Currywurst
Currywurst is Berlin street food: a pork sausage cut into rounds, buried under a hot tomato and curry sauce and dusted with curry powder on top. Herta Heuwer sold the first one at her stand in Charlottenburg in September 1949, and she built the sauce from tomato paste, curry powder and Worcestershire sauce rather than from ready-made ketchup. Berlin serves a skinless boiled sausage, pale and soft, while the Ruhr fries a bratwurst in its casing for the bite; both arrive with fries under ketchup and mayonnaise, ordered as Pommes rot-weiß.
Ingredients
- 4 pcsbratwurst, with or without casing
- 70 gtomato paste
- 15 gcurry powder
- 5 gsweet paprika
- 1 pcsonion
- 150 mlbeef broth
- 20 mlwhite wine vinegar
- 15 mlworcestershire sauce
- 15 gsugar
- 20 mlvegetable oil
- 3 gsalt
- 2 gblack pepper
Method
- Dice the onion finely and cook it in half the oil over medium heat until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Keep it pale: you want its sweetness, not roast flavour.
- Add the tomato paste, the sweet paprika and half the curry powder. Fry them in the fat for a minute or two, stirring, until the paste darkens and smells toasted. Sweet paprika is the German choice here, the Paprikapulver edelsüß sold in every supermarket; smoked Spanish paprika pushes the sauce towards chorizo and away from a Berlin stand.
- Pour in the beef broth and the vinegar, then add the Worcestershire sauce, the sugar, the salt and the pepper, scraping everything off the base of the pan. Broth and Worcestershire carry the savoury side of this sauce, which is why fruit juice has no job here when sugar is already going in.
- Simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Taste it and balance it: sweet, sour and spiced should all land, one after the other. Blend it smooth if you want the texture of a snack stand.
- Cook the sausage while the sauce simmers. A raw bratwurst in its casing goes into barely simmering water for 10 to 12 minutes first, then gets patted dry and seared in the rest of the oil over high heat for 3 to 4 minutes until browned. That is the same poach-then-sear order used for plain bratwurst, with water standing in for the beer, since the sauce will cover whatever flavour the beer might have left. A skinless boiled sausage comes cooked already and goes straight into the hot fat for 3 to 4 minutes, until the surface browns and tightens.
- Cut the sausages into bite-sized rounds. Berlin cuts a skinless sausage, and the soft pieces drink up sauce; the Ruhr keeps the casing, so every piece gives a little resistance before it breaks.
- Pile the sausage into shallow bowls, spoon the hot sauce over it and dust generously with the remaining curry powder. Serve with fries under a stripe of ketchup and a stripe of mayonnaise, or with a plain roll for wiping the plate.
FAQ
Berlin stands mostly use a skinless boiled sausage, soft enough that the cut pieces drink up sauce, while the Ruhr uses a raw bratwurst in its casing that snaps when you bite it. Both count as authentic, so buy by the texture you want. A skinless bockwurst or a good plain hot dog sausage stands in for the Berlin version; a fresh pork bratwurst is the Ruhr one. Stay away from heavily smoked or herb-packed sausages, whose flavour argues with the curry.
Usually because the tomato paste was never fried. Two minutes in hot fat with the paprika and curry powder turns the tinny taste of the paste round and savoury, and nothing later in the pan does that job for you. The second reason is a sweet base: use beef broth or plain water with Worcestershire sauce and vinegar, then simmer 10 to 15 minutes so the spices settle into the tomato. Ketchup is already finished and sweetened, so it has nowhere further to go.
Only if it is raw and in a casing. That sausage goes into barely simmering water for 10 to 12 minutes, then into a hot pan for 3 to 4 minutes, the same order used in our bratwurst recipe, where a beer bath does the poaching. Sent straight onto high heat, a raw sausage usually splits before the middle is done. A skinless boiled sausage is sold cooked and needs the pan only for colour, which is why Berlin stands can serve one in four minutes.
It keeps about a week in the fridge and tastes better on the second day, once the curry powder has stopped sitting apart from the tomato. It freezes cleanly in portions for three months. Reheat it gently and loosen it with a spoonful of water if it has tightened in the jar. Doubling the batch costs nothing but a wider pan.
Pommes rot-weiß is the standard order: fries with a stripe of ketchup and a stripe of mayonnaise. A plain bread roll is the other classic, kept on the tray to wipe up sauce. At home a bowl of German potato salad turns it into a proper plate, and soft pretzels do the same job as the roll. Make more sauce than seems sensible, because everything else on the plate exists to carry it.
Keep browsing
More dishes from the German archive — picked by overlap with what you're cooking now.
Recipes by email
One letter a week: a recipe picked for your taste, plus whatever is new on the site. Unsubscribe in one click.
Welcome gift: Sergei's cookbook (e-book).
By subscribing you agree to the privacy policy.
Tell us what you like to cook (30 seconds) →
Join the conversation
Comments
No comments yet — be the first!