Talk:Currywurst

Comments

I come from Northern Germany and I have never seen a currywurst with a boiled sausage.

I am from northern Germany as well, but I have eaten a boiled currywurst once - in Würzburg, Franconia. It was disgusting, but it seems to be not that uncommon in southern Germany.

Okay guys. I am from the south of Germany and I know both types of currywurst, made with a boiled sausage or with an grilled (red or white) sausage -- Christian R. 11:13, 12. Sept. 2006 (CEST)

I'm not entirely certain, but the external link to http://www.currybu.de/ leads to a website which may be nationalistic and anti-immigrant. The anti-Döner messages present on the page are very similar to anti-Turkish propoganda which circulates in neo-Nazi circles. Maybe it should be removed. --Marc K 15 Oct 2006.

This looks more like satire; it is certainly not nationalistic. --Schuetzm 14:43, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

The photo of the thick sausage does NOT show a proper Currywurst. A Currywurst is thinner and cut into slices. Always. No exception. It may well be that outside the classical Currywust areas (Rhein/Ruhr and Berlin), especially in southern Germany, dishes like the one shown are sold as "Currywurst" but that would still be incorrect. Proper Currywurst is NOT made from boiled sausages, either. Not every Wurst with some ketchup is a Currywurst. --Planetscooter (talk) 13:42, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

It is a simple fast-food recipe, every takeaway seems to have their own "special" currywurst.

However, the distinguishing feature which seperates it from other wursts seems to be the curry.

I never seen a wurst sold without some kind of curry-powder or curry-flavoured ketchup as a currywurst.

Cut up it is usually served at a takeaway because it takes up less space and can easily be carried, you also need no cutlery

to eat it besides a small wooden fork. Not cut up it is mostly served in any place where you sit down to eat.

You as a customer also have the freedom to determinate your favourite length of the slices you cut for yourself.

Definition of a "proper currwurst": The gargantuan butchery at the VW plant in Wolfsburg churns out more currywursts

than any other place in the world, coming already close to the five million mark in 2012. As VW employees also consume

the most of the output, it seems that -if anyone does- VW holds the right to define what a "proper" currywurst is.

And alas!, they serve it uncut - unless you want it in a takeway-box, then it is cut.

Way to go Major Hirst, way to go. 77.21.210.121 (talk) 10:55, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

While there might be small variations (mostly regarding the sauce recipe and variants in pork instead of beef), there is no such thing as a Currywurst which was not sliced, simple as that. Even the kind of ketchup is very specific despite variations. Also I have to agree, It is completely alien to use a sausage with such a huge diameter. This picture is just not depicting the dish in question. Its like showing a sandwich on a picture supposedly showing a "burger" but if people here insist to keep it, go ahead. It surely will lead to some good laughs. --62.225.218.161 (talk) 19:13, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

What is mixed?

In the image, the curry is added after the sausage and the ketchup is mixed. Is this always the case, or is the curry sometimes mixed with the sausage and ketchup? --Kasper Hviid 10:16, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

it's no regular ketchup, it's curry sauce (which normally consists of curry and... ketchup). so this needs to be fixed in the article.

about the curry powder: As mentioned in my first sentence, the curry isn't sometimes mixed with the ketchup, but always. The additional curry powder is also always added to the dish.--BSI 15:03, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

I can confirm this. There is no ketchup but "curry sauce" (which is, in fact, a cheap kind of ketchup WITH curry powder already included. The curry sauce is warm (not cold, as ketchup would normally be). Additional curry powder is added on top of the assembly just before serving. --Planetscooter (talk) 13:45, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

it's curryketchup (ketchup including currypowder) plus some currypowder on top — Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.3.76.108 (talk) 13:53, 1 July 2012 (UTC)

Ties to Southern cuisine?

I have no idea of the veracity of this, but I definitely remember being fed as a child, hot dogs sliced up in ketchup. That'd be an extremely rough approximation of currywurst, but from what I understand it's a fairly common thing to make as a children's quick&dirty meal in the American south. (However, my grandfather as also stationed in Germany after WWII and raised part of the family overseas, and that could also be where it was picked up) --Mfree 16:04, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

German national dish or popular Berlin dish?

