Gelbwurst facts for kids
Gelbwurst, meaning “yellow sausage”, is a traditional sausage from Bavaria, Germany.
Description
Gelbwurst was invented in 1905 and is made from pork, veal and mixed spices (such as ginger and nutmeg). Traditionally, the sausage contained brains, though this is usually no longer the case. Despite this, it is still sometimes referred to as Hirnwurst (“brain sausage”) in certain parts of Germany. Gelbwurst is coloured yellowish-white and usually has a yellow or orange skin around its edge. It is often served cold on a slice of bread and eaten immediately, as it spoils fairly quickly. Today, the addition of brains is uncommon and does not meet consumer expectations. The use of bovine brains has been banned since the BSE crisis (since October 2000).
Manufacturing
Depending on the recipe, region and epoch, the information on the properties of the sausage varies significantly. In Germany, standard recipes are usually used in the production of sausage types, an example of this is the book Die Fabrikation Feiner Fleisch- und Wurstwaren. Low-tendon pork and pork belly without rind or bacon are used for the production. This is slowly chopped up with the addition of ice until it becomes a sausage meat. Typical spices are salt, pepper, mace, ginger, cardamom and lemon powder. The mass is usually filled into – mostly yellow – artificial casings with a caliber of 50 to 60 mm and a weight of approx. 1000 grams. Yellow sausage should have a brilliant white cut surface after scalding. The sausage differs from other boiled sausages such as Lyoner mainly by the lack of reddening with curing salt.
For the variants Hanoverian Brain Sausage and Hanoverian Bregenwurst, chopped onion is added to the sausage meat. The sausage is called white sausage if natural casings with a diameter of up to 75 mm are used.
Especially in Bavaria, the yellow sausage is often mixed with finely chopped parsley, which makes it appear mottled green.
According to the German Food Code, young beef may also be used to make yellow sausage. It describes the possibility of using colored or yellow pigmented sausage casings.
