By Tara V. Kohlenberg ─
One might think that New Braunfels knows sausage because of Wurstfest, when it is really the other way around. New Braunfels has Wurstfest because We Know Sausage.
Sausage making is an art that requires patience, skill, and attention to detail. A food staple of many cultures, sausage evolved as a way to efficiently preserve meat for long periods of time.
Early sausage makers found that a wide range of raw ingredients could be used, including the parts of the animal carcasses that could not be used in other ways, including the less tender cuts, organ meats and blood.
Good sausage makers are as discriminating about what goes into sausage as winemakers are about grape selection. They take into account not only the meat used, but also the aroma of seasonings and balance of flavors to create a juicy, tender sausage with a satisfying ‘snap’ upon first bite. Sausage makers of the world’s cultures used regional ingredients and spices, contributing to a vast culinary diversity of sausage, even though the processes were basically the same. By the 19th century, butchers and sausage makers were considered skilled craftsmen in Germany. They had to undergo years of apprenticeships and rigorous practice, before recognition as a Metzgermeister or master sausage maker.
Karl August Lohse, believed to be the first commercial sausage maker in New Braunfels, was born in 1830 in Meissen, Saxony. He apprenticed under a master butcher for three and one-half years before being issued a diploma. For the next eight years, he traveled as a journeyman working under other butchers to hone his trade. He set sail for Texas as a Metzgermeister in 1860. He is attributed with spreading the fame of Comal County’s German sausages by supplying them to San Antonio on a regular basis.
By 1961, with a population of about 16,000 people, New Braunfels boasted at least nineteen commercial sausage makers (roughly one sausage maker per 850 people). Local veterinarian and meat inspector E.A. Grist knew them all. He proposed that New Braunfels recognize and honor the local sausage makers with a sausage week.
The inaugural Sausage Festival Week was held December 11-16, 1961. Sausage makers and local merchants promoted and displayed all types of sausage made in New Braunfels while restaurants featured sausage dishes on their menus. The week ended with a public sausage supper scheduled in Landa Park. The Saturday supper event was actually held in the National Guard Armory due to bad weather.
The stars of the show were the sausage makers: Artzt Meat market, Brodt’s Slaughter House, Fritz’s Meat Market, Kraft Slaughter House, Krause’s Café, Kriewald Meat, Neuse’s Grocery, New Braunfels Smokehouse, Norbert’s Market & Grocery, Rahe Packing Company (now Granzin’s Meat), Schwamkrug’s Garden, Soechting Country Market, Textile Café, Warnecke Catering and Weyel’s IGA Foodliner and others.
Today, grocery stores are huge and stock a lot of prepackaged, big name sausage brands. There are only a handful of commercial sausage makers in New Braunfels who have grown to meet the demand. The traditional local butcher shops that still make their own sausage include Granzin’s Meat Market, Rust Game Place, and although not really in Comal County, Penshorn’s Meat Market in Marion. In addition, there may be some game processors that make venison sausage for their customers.
There are two large-scale United States Department of Agriculture commercial sausage operations: 1845 Meat Company and the New Braunfels Smokehouse. They sell both wholesale and retail, promoting and shipping on a national level. They keep up the tradition of providing locally made sausage for Wurstfest, along with Rust Game place.
Of course, many local farmers still slaughter and butcher their own farm animals (hogs and calves) for their use. It is a big job. Butchering meant days of work by the whole family to process the meat, make sausage and render fat for soap making. Over the years, they developed their own secret family sausage recipes, many of which were passed down through the generations.
For the uninitiated, sausage is made by grinding up meat parts of an animal and mixing with spices and seasonings. I have participated with my family in a weekend of deer processing and sausage making. I started with turning casings (pig intestines) and moved up to tying sausage off with string. It is a great way to carry on the family recipe; however, I have to admit, it is tough doing everything by hand for 80 pounds of sausage. I was never in charge of the smoking chore. It can be complex and take hours.
According to Smokemeister Charles McKinnis, 1845 Meat Company makes sausage in 200-pound batches. Each batch goes through the same steps: primary grind of selected meat; second grind with seasonings added; third grind with curing agent; then stuffed into natural casings and hung, which takes about 50 minutes. From there, they go to a huge smokehouse oven to be smoked and steamed for about two hours. That is considerably shorter than the six hours needed for traditional smokehouse ovens. Once the sausages are chilled, they are packaged, labeled and dated according to USDA requirements. Two hundred pounds in three hours is a way better average than my 80 pounds in a week.
Every sausage maker learns from someone else. It is great to be able to naturally discern subtle flavors and aromas, but that skill is usually coached by someone else. McKinnis learned about flavors from his mother and his grandmother. He learned about flavor formulations from Clint Skarosky. Mostly, McKinnis spent at least 20 years under the tutelage of Smokemeister Rocky Tays, who has at least 50 years in the business. He learned not only about how to make sausage, but how to do it right to meet USDA regulations.
The time-honored process of sausage making is a big part of New Braunfels’ German heritage.
With every butcher shop or local sausage maker that closes, an invaluable culinary heritage is lost.
Sources: The Sophienburg Museum and Archives; Mike Dietert; Wurstfest New Braunfels: the First Fifty Years by Alton J. Rahe; Charles McKinnis.
“Around the Sophienburg” is published every other weekend in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung.
Great Job Alan King & the Team @ Sophienburg Museum and Archives for sharing this story.
