German Wurstbrot

Five years ago in February of 2015, Sandwich Tribunal covered the first of what would become many open-face sandwiches on our List, the German Butterbrot. Back then, I had this to say about open-face sandwiches:

…we are not fully on-board with the concept of the open-faced sandwich–a sandwich is supposed to be a food of convenience, a neat edible carrying case used to convey various foodstuffs to one’s mouth.

https://www.sandwichtribunal.com/2015/02/german-butterbrot/

I suppose since then I’ve built a bigger tent–my definition of sandwiches has broadened, and I’m more willing to take open-face examples on board. Heck, we’re writing about Wraps this month, which are far more structurally dissimilar to a sandwich than the open-face variety, yet are regularly mentioned in the same breath as sandwiches, and often served alongside them at the same shops.

Wurstbrot are a subcategory of Butterbrot. The word Wurstbrot literally means sausage bread, but the word “sausage” doesn’t connote the same breadth of meat products in English that the word “Wurst” does in German. Wurst means sausages like bratwurst, yes, but it also means salami, bologna, various sliced luncheon meats of both cured and uncured varieties. Wurstbrot deals mainly with the latter category–rather than a sausage-inna-bun, Wurstbrot will consist of a single or double layer of sliced lunchmeat laid on buttered bread, minimally garnished.

Deutschland

What kinds of meats will be used on a true German Wurstbrot though? I did a search and came up with names like: Bierschinken. Jagdwurst. Blutwurst. Mettwurst. Not the types of things you’ll find at your local deli in the US, typically. However, they are the kinds of things I might be able to find at Gene’s Sausage Shop in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago.

I spent a little too long at the deli counter, ordering a little of this and a little of that (sorry folks!), as well as a sandwich to eat at the little counter by the window. I ordered a Leberkäsesemmel, consisting of Leberkäse (literally “liver cheese”), a lightly cured forcemeat of (in this case) veal, baked in a loaf pan, with a light, almost whipped texture, like a much less dense (and tastier) bologna. This could be considered a Wurstbrötchen if it were in fact on a Brötchen rather than the hard roll that was the nearest equivalent available at Gene’s.

In addition to a half-dozen or so types of German meats, I picked up a loaf of Kovala Bread’s “Landbread,” their take on German Landbrot, a naturally-leavened country bread made with both wheat and rye.

Since a Wurstbrot is a type of Butterbrot, the next thing to do is to spread butter on the bread.

And then it is time for the meats. Well, one meat at a time. Wurstbrot is a pretty simple snack.

First up was something called “Schinkenwurst,” another name for the “Biershinken” from my list of meats. Schinken is German for ham, and the Schinkenwurst consists of chunks of ham suspended in a bologna-like forcemeat. It’s less salty than you might think a sausage made of ham would be, with a definite coriander flavor, possibly mace or allspice as well. I would definitely get this again.

Blutwurst was next, and as the name suggests, this is a blood sausage, but one I like better than many blood sausages I’ve had previously. It seems that blood sausages are often flavored with clove, which combines with the minerally blood flavor in a way I don’t care for. This one is more minimalist, seasoned simply with black pepper, and containing big chunks of clean pork fat. I was surprised to find myself enjoying this quite a bit.

While in Gene’s I had asked them to recommend to me the “most German” of the salamis they had in stock. They came up with this “Black Kassel Old Forest Salami,” a hard salami, cured, smoked, aged, dried, a real powerhouse of flavor.

Bierwurst is named not after an ingredient, but after a natural accompaniment to the meat. Essentially a coarse bologna seasoned with garlic and mustard seed, it is often eaten alongside a glass of beer, either atop a slice of buttered bread like this, or simply rolled up into a tube and eaten out of hand.

Jagdwurst, seen previously on this site as the German equivalent to the sausage used in Finnish Porilainen, is a German “Hunter’s sausage,” another type of coarse forcemeat seasoned with garlic, mustard seed, coriander, white pepper, and nutmeg. Though it has a longer list of seasonings, it has a milder flavor than the Bierwurst did.

“Mett” is a Low German word for minced pork, and Sandwich Tribunal readers may recognize it from the Mettbrötchen we covered back in 2017. This Mettwurst, much like Italian ‘Nduja, is a spreadable salami, seasoned with paprika and coriander, stuffed into sausage casings and smoked, then scooped out and spread onto bread. It’s as strong-flavored a meat as any we tried this day, less of the fermented funk than the Old Forest salami had had, but a strong presence of hot Hungarian paprika. This was the first of these meats to completely disappear, and I’m not ashamed to say that it was me eating it, just pulling it out of the casing (with freshly-washed hands of course) and popping it directly into my mouth.

‘Murica

All these sandwiches, they’re very clean, relatively bloodless (except the Blutwurst I suppose). This is true of many sandwiches elsewhere in the world. Yet here in America, we like to Supersize things. Italian panini become footlong subs. Frikadeller become bacon cheeseburgers. Schnitzels become hubcap-sized breaded pork tenderloins served on a tiny hamburger bun. Croque Monsieurs become Monte Cristos. Well, the pattern breaks down at some point. But I wanted to America this sandwich up and use all the meats together.

Disclaimer: The following is not endorsed by Germans in any way and is not to be considered representative of their Wurstbrot sandwiches.

I started with a hard roll, like the one I’d had my Leberkäsesemmel served in a Gene’s Sausage shop earlier.

I cut it open and spread a good layer of Mettwurst along the bottom half.

Next I added the Schinkenwurst

Then the salami.

I continued to alternate between the darker red/orange and the lighter pinkish meats, next adding Bierwurst

and Blutwurst

before finishing with the Jagdwurst.

To this, I added some aged Gouda, with a texture and flavor similar to Parmesan, along with some Extra Hot German mustard and a very good briny deli-style Kosher dill spear, sliced into chips.

This turned out to be a great combination, anchored by the Mettwurst at one end and the mustard/pickles at the other. Still, most of these ingredients made their presence known, the spiciness of the Mettwurst, the slightly sour fermented flavor of the salami, the mineral character of the Blutwurst, the sharp salty flavor of the Gouda.

If there’s a market out there for German-inspired American megasandwiches, you could do worse than this, friends.