Tote Oma: Fried Blood Sausage with Sauerkraut and Mashed Potatoes
Tote Oma, which literally means “dead grandma,” is fried Grützwurst, a blood sausage made with groats, and the name exists only in East Germany. The sausage of blood, pork rind and groats breaks down in the pan with onions and marjoram into a dark, crumbly mass. It is served with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.
- Servings
- 4
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 35 min
- Total
- 50 min
Ingredients serves 4
Mashed potatoes
Sauerkraut
Tote Oma
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Method
You'll needlarge pot, medium saucepan with lid, small saucepan, large frying pan (about 28 cm), potato masher, wooden spoon
Boil the potatoes
Peel and quarter the potatoes, put them in the large pot and add just enough water to cover. Add the salt, bring to a boil and cook over medium heat with the lid ajar for 20–25 min. They are done when a knife slides in without resistance.
Braise the sauerkraut
Meanwhile, finely dice the small onion. Melt the lard in the medium saucepan over medium heat and cook the onion for 3 min until translucent. Loosen the sauerkraut with your fingers and add it to the pan with the bay leaf, lightly crushed juniper berries, sugar and water. Cover and braise over low heat for 20 min, stirring now and then.
Prepare the sausage
Cut the Grützwurst open at one end, squeeze it out of its casing and tear it into walnut-sized pieces. Sausage from a jar can simply be broken up roughly with a fork. Peel and halve the two onions and cut them into strips about 0.5 cm wide.
Brown the onions
Heat the lard for frying in the large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion strips and fry for 6–8 min, turning occasionally, until soft and golden brown at the edges.
Fry the Tote Oma
Add the sausage pieces to the onions and fry for 10–12 min, turning often. Mash them with the wooden spoon as you go until you have an evenly crumbly, dark mass; keep scraping up whatever sticks to the bottom of the pan. If it gets too dry, add hot water a splash at a time. Finally, rub the marjoram between your fingers over the pan and season with salt and pepper.
Mash the potatoes
Warm the milk and butter in the small saucepan until the butter has melted; do not let it boil. Drain the potatoes and let them steam dry in the open pot for 2 min. Mash them with the masher and stir in the warm milk a little at a time until the mash is creamy. Season with nutmeg and a little salt.
Serve
Fish the bay leaf and juniper berries out of the sauerkraut. Spoon the mashed potatoes onto warmed plates with the sauerkraut alongside, and heap the hot Tote Oma generously on top.