Stuff I've Cooked            November 15, 2009            previous    next    main

Three kinds of Sausage

Grilling time!  I am visiting a friend in San Jose for lunch.  We went to Lunardi's market in San Jose and bought three kinds of sausage: no-nitrate British bangers Bavarian bratwurst Swiss bockwurst

Here is the gas grill.  We set the burners on low to cook the sausages slowly.  My friend has a much nicer grill than my little iron hibachi.  Look at all those shiny knobs!  Wooo... upper gas burners and lower oven units.  Instant on ignition.  Real flames of fire!  Oooh, aaaahhh...

The layout:  British banger on the left, Bratwurst in the middle and Swiss Bockwurst on the right. I learned recently (after having this meal) that British Bangers are made with rusk (bread crumbs) and the low-quality left-over bits from pigs, such as the hock meat, fat and cheeks.  However, some manufacturers include something called "mechanically reclaimed meat" which involves using a pressure washer on the carved caracs to get all the bits off that the butcher left behind.  Suddenly British Bangers are not so appetizing anymore. By the way, they were called "bangers" because they were made with bread that had yeast in them, up until the 1950's.  If you didn't prick the sausage before cooking them, a lot of gas would be produced during the cooking process. Then the casing would split with a loud noise.  Hence, bangers.

Bratwurst and Bockwurst are better quality sausages.  Bratwurst can be beef, pork or veal, but the traditional Brats in the USA are pork, (like the one I got at the grocery store.) The word Bratwurst comes from the German word brät which means "finely chopped" and refers to the manufacturing process.  The word wurst simply means "sausage."  The more expensive Bratwurst will be made from better cuts of pork.  Never any of that "mechanically reclaimed" stuff like they put in Bangers.  There are many bratwurst recipes and various herbs and spices give it a regional signature. Swiss Bockwurst is a blend of pork and veal.  Compared with Bratwurst, Bockwurst tends to have more veal in it.  Veal is the young male cattle from dairy breeds.  Technically "veal" can be a calf from either gender and any breed, not just dairy cattle, but that's just what they use most of the time.  There is not much herb and spice seasoning in Bockwurst and it is milder tasting.

All cooked!  These were on the grill on super-low for about 18 minutes, turning every 3 minutes. By the way that's vintage Le Creuset Flame cookware from the 1970's in the picture...  The radioactive kind.  Yeah, baby.  This pot just happened to be on the stove when we brought the sausage in.  My friend inherited this pot from his mom, who bought it in Germany long ago.

After I took this picture my friend and I had an interesting conversation about Le Creuset.  In the 1970's it was made with enough cadmium to get it banned from importation by the FDA.  However, now Le Creuset has toned down the amount of cadmium in the exterior glaze and it's ok to import.  Oh yes, it still has cadmium in the glaze.  We confirmed this by writing to Le Creuset. Today's beverage of choice was an experiment.  I was in the mood for a something different, and this cola caught my eye.  The writing on the back of the label is really funny.  It says stuff like:  "Drinking Cricket Cola can make you happy!"

The kola nut flavor was really good, and the cane sugar was also nice.  The green tea flavor was sort of a surprise.  I never would have thought green tea went with cola.  It's... interesting.  Anyway, here is a bottlecap shot:

I like how they have to remind you to "serve chilly."  As if anybody ever drinks warm cola?   Bleah.  Who would do that?  That's like saying, "Serve cold" on a bag of ice.  haha  Serve Chilly.  Er... okay.