The French have excellent sausages and so have the Italians. They are
hard to beat, and yet, in the matter of variety and general excellence,
the Germans as makers of _würste_ are supreme.
Various are the tastes of sausage eaters, but all of them may be
gratified west of the Rhine. I have before me a book by Nicolaus Merges
bearing the title "Internationale Wurst und Fleischwaaren Fabrikation."
Concise directions are given in it for the making of more than a
hundred and fifty kinds of sausages, all of which are manufactured in
Germany, though some are of foreign origin.
Why so many kinds of sausage? There is not much difference in their
nutritive value. They are made in different ways simply to secure
variety in Flavor, to please all palates.
The book referred to shows how this variety is secured. Different
meats are used and these are diversely blended, spiced, and cured. The
possibilities are unlimited; the hundred and fifty varieties in the
Merges volume are a mere fraction of the total number, nearly every
locality having its special kind.
Of liver sausages there are two dozen varieties, the cheapest being
made from ordinary beef liver while the _Gänselebertrüffelwurst_
(goose-liver-truffle sausage) may cost a dollar a pound. Of sausages
in which blood is used there are more than a score. These are cheap,
and--well, if they cost nothing I wouldn't eat them.
The biggest of all the sausages is the Cervelat made in Braunschweig
(many German towns have become world-famed by the making of some
particularly well-flavored sausage, cheese, cake, or beer). The
Brunswick brand is compounded of beef and pork, both lean and fat. The
Westphalian variety includes less beef. Some kinds of Cervelat exclude
pork, containing only beef or veal. There is also a homœopathetic
Cervelat. It is intended for convalescents, and has a minimum of fat
and spices. A kosher Cervelat is made for Hebrews.
Beef from old cows is not in the best repute, yet for the making of
Salami it is preferred to the tenderloin of a young steer. (The
toughest meat sometimes has the richest Flavor.) Salami hails from
Italy, but special varieties of it are made in Germany, as well as in
Holland, Switzerland, Russia, and Hungary.
It is needless to give details regarding Plockwurst, Mettwurst,
Knoblauchwurst, Knackwurst, Schwartenmagen, etc., in all their
transformations. In some varieties anchovies, kidneys, or brains are
used.
Bärenwurst is not often seen now, as bears are getting scarce. Horse
meat of course is used (why not?) for cheaper sorts, and the bow-wow
joke of the comic papers is not altogether without foundation. American
Indians agreed with the Chinese in regarding dog meat as a great
delicacy--the dish of honor to be served to guests. Dog meat sausage
may be quite legitimate, as long as it is honestly labeled as such.
There is a story of a wealthy Berlin butcher whose son had been
promoted in the army by Moltke, and who, to show his gratitude, advised
the Field Marshal never to eat sausage. But those days of uncertainty
are past. Inspection is now so strict in the Fatherland that one can
safely eat whatever is offered.
When the eminent German novelist, Ernst von Wolzogen, visited the
United States (1911) he exclaimed, on the eve of departure, to a
reporter for the New York "Staatszeitung": "Great heavens, if you knew
what an indescribable longing has often seized me in your country for
a good German sausage! No--for their food I cannot envy the Americans."
Considering the large number of Germans in the United States it seems
strange that they do not insist on having as good sausage made here as
on the other side. But they do not. The home-made sausage is usually
compounded of worthless scraps, and is apt to be indigestible. As
for the "imported" Cervelat and other kinds, they are often so in
name only--which explains that wail, _de profundis_, of Freiherr von
Wolzogen.
American sausages made after English or original recipes are generally
spoiled by an excessive amount of sage. Sage should always be used
homœopathically, else it overpowers all other flavors. Were I Czar
in the realm of gastronomy I should forbid the use of sage altogether.
The next time you go to Europe do not forget to make an automobile trip
from Munich to Berlin, taking in Nuremberg on the way. We did that,
with some friends, in the summer of 1912, and when we reached the city
of Hans Sachs we steered straight for the Bratwurstglöcklein, a little
eating shop, known by name at least, to epicures the world over, though
only one dish is cooked in it, and that dish, as the name indicates, is
sausage.
