Aint Cuttin the Mustard.

Dusseldorf Mustard, Try the original before trying the rest and you'll know what the fuss is about.

A couple of weeks ago the Chicago Tribune Featured on the front page of the food section a write-up on Dusseldorf Mustard. The sub heading teased "Move over Dijon, there's another strong mustard in the house."



Oh boy I love Löwensenf the original Dusseldorf (prounounced DDorf)mustard. My brother, the one that lives in Germany, introduced me to the spicy stuff. Seriously side by side its prowess reduces most Dijon mustards to floury paste. I went though a phase stockpiling tubes of the stuff on visits to DDorf and Berlin.







I went to the mustard museum in DDorf.





All slathered in mustard I was ready to sing some halleluahs as I dug into this article. It quotes chef Walter Staib of Philadelphia's City Tavern Restaurant. He correctly states "Dusseldorf has much better flavor than Dijon," and he goes on to assert the Dusseldorf mustard has a bold(ness) that's better for cooking. Testify.

Staib lamented that he had to change recipes in his cookbook, "Black Forest Cuisine" to call for Dijon, because the editors wanted a paste that was easy to find.

Huh.

The article then meanders a bit into to the puddle of European protected names. Apparently some folks around DDorf (which has been a mustard producing center for centuries) want to have an appellation for for their mustard. For the truly afflicted here is the application (PDF) in English and in Deutsch. Now Dijon mustard does not enjoy a protected status, but everybody knows what a Dijon should taste like, apparently the same cannot be said for our German sauce.

This is the spot where the Chicago Tribune got lost. If you are going to write about mustard you gotta know what it tastes like.

When Chef Staib said of the mustard "Close your eyes and (taste), you would think it was a very strong Dijon," he was not referring to mustard from White Castle.



Nor the mug mustard from Hamburg.



As a companion piece, the food section taste tested five Dusseldorf style mustards but managed not to procure the original Dijon slayer. If they had, I imagine the food section would have realized how uninformed the taste test was.

So why didn't they bother to try the Lowensenf? Hard to find? Well, no and yes. Here in one of the greatest food cities in the world, Chicago, there's at least three places to get your Dusseldorf senf fix:



Cost Plus World Market in Lincoln Park, I suspect they have it at most locations, they have it online.



At Gepperth's Meat Market on Halsted, they stack em deep.

And I also called Gene's Sausage Shop, in Lincoln Square, they have it in stock.

And the hard part of finding real Dusseldorf mustard? Short shelf life. Like herbs and spices, All mustards lose potency with age. In fact DDorf mustard makers are supposed limit shelf life to no more than ten months. This can lead to limited quanities here in the states. But if you can find it get it because it's good.

This mustard controversy comes at a particularly sensitive time for me, Oktoberfest starts in just a few days.



No sausage should ever be without mustard, and it's important that you make informed mustard choice. I'm here to help.

Cheers.


PS. Here's a hot dog video from a few years ago which includes a Dusseldorf Mustard demo. Enjoy!

Oktoberfest Brat

In this episode: Oktoberfest bratwurst recipe.

October, the shank of the year. For the past couple of weeks we've had such wonderful weather here, it's been hard to get any work done. But we've managed to have some fun.



In Columbus last weekend mom dug purple potatoes.



We picked pumpkins and wore funny paper hats.



And we grilled some sausages.

Fall and sausage go hand in hand, no wonder Germany has Oktoberfest around this time of year. Our annual sausage fest took this year off, but I did make some special sausage to celebrate the season.

Oktoberfest Bratwurst Recipe

Yield: About 20 sausages

2.2kg (that's 5 lbs.) pork shoulder
40g salt
7g ground white pepper
5g ground ginger
5g whole mustard seed
2g ground nutmeg
bunch of parsley, chopped
110g milk powder
225 ml (1 cup) beer, preferably Marzen style

Medium hog casings, rinsed and soaked for at least an hour.

