Currywurst

Ingredients

Curry sauce

• 1onion (about 120 g), finely diced
• 30 mlsunflower oil
• 70 gtomato purée
• 400 mlpassata
• 3 tbspmild curry powder
• 2 tspsweet paprika
• 1 tsphot paprika
• 40 gsugar
• 40 mlapple vinegar
• 1 tbspWorcestershire sauce
• 1 tspfine salt
• 100 mlwater

Sausage

• 4Berlin-style Brühwurst or bockwurst, about 120 g each, skinless if you can get them
• 60 mlsunflower oil, for frying

To serve

• 2 tspmild curry powder, for dusting
• Pommes frites, or a Schrippe roll
• Wooden fork

Directions

1. Sweat the onion in the oil in a small pan over medium-low heat for 8 minutes until soft and translucent but not coloured.
2. Add the tomato purée and fry it for 2 minutes, stirring, until it darkens to brick red; this removes the raw tinned edge.
3. Stir in the curry powder and both paprikas and cook 30 seconds only, until fragrant. Any longer and the spice turns bitter.
4. Pour in the passata, water, sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and salt. Simmer uncovered 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until it is glossy and thick enough to coat a spoon.
5. Blitz smooth with a stick blender if you want the snack-stand texture, then taste: it should be sweet first, then sour, then warm with spice.
6. Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan over medium-high heat. Fry the sausages 5–6 minutes, rolling them, until the skin is deep brown, taut and slightly blistered.
7. Lift onto a board and cut into 2 cm slices with a knife, or push through a Currywurstschneider if you have one.
8. Pile the hot slices in a paper tray, ladle plenty of hot sauce over the top and dust generously with more curry powder.
9. Serve at once with fries and a wooden fork, mayonnaise on the side if you want it rot-weiss.

Technique

• The dish was invented by Herta Heuwer at a stand on Kantstrasse in Berlin in September 1949, using ketchup and curry powder traded from British soldiers.
• The curry powder goes on twice: cooked into the sauce for depth, dusted raw on top for aroma. Skipping the second dusting is the most common mistake.
• Berlin serves the sausage skinless, so it takes on more sauce; Hamburg and the Ruhr keep the casing on for snap. Both are defended fiercely.
• The sauce is better made a day ahead and reheated, once the vinegar and sugar have settled into each other.

Substitutions

• No Brühwurst: a good coarse bockwurst or knackwurst works; a smoked frankfurter is sweeter and less traditional.
• For a quicker stand-style sauce, whisk 300 g tomato ketchup with 2 tbsp curry powder, 1 tsp paprika and 1 tbsp vinegar and warm it through.

Variations

• Berlin ohne Darm, skinless and sauce-soaked.
• Ruhrgebiet mit Darm, casing on, served with a bread roll rather than fries.
• Currywurst Pommes rot-weiss, fries with both ketchup and mayonnaise alongside.

History

Herta Heuwer mixed ketchup, curry powder and Worcestershire sauce in Berlin in 1949 using British supplies, and patented her sauce ten years later.

Frequently asked questions

What is Currywurst?

Currywurst is a street food from Germany: sliced fried sausage under curry ketchup; Berlin snack-stand icon. Herta Heuwer mixed ketchup, curry powder and Worcestershire sauce in Berlin in 1949 using British supplies, and patented her sauce ten years later.

How long does Currywurst take to make?

Currywurst takes 15 min of preparation and 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Currywurst?

Yes, within limits. No Brühwurst: a good coarse bockwurst or knackwurst works; a smoked frankfurter is sweeter and less traditional. For a quicker stand-style sauce, whisk 300 g tomato ketchup with 2 tbsp curry powder, 1 tsp paprika and 1 tbsp vinegar and warm it through.