Five _Würstchen_, no bigger than your thumb, are served with a portion
of sauerkraut. The cost is half a mark--twelve cents--a portion and
you can have as many encores as you like. Some of us took four, and so
tender and tasty were the little things, as well as the _kraut_ that
we had no occasion to regret it. After all, we were mere tyros, as our
waiter informed us; he has known many a man to eat a dozen portions or
more and not send for an ambulance--at least, that's what he said. The
number of portions served daily vary from 3,000 to 5,000; the record is
25,000 served on a day when there was a Sängerfest.
Nuremberg has two other eating places similar to this, but the
Bratwurstglöcklein maintains its preeminence, owing to its traditions;
for it was in its little rooms that the men who (with the aid of the
Bratwurstglöcklein) made that city famous--among them Sachs, Welleland
and Dürer--used to gather for food and drink.
After we had paid our bill--not a ruinous one for an automobile
party--we started for the next town on our list, after buying a few
boxes of the world-famed honey cakes (_Lebkuchen_) of the town. We all
had seen the other sights of Nuremberg before. Besides, we were on a
gastronomic trip, and discipline had to be preserved.
Observation has convinced me that Americans would be as enthusiastic
sausage eaters as the Germans are if they could get them as well made
and cooked. In a large New York down-town restaurant you can see, on
certain days, half the guests ordering "country sausages," which,
though good, are not to be mentioned on the same day as those of the
Bratwurstglöcklein. The inference is inevitable that a lunch-room
serving honest duplicates of the German delicacy would prove a
gold-mine.
The proprietor of another down-town restaurant who provides excellent
little Frankfurters informed me he got them at a certain shop in
which two butchers had successively made their fortune by simply
manufacturing these honest little sausages and really smoking them
instead of using "liquid smoke." It makes such a difference to the
palate as well as the stomach.
Genuine Frankfurters are made of solid meat (not lungs) and they are
always smoked. They are known as Frankfurters throughout the greater
part of Germany and Austria, but in Frankfort they call them Wiener
Würstel, to dignify them, presumably, as exotics.
Smoked sausages and other meats are in great vogue among the Germans,
whose addiction to them gives them the right to pose as true epicures.
Do they not provide the whole world with smoked goosebreast, Hamburger
Rauchfleish, and the best of all hams, the smoked Westphalian?
In South Germany they have a special word for smoked meats, Geselchtes,
or Selchware. The composer Brahms never missed a chance to get a dish
of "G'selchtes"; it gave him an appetite when nothing else would.
Bismarck, the most famous of German gourmets, took great delight in
feasting on smoked meats and fish--Spickgans, Spickaal, Schinken, &c.
He knew as much about the different varieties and the places they came
from as any dealer in delicatessen, as we know from the table talk
recorded by Dr. Moritz Busch.
Smoked Westphalian ham has carried the fame of Germany to the lunch
tables of all parts of the world; and not a whit inferior in Flavor
is the Austrian variety, Prager Schinken. Raw or cooked, these are
among the superlative delights of the epicure, ranking with caviare,
Camembert, and canvasback duck.
On the appetizing quality of properly smoked meats which makes the
mouth water and facilitates digestion I have already commented.
German and Austrian hams owe their fame to the fact that they are
smoked and otherwise cured scientifically, regardless of cost, with a
view to developing the most delicate Flavor.
The first thing to be noted is that the men who cure the meats do not
dare to denature them (_i. e._, spoil their natural Flavor) by soaking
them in solutions of chemicals which are not only injurious to health
but which would make it possible for them to hide the putrescence of
spoiled meats--as is so often done in America.
