Currywurst

Currywurst (German: [ˈkœʁiˌvʊɐ̯st] ⓘ[1]) is a fast food dish of German origin consisting of steamed, fried sausage, usually pork (German: Bratwurst), typically cut into bite-sized chunks and seasoned with curry ketchup, a sauce based on spiced ketchup or tomato paste topped with curry powder, or a ready-made ketchup seasoned with curry and other spices. The dish is often served with french fries.

Currywurst
Currywurst lightly topped with curry and served with chips
TypeBratwurst
Place of originGermany
Created byHerta Heuwer
Inventedc. 1949
Serving temperatureHot
Main ingredientsPork sausage, curry ketchup

History

The invention of currywurst is attributed to Herta Heuwer in Berlin in 1949, after she obtained ketchup, or possibly Worcestershire sauce, and curry powder from British soldiers in Germany.[2] She mixed these ingredients with other spices and poured it over grilled pork sausage. Heuwer started selling the cheap but filling snack at a street stand in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, where it became popular with construction workers rebuilding the devastated city.[3]

She patented her sauce under the name "Chillup" in 1951.[3] At its height the stand was selling 10,000 servings per week.[4] She later opened a small restaurant which operated until 1974.[5] On 30 June 2013 Heuwer's 100th birthday was celebrated with a Google Doodle.[6]

Konnopke's Imbiss (Fast Food Stand) in Berlin. It was the first Imbiss to sell currywurst in East-Berlin in 1960.

Today, currywurst is often sold as a take-out/take-away food, Schnellimbisse (snack stands), at diners or "greasy spoons," on children's menus in restaurants, or as a street food and usually served with chips or bread rolls (Brötchen). It is popular all over Germany but especially in the metropolitan areas of Berlin, Hamburg and the Ruhr Area. Considerable variation, both in the type of sausage used and the ingredients of the sauce, occurs between these areas.[7]

Common variations include the addition of paprika or chopped onions. Halal food stands often prepare currywurst with beef sausage.[7] Often currywurst is sold in food booths, sometimes using a special machine to slice it into pieces, and served on a paper plate with a little wooden or plastic fork, mostly a Currywurst fork.[8] It is sold as a supermarket-shelf product to prepare at home.

The Deutsches Currywurst Museum estimated that 800 million currywursts are eaten every year in Germany, with 70 million in Berlin alone.[9][10][11][12] The Volkswagen plant at Wolfsburg runs its own butchery producing about 7 million Volkswagen currywursts per year, serving many directly to Volkswagen employees.[13][14]

Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is a noted fan of currywurst.[15] By tradition, every candidate for the mayor of Berlin is photographed at a currywurst stand.[16]

The song "Currywurst" on Herbert Grönemeyer's 1982 album Total Egal is a tribute to the snack.[17]

The 1993 novel Die Entdeckung der Currywurst (English title: "The Invention of Curried Sausage", ISBN 978-0811212977) by Uwe Timm was made into a 1998 play and a 2008 film both of the same name. The plot is based on an alternative but unproven theory that currywurst was invented in Hamburg.

The Deutsches Currywurst Museum opened in Berlin in August 2009, commemorating the 60th anniversary of its creation.[4][12] Curator Martin Loewer said "No other national German dish inspires so much history and has so many well-known fans".[18] The museum received approximately 350,000 visitors annually. It permanently closed in December 2018.[19]

Front and back of the commemorative coin for Herta Heuwer

In 2019 Berlin State Mint issued a commemorative currywurst coin celebrating the 70 years since the savoury snack was first sold in Berlin by Herta Heuwer.Herta Heuwer: The roots of currywurst The silver alloy coin features two currywursts pierced with a wooden chip fork and poured with the sauce (coloured by print), and Herta Heuwer in the background (caption: 70 Jahre Currywurst). The other side of the coin shows the Brandenburg Gate (caption: Münze Berlin, 2019).[20][21]

  • Served with bread
    Served with bread
  • Currywurst - served sliced
    Currywurst - served sliced
  • A "Taxi Teller" is a plate of fries served with currywurst, shashlik sauce, mayonnaise, gyros meat, and tzatsiki.
    A "Taxi Teller" is a plate of fries served with currywurst, shashlik sauce, mayonnaise, gyros meat, and tzatsiki.
  • Currywurst as a supermarket-shelf product to prepare at home
    Currywurst as a supermarket-shelf product to prepare at home
  • Plaque in Charlottenburg, Berlin, where Herta Heuwer is said to have invented the currywurst
    Plaque in Charlottenburg, Berlin, where Herta Heuwer is said to have invented the currywurst

See also

References
  1. Duden, Curry. Accessed 2013-06-30
  2. Slackman, Michael (26 January 2011). "A Favorite Dish Laden With Fat and Contradiction". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  3. Paterson, Tony (15 August 2009). "Spicy sausage that is worthy of a shrine in Berlin". The Independent. London. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  4. "Honoring the best of the Wurst of German Cuisine". Deutsche Welle. 15 August 2009.
  5. Kessler, Roman (27 August 2009). "The Craze Over Currywurst". The Wall Street Journal.
  6. "Herta Heuwer's 100th Birthday". www.google.com.
  7. "Berlin 24/7: What's the currywurst cult all about? | DW | 03.09.2017". DW.COM.
  8. "A Food Lover's Guide to Berlin". Condé Nast. 12 November 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  9. "No, it's not like a hot dog and why some people just don't get it". Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  10. Horenburg, Berit (23 August 2002). "Hau wech". Motorrad. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 23 October 2013.
  11. "Data and Facts" (PDF) (Press release). Deutsches Currywurst Museum. September 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 23 October 2013.
  12. "10 Things We Learned at Berlin's Museum Dedicated to Currywurst". Condé Nast. 17 December 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  13. Radomsky, Stephan (19 February 2016). "VW verkauft mehr Würste als Autos (VW sells more sausages than cars)".
  14. "Die Currywurst – das Originalteil wird 45! - Volkswagen inside". Archived from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  15. "Sausage Museum Celebrates Berliners' Romance With Currywurst". Bloomberg. 13 August 2009.
  16. Boyes, Roger (15 August 2009). "Berlin dedicates museum to street-corner snack of wurst cuisine". London: Times Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  17. Grönemeyer, Herbert. "Currywurst" (in German). groenemeyer.de. Archived from the original on 6 January 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  18. "German cult sausage gets own museum". Reuters. 13 August 2009.
  19. http://currywurstmuseum.com/permanently-closed.html
  20. "A German mint has made a currywurst coin and online reaction has been mixed". Irish Independent. 15 January 2019.
  21. "70 Jahre Currywurst - Staatliche Münze Berlin" (in German). Staatliche Münze Berlin. Archived from the original on 14 January 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2019.

Further reading
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