Prepare for the Wurst | Monocle
/

thumbnail text
280921_72a6021.jpg

Your main squeeze

300921_72a8861.jpg

Heart and soul at Ketels

290921_72a6640.jpg

Getting stuck in

280921_72a5986.jpg

Night-time ritual at Hasenecke

290921_72a6302.jpg

Secret’s in the sauce

300921_72a9079.jpg

Modern variants, including a vegan option

290921_72a6504.jpg

Classic combination

The first thing to note about Currywurst – sausage in spicy ketchup, often flanked by chips – is its utter lack of pretention. In this sense, it’s a fitting emblem for Berlin, the city where it is said to have originated and in which its preparation has become an art. Most German cities are proud of their sausages. They award them prizes and jealously protect their recipes; and they present their own varieties as the best, serving them up as essential parts of their history and culture. But Berliners know that the Currywurst is something far less refined. All you’ll get for pointing this out to them is a shrug – if you’re lucky.

Currywurst, however, has an interesting history of its own. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Herta Heuwer, a former vendor at the Kadewe department store, opened a snack bar in Charlottenburg. Despite struggling with a lack of supplies, she began to sell a curry bratwurst doused in a spicy sauce, which she patented in 1958. Heuwer is remembered today as the inventor of the Currywurst but the story is likely bigger than one woman. Condiments such as ketchup were hard to come by in postwar Germany, so fast-food vendors experimented with all manner of spices, hoping to turn their sausages into something tasty and moreish. These spiced sausages became popular in their own right and the stands proliferated around the city.

290921_72a6356.jpg

Saturated flavour

300921_72a9541.jpg

Made to order

280921_72a6083.jpg

Curry 36, one of Berlin’s best-known snack bars

280921_72a5661.jpg

Typical Berlin kiosk

290921_72a8385.jpg

Perfect for sharing

Tellingly, attempts to elevate the Currywurst from a late-night indulgence to something more haute have fallen flat. Some vendors in the city’s more touristy stretches do offer organic or vegan versions but these are for the sort of people who might order an organic or vegan kebab at 02.00.

Today the Currywurst remains the unpolished fare of the people: famished labourers, boozy partygoers and those who simply skipped a meal. And word to the wise, whoever you are, it should never set you back much more than €2. It needs to be slathered in a sweet-and-spicy tomato sauce. Don’t ask questions about the sausage itself except, perhaps, whether it comes with intestine or without. This and the toppings are the only things you’re allowed to quibble over. That said, it tastes pretty much the same whatever option you go for. And remember: if you don’t like it, don’t complain. And don’t expect Berliners to be fussed what you think. 

Share on:

X

Facebook

LinkedIn

LINE

Email

Go back: Contents

/

sign in to monocle

new to monocle?

Subscriptions start from £120.

Subscribe now

Loading...

/

15

15

Live
Monocle Radio

00:0001:00

  • Konfekt Korner