The law on this point is very strict. By orders of the Imperial Federal
Council, dated July 4, 1908, the following substances have been
forbidden: Boric acid and salts thereof, formaldehyde, the hydroxides
and carbonates of the alkaline salts, sulphurous acid and the salts
thereof, the salts of hyposulphurous acid, hypofluoric acid and salts
thereof, salicylic acid and its compounds, chloric acid and salts, and
all coloring matter.
Consul Talbot J. Albert, of Brunswick writes that "the German
inspection laws, especially in regard to hams and all hog products are
so strict that their adulteration would be immediately detected, the
products confiscated, and the manufacturer severely punished."
The ingredients used in the curing of hams before they are smoked
are salt, saltpeter, and pepper. The quantity of these and other
ingredients and the method employed are business secrets difficult to
ascertain.
In America, sugar-cured ham is advertised in large letters. Sugar,
no doubt, is a good preservative, and it is harmless, but somehow it
seems as incongruous with meat as salt is with cream or butter. Ask an
epicure if he would like his oysters with sugar, and see him shudder.
In Germany, hams are seldom sugar-cured.
"The Daily Consular and Trade Reports" for December 8, 1909, contains
such information on the subject of smoked sausages and hams as the
consuls in various German cities were able to gather. They found that
sausage is smoked up to three or four weeks, unless it is to be eaten
at once. The smoking makes it lose some weight and cost more--but what
of that, as long as the Flavor is improved? The American way is to save
the full weight by using chemicals and then sell the denatured stuff as
"smoked" meat. It is profitable to the packer. The consumer--well, it
serves him right if he continues to buy such stuff without a protest.
Of the contributors to the Consular symposium on smoked meats in
Germany, Vice-Consul Frederick Hoyermann of Bremen gave the most
informing account.
"The fresh ham is put into pure common salt (sodium chloride) and
is kept therein for about three weeks, whereupon it is washed and
air-dried. After having been exposed to the air for about eight days
it is ready for the _smoking process, which lasts from six to eight
weeks_. It is hung up in the smoke of beechwood chips, which must burn
slowly so as not to create heat or evolve too much smoke. The ham
must be smoked thoroughly but gradually, and must remain cool while
undergoing the process. Thereupon it is cleaned and is then ready for
use."
Now note what the same writer says about the "quick-smoking" process:
"Hams are smoked by a simpler and cheaper process, pine wood being
used for smoking instead of beech, the time allowed for smoking is
considerably reduced, and stronger smoke applied. Hams thus cured are,
of course, inferior in quality, as they lack in Flavor and are not
fit for export, because only high-class meats will pay the cost of
transportation."
The so-called Westphalian hams do not all come from Westphalia. The
name is generally applied to choice hams which have been smoked
thoroughly but gradually in accordance with the methods indicated in
the preceding paragraphs.
One more important detail. The Germans know the value of feeding Flavor
into food. As Consul Carl Bailey Hurst, of Plauen wrote: "The best and
most durable hams are those of hogs which have been fed during the few
weeks previous to slaughtering on acorns or corn."
Juniper berries are sometimes thrown on the beech wood while hams are
being smoked, in the belief that that still further improves their
Flavor. Maybe it does--I have had no opportunity for comparisons.
Possibly it is a mistake. The Germans, though they make the best hams
and sausages in the world, are as a nation far from impeccable; in the
use of spices, in particular, they often blunder grossly. It is surely
an aberration of taste to mix cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon, caraway
seeds, sage, or ginger with the preserving fluid; for these strong
condiments destroy the individual Flavor of the meat.
Excessive use of spices is the chief blemish of German cookery. Many
otherwise well-made dishes are spoiled by the addition of pungent
condiments which completely monopolize the palate. The excessive use
of these condiments is a survival of medieval coarseness. I shall not
dwell on this, however, or on other deplorable relics of the coarse
appetite of former generations, because the object of this book is not
to point out the shortcomings of European nations but to call attention
to practices in which they are ahead of us. Let us therefore proceed
to another department of gastronomy in which the Germans (and their
neighbors) can teach us useful lessons.