To make this sausage extra special, I ground it twice. Start by cuting the pork shoulder into manageable chunks and run them through the grinder. For grinding I use the Kitchen Aid food grinder attachment on the stand mixer. Spread out the ground pork on a lined baking sheet and throw it in the freezer for half an hour.



Once crunchy, run it through the grinder again.



Five pounds of pork doesn't fit into my 4.5 quart mixing bowl so I did the next steps in a couple of batches.

Using the paddle attachment mix together the pork and the dry ingredients, then slowly add the beer. Continue to mix until the mixture comes together, 1 to 2 minutes.



Stuff into hog casings and twist.



Serve with German potato salad, braised red cabbage and mustard.

Cheers.

Oktoberfest Wrap Up

Oh suffer little sausage blog. I'm sorry I wasn't able to do live blogging from Sausage Week, but we did have some fun. Here's the Recap:



I started the Saturday before with a trip to T&J Meat Packing. I picked up a pork belly and some hocks. I put them into a cure using the recipe from Taking Back Bacon.



Monday, I picked up a hank of hog casings from Howard's in Munster.

Tuesday, we lost power. I was supposed to cut up chickens and make stock, but instead went out to dinner.

Wednesday, smoked bacon, cut up chickens made stock.



Thursday, Bonne Femme made 30 lbs of German potato salad...



I made 200 shells for puffs. The Columbus crew (Mom, JL and GMA) arrive.



Friday, Jerry and Kevin came over we set up the dueling grinders and ran 35 lbs of pork and 10 lbs of chicken through the plates. We made Wiesswurst, bratwurst, bacon bratwurst, cheddar brats and chicken Parmesan sausages.











Saturday, Weisen. I picked-up a keg of Munsterfest from 3 Floyds



I think this is the last year for my 40 y.o. lederhosen on little E. Here's his battle pose:



Meanwhile in the kitchen Mom and JL made pretzels





Dipped in a lye solution.



The best pretzels in Chicago. For those who asked, I never did get my mom's 'top secret' recipe, but I did spy a copy of Peter Reinhart's artisan breads every day : fast and easy recipes for world-class breads. Look for the pretzel recipe there. She made several batches ahead of time, then froze the shaped pretzels. This seemed to work well.



JL made Pastry cream which we put into squeeze bottles so party goers could make their own cream puffs. All the puffs got gobbled up before I could get a picture.





Remember the hocks from earlier in the week? I braised them in stock and cider along with sauerkraut, onion and apples until they fell apart. They became the bed where I held the grilled sausage for service.



Friends brought some exotic and not so exotic condiments:







Weisen (the field)



Here's Links to more photos.

Josh's Oktoberfest pictures

Eric's Oktoberfest pictures

Saucisson MAC's Oktoberfest pictures on flickr


Thank you everyone for a great time.

Cheers.

O’zapft is! Time to get to the Wiesn.

Webcam 1: Wirtsbudenstraße

Sausage Week 2010. Oktoberfest started today in Munich. Mayor Christian Ude tapped the keg at noon. Above is a live shot from the fest. You can check all the activity on the webcams at the Oktoberfest Website.

Today also marks the beginning of Sausage Week 2010. Have you ever wanted to have an Oktoberfest in your back yard? Follow along I'll show you how.

Prosit.

Sausage Week Finale: Oktoberfest

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures because I was busy eating sausage.

(Roll Credits)

Thanks to
Mom for making the Pretzels
Jolie (Jeanlouise) for making the cream puffs
Grandma for keeping the party going
Ekarhu (Eliot and Liisa) for the mustard in the tube
Jerry for helping stuff 30 lbs (117 links) of Bratwurst
Lisa and Phil for the Jumpy thing
Alison and Ron for the Bean Bags
Marge for the extra beer steins
Karen and Joachim for the tent

And thanks to everybody for coming.

click here to see how much garbage 62 beer drinking, sausage eating adults generated.

click here to see all the photos from Sausage Week on flickr.

Cheers.