Bratwurst

Bratwurst is a German sausage made from finely chopped pork, or less often beef or veal, seasoned with herbs and spices such as marjoram, nutmeg, caraway or garlic depending on the region. Its name combines the Old High German brat, meaning finely chopped meat, with wurst, sausage. The earliest documented evidence of bratwurst comes from Nuremberg in Franconia in 1313, though Thuringia also claims an early bratwurst tradition, with its own written record from Arnstadt in 1404, and the Swiss city of St. Gallen has produced its own veal bratwurst since 1438. Germany today has more than forty regional varieties, from the small, marjoram-seasoned Nurnberger Rostbratwurst grilled over beechwood to the larger, beef-and-lemon-zest Coburger Bratwurst, and the sausage also became a fixture of German American communities in Wisconsin and the wider Upper Midwest, where it is often simmered in beer before grilling.