Dog Day Afternoon

Saucyman – Why do bratwurst taste so damn good with beer? Griller

Flavor.

Before going down the road, allow me to complain:

Sometime a ‘fact’ makes it into a cookbook and there is no making it go away, ever. Like the lie that cans/cartons of chicken stock are equal/superior to handmade versions is an oft-repeated piece of knowledge. Yes, lie – J’accuse, bouillon de poulet. The untruth gets repeated so often, it eventually becomes accepted as conventional wisdom. I’m going guess everyone who has two taste-buds to rub together can tell the difference between what comes from a can and what was made on the stove but it is easier to find at least two sources to say the ingredients are interchangeable than it is to make a case for why you should use your own stock.

A less egregious kitchen fable is that bratwurst are occasionally made of veal. On that expansive border where footnoting meets cutting and pasting, bratwurst is usually described as containing veal - ESPN’s Gameday Gourmet, whose cover cleverly shows a sausage skewered on football describes a bratwurst as “A mild sausage made mostly of veal and pork”. Okay, maybe they aren’t the worldwide leader in food knowledge, but I found nearly the same description in a dozen other books.

Where I couldn’t find veal listed as an ingredient on any packaging, manufacturer’s website or a books describing how to make sausage (as opposed to how to cook them). Bratwursts are not made of veal. At some point in history bratwursts, or just brats as they are known to those familiar with them, might have been made with veal, but not at this day in age. Veal is so unpopular; I’m not even sure veal is made of veal.

So, if the type of meat doesn’t account for unique taste of the bratwurst, what accounts for their deliciousness? The spices, particularly mace: Not personal protection mace (Back off or I’ll mace you), nor the medieval protection/aggression mace (Retreat or I shall be forced to lay this mace upon you) but the red lacy spice that grows on the outside of the nutmeg.

Mace, while not used prodigiously, seems to be the distinguishing flavor of the brat. The spice tastes like a combination of nutmeg and white pepper with a little allspice thrown in. The flavor is warm and warming, contrasting a cold lager or ale and it is like they were made for each other.

Well, that along with the fact fire = hot, beer = cold is often an equation that makes food coming off the grill seem especially well paired to beer.



Spoiler Alert –

Not to give away the ending, but The SF Chronicle tasted dog buns so we don’t have to and picked the Trader Joe’s buns as the winner in a taste test. For more info on the results you can read the article here.

Dog Training.

Our new friends at the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council – that is hot-dog.org, were kind enough to pass along a youtube post instructing eaters on doggy do’s and doggy don’ts. For those interested in sausage etiquette can watch below.