Currywurst
The sauce is the dish, and it is ketchup with curry powder rather than a curry.
Pork, Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish, pork.
Ingredients
- 4 pork sausages, skinless if you can get them
- 250 ml tomato ketchup
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons mild curry powder, and more to dust
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- oil, for frying
Method
- THE SAUCE IS THE DISH, AND IT IS KETCHUP WITH CURRY POWDER RATHER THAN A CURRY. Its article records how Herta Heuwer put it together at a stand in Charlottenburg from 1949: she OBTAINED KETCHUP, OR POSSIBLY WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE, AND CURRY POWDER FROM BRITISH SOLDIERS IN GERMANY, then MIXED THESE INGREDIENTS WITH OTHER SPICES AND POURED THEM OVER GRILLED PORK SAUSAGE.
- SO NOTHING IS BLOOMED AND NOTHING IS SIMMERED FOR HOURS. The curry powder goes into a cold sauce base and is warmed through, which is why it tastes of curry powder rather than of spices.
- THE SAUSAGE IS PORK AND IT IS GRILLED OR FRIED, not poached. The article's word is grilled, and a browned skin is the only texture in the dish.
- WARM THE KETCHUP, WORCESTERSHIRE, VINEGAR AND SUGAR TOGETHER FIRST. Two minutes, barely bubbling. The vinegar and sugar are there to take the edge off a sauce that is mostly ketchup.
- THE CURRY POWDER AND PAPRIKA GO IN OFF THE HEAT. In a boiling sauce the powder turns dusty and bitter.
- LET IT STAND TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE SERVING. Curry powder needs time in liquid to stop tasting raw, and this is the only time it gets.
- FRY THE SAUSAGES UNTIL DARK, THEN CUT THEM UP IN THE PAN. Skinless if possible, because the point is that every piece has a cut face for the sauce to sit on.
- POUR THE SAUCE OVER AND DUST MORE CURRY POWDER ON TOP. The dusting is dry and it is not the same as the sauce -- one carries the heat, the other the smell.
- EATEN AT ONCE, WITH CHIPS OR A BREAD ROLL. It does not keep: the cut faces go grey and the sauce separates.
Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.
Filed under Germany · All recipes