. Yes, the ubiquitous New York street food snack is actually German (sorry, Yankees).

Cooking method: They’ve already been lightly smoked and cooked prior to getting packaged so the frankfurters require only heating up.
Served as: A snack, in a bun and topped with mustard and horseradish.

Oktoberfest Guide: 6 Different German Sausages To Get To Know Now (4)

Leberwurst
Made with pigs’ or calves’ livers, leberwurst is a spreadable sausage whose recipe differs from region to region. Some of the spices used in the sausage include black pepper, marjoram, thyme, ground mustard seeds and nutmeg. Butchers have however, gotten more adventurous with their sausage blends over the years, adding exotic ingredients such as cowberries and mushrooms to the mix.

Cooking method:
None required.
Served as: Spread thickly on bread and served as an open-faced sandwich with some mustard and pickles.

ThüringerRostbratwurst
It is one Germany’s oldest known sausages with a reference dating as far back as 1404 and if that’s not good enough for you, the sausage has been given a protected geographical indication (PGI) status under the European law. Only finely minced pork, beef and sometimes veal is used in its production. And at least 51 percent of the ingredients used has to come from the state of Thüringia.

Cooking method: Roasted over charcoal or on a grill for a delicious char.
Served as: A sandwich. On an open roll with some mustard.

Oktoberfest Guide: 6 Different German Sausages To Get To Know Now (5)

Special Mention: Currywurst
The currywurst isn’t so much as a type of sausage than it is a dish; it’s made with bratwurst that’s first boiled then fried, and doused in a sauce of tomatoes and Worcestershire and dusted curry powder. But we felt like it deserved a special mention for the fact that it’s an icon of German popular culture.

Like many fast food dishes, the currywurst has humble beginnings. It started as a cheap street food snack invented by Herta Heuwer in 1949. Today, it has a museum opened in its honour,Deutsches Currywurst Museum, which estimates that 800 million currywursts are eaten every year.

Oktoberfest Guide: 6 Different German Sausages To Get To Know Now (6)

Written by Alethea Tan

Alethea traded her office cubicle for a home desk in Vietnam couple of years back, freelancing from wherever her food adventures would take her; from pho-slurping in Ho Chi Minh City to snail-picking in Hanoi. She has since returned to the motherland and now spends her time sussing out new restaurants to visit, recipes to cook and ways to terrorise her cat.

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Oktoberfest Guide: 6 Different German Sausages To Get To Know Now (2024)

FAQs

Oktoberfest Guide: 6 Different German Sausages To Get To Know Now? ›

Sausage is a preparation of ground meat that can be found in dried or fresh varieties and sold either in casing as links or in bulk. Bratwurst is a specific type of fresh link sausage made with pork or veal.

What are the different types of German sausages? ›

The Wurst of Germany
  • Bratwurst. Bratwurst is likely the most popular German wurst and is made from pork, beef, marjoram, caraway, garlic, and many other spices. ...
  • Nurnberfer Rostbratwurst. ...
  • Blood Sausage. ...
  • Bockwurst. ...
  • Leberkase. ...
  • Teewurst. ...
  • Weisswurst.

What is the best German sausage for Oktoberfest? ›

Five Traditional Oktoberfest German Sausages
  • Bratwurst. Bratwurst, affectionately called “brats” by sausage enthusiasts in the upper Midwest, is the most well-known of all German sausages. ...
  • Knackwurst. ...
  • Thuringer. ...
  • Bockwurst. ...
  • Weisswurst.
Oct 9, 2020

What's the difference between sausage and bratwurst at Oktoberfest? ›

Sausage is a preparation of ground meat that can be found in dried or fresh varieties and sold either in casing as links or in bulk. Bratwurst is a specific type of fresh link sausage made with pork or veal.

What is Munich sausage called? ›

Weißwurst: The famous sausage

Obviously the most famous type of sausage in Munich is the weisswurst or white sausage. This is short and thick and is sold in small pieces. Each sausage butcher uses its own recipe to make these. The main ingredients are calf's meat, pork back fat, beaten egg whites and cooking salt.

What's the difference between bratwurst and German sausage? ›

Bratwurst is a type of German sausage most commonly made from pork, though some recipes also use beef and veal. Bratwurst is prepared and stored fresh so it doesn't have a long shelf life like a sausage can. Another difference that is common across most bratwurst recipes is the use of the herb marjoram for flavor.

What is the famous sausage in Nuremberg? ›

World-Famous and Well-Loved: The Nuremberg Bratwurst! If you're visiting Nuremberg, you must try Nuremberg Bratwurst - then you'll discover why these delicious sausages are known and loved far beyond the borders of Germany! More than 3 million of the small sausages are produced every day and are exported worldwide.

What is a German sausage with cheese called? ›

Käsekrainer (German: [ˈkɛːzəˌkʁaɪ̯nɐ]) is a type of lightly smoked Brühwurst containing roughly torn bits of pork and 10% to 20% cheese (for example Emmentaler) cut into small cubes. They are sold all over Austria at Würstelstand outlets. It is a variety of Carniolan sausage.

What is white sausage called in Germany? ›

Literally translating to "white sausage," weisswursts are named so for the off-white color it turns into when it cooks.

What is a big German sausage called in German? ›

Bratwurst (German: [ˈbʁaːtvʊʁst]) is a type of German sausage made from pork or, less commonly, beef or veal. The name is derived from the Old High German Brätwurst, from brät-, finely chopped meat, and Wurst, sausage, although in modern German it is often associated with the verb braten, to pan fry or roast.

What is the nickname for German sausage? ›

Sausage recipes go back as early as 228 AD, but the first documented evidence of the Bratwurst dates to 1313 in the Franconian city of Nuremberg, Germany. The name “bratwurst” comes from the German words “brat,” which means without waste, and “wurst,” which means sausage.

What do Germans put on their sausages? ›

Everything ranging from basting the sausages in beer or greasing the grill with pork belly fat to soaking in water, is all common practice. Despite the myriad methods to grill these sausages, the most authentic way to eat it is in a fresh white bread roll with a slathering of hot mustard.

What is the most popular German sausage? ›

Bratwurst. One of the most famous of German sausages, second only to the Frankfurter Würstchen, the bratwurst—a.k.a., "brat"—is typically made from veal, beef or pork.

What sausages are served at Oktoberfest? ›

“o*ktoberfest is very specifically Bavarian, and while other parts of Germany do celebrate it, they tend to stick to the weisswurst,” said Denes. These white-colored sausages are smooth and mild-flavored, made with a combination of veal and pork back bacon.

What is a German hot dog called? ›

Nowadays, in German-speaking countries, except Austria, hot dog sausages are called Wiener or Wiener Würstchen (Würstchen means "little sausage"), to differentiate them from the original pork-only mixture from Frankfurt.

What's the difference between bratwurst and knockwurst? ›

Bratwurst is made out of both finely minced pork and beef and wrapped up in a sausage casing. Knockwurst sausage is made out of mainly pork, veal, and flavored with garlic, unlike bratwurst. The color of knockwurst also tends to be a more reddish or orange tint, rather than the pinkish color that bratwurst displays.

What are the white German sausages called? ›

What is Weisswurst? Weisswürste (“white sausages”) are a specialty from Bavaria that taste considerably better than they look: short, greyish white sausages made from a mixture of finely minced veal and back bacon stuffed into pork casings.

What's the difference between bockwurst and weisswurst? ›

In the German tradition, weisswurst is poached, served in a bit of its cooking water, and eaten by sucking the meat out of its delicate casing. Bockwurst. Essentially a weisswurst but a little smaller and seasoned with fresh chives or sometimes parsley.

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