Ketwurst: East German Hot Sausage in a Bread Roll
Ketwurst is a hot Bockwurst, a mild smoked sausage, dipped in ketchup sauce and pushed into a hollowed-out long roll. It appeared at street food stands in East Berlin in the late 1970s, and its name combines ketchup and Wurst (sausage). At home, a wooden spoon handle does the job of the hot metal spike used at the stands.
- Servings
- 4
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 25 min
Ingredients serves 4
Ketwurst
Ketchup sauce
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Method
You'll needmedium pot, small saucepan, whisk, wooden spoon with a thick handle (about 2 cm), baking sheet, paper towels, 4 paper napkins
Prepare the rolls
Preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F), top and bottom heat. Cut a 1 cm slice off one end of each roll. Push the spoon handle in from the open end almost to the other end and twist it to make a hole as thick as the sausage. Place the rolls on the baking sheet.
Start the sauce
Melt the butter in the small saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 1 min without letting it brown. Whisk in the water a little at a time until you have a smooth, thick paste.
Finish the sauce
Stir in the ketchup and mustard and bring the sauce to a boil once. Simmer over low heat for 3–4 min, stirring now and then. Season with salt and pepper and keep warm.
Heat the sausages
Bring about 1.5 l of water to a boil in the medium pot and turn the heat down to low. Place the Bockwurst in the hot water, which should no longer be bubbling, and let them steep for 8–10 min, otherwise they split. Meanwhile, warm the rolls in the oven for 4–5 min until the crust crackles.
Serve
Lift the sausages out of the water and pat them dry with paper towels. Pull each one through the hot sauce until coated, slide it into a roll from the top and add another spoonful of sauce. Wrap the bottom of each Ketwurst in a paper napkin and serve right away, with the remaining sauce in a bowl on the side.