Hi. The recent edit changing the description, in the lead, from "German national dish" to "popular Berlin dish" has made the article internally inconsistent, since there are about five other places in the article which either support the idea "German national dish" or refer to it as such directly. I would have thought that, to make this change stick, the article would need a rewrite to correct the inconsistency and, more importantly, the proposed correction would need discussing here, or some verifiable references to support this quite major change. So for now I am reverting the change in the hope of seeing these references and discussion. Thanks and best wishes, DBaK (talk) 19:25, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Quite on the contrary. Calling this a "German national dish" needs a direct citation. Something better than a BBC or NYT allegation. So far, it's a mere assumption. As is "popular Berlin dish". I'll edit the article with something that is less assumptuous for the time being until I (or anyone) comes up with a decent source. German media would at least be better than foreign press hype. It's nice that the curator thinks it's a national dish. Doesn't make it such. Doesn't make it not so, too, but really, isn't it a bit much to declare a "German national dish" on one man's opinion? Background - he pushed for the museum. It's basically his baby. Regards, --G-41614 (talk) 08:39, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Anecdotally, I would mention that it is fairly popular throughout Germany. It is more popular though in Northern Germany. That is a pretty general thing though in Germany, taste differs significantly from north to south. The version in Ruhr is different than the one in Berlin though from what I understand. I haven't eaten it before, though, so I really have no idea. I think I remember this stuff from the TV show Galileo.--75.80.43.80 (talk) 18:47, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Not that I'm an expert, but I've definitely had Currywurst in Cologne, Berlin and Leipzig. More importantly, BBC and NYT are not only good sources, they're among the best, and should not ever be lightly discounted. Oreo Priest ^talk 15:30, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

I am German and lived in Münster for 20 years. I believe that Currywurst has two core regions where it is extremely popular: Berlin and Nordrhein-Westfalen (the Rhine-Ruhr-Münster area). Both areas have slightly different styles. In Berlin the sausage is often or mostly reddish-pink colored and on the thick side of the tolerable range, while in the Westfalen area Currywurst is made from a grey-ish Rostbratwurst-style sausage. I have tried Currywurst in southern Germany a few times (I recall Erlangen as an extremely bad example), but it was never "genuine" and mostly terrible. It seems to be a common misconception outside the Currywurst core areas that an arbitrary sausage with some ketchup poured over it makes a Currywurst. Coming back to the original question: It is certainly much wider spread that Berlin, though I wouldn't call it a German national dish.--Planetscooter (talk) 13:53, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

As I remember it from my childhood and youth in south western Germany, it was one of the most common fast food dishes until the early or mid-1990ies. Small fast food stands sold it in every town, every public swimming pool, along major roads, commercial and industrial areas as a quick lunch for the workers/employees... Then came Döner Kebap and the international fast food chains and took a big bite out of the Bratwurst's monopoly, so to say. -- Seelefant (talk) 10:20, 28 May 2012 (UTC)

I think it first has to be defined what "national dish" really means. You can find currywurst everywhere in germany, in some areas more often than in others, but in about every not-so-small city you can find imbissbuden that serve currywurst. Everyone knows what it is, and almost everyone (except possibly vegetarians) have already tasted one. I have been living in several german cities for a while (including berlin), and it never occured to be that it may be something "typically berlin". Just as an example: In frankfur/main there is a currywurst franchise called "best worscht in town" (mix of hessian and english meaning "best sausage in town") that are famous (as in appearing in several nation wide tv short documentaries) for their "hotness"/"spicyness" scale on sausage. When you order there you tell what kind of sausage you want (typically you chose between thüringer and rindswurst) and which flavour of curry you want (they have about 6 or 8 or so), and what level of spicyness you want (A,B,B+,C,D,E,F). With increasing levels of that, you have to be of at least 16 (or was it 18) in age, and for E and F you have to sign some paper that they are not responsible for any illness/damage done to you. For a few years now I see some similar imbissbuden all over germany now. Given all that, I personally would say that its something "popular german". Not sure if you can really call it "national dish" as the tradition is only a few decades old. At least it is much more popular in whole german than stuff like lederhosen or weisswurst/weissbier that people abroad often call "typically german" but which is mainly consumed in bavaria (or other rather local areas). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.61.9.75 (talk) 14:29, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

800 million

You can often read that 800 million curry sausages are served in Germany annually. What I've not found so far is any indication of: (a) who determined this number? (b) when did that happen, i.e. in what year or range of years was this determined to be so? There may be answers to these questions, but until we have them, it's an unsupportable claim. It hardly seems to be so insightful a statistic that it would be worth keeping in the article anyway. It's clear enough that currywurst is a popular and widespread type of fast food, so we may assume that many millions are served every year; putting the number of 800 million on that doesn't change a thing.

Here's why the Reuters article does not count as a useful source for the number: It just dishes out the following sentence without any further context:

Germans consume about 800 million currywursts annually -- 70 million are eaten in Berlin alone each year.

So the author gives no source for this number, not even the museum or its director. Surely the Reuters author did not research this number herself. It follows that the article is neither a primary source for the claim, nor a secondary source, because it does not refer to another source. It may be noted that it's a light-hearted piece from the “Reuters Life!” section. SKopp (talk) 22:46, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

"Today, about 800 million currywurst dishes are sold in Germany each year, the Currywurst Museum says,...".TMCk (talk) 16:55, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

" "70 Millionen Currywürste werden jährlich in Berlin verzehrt", berichtet Birgit Breloh, Leiterin des Deutschen Currywurst Museums,..." - (Google translate.: "'70 million curry sausages are consumed annually in Berlin,' says Birgit Breloh, director of the Deutsches Currywurst Museum".TMCk (talk) 17:03, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

Thanks Clean-keeper! I'll re-add the claim with the additional citations, provided you have no problem with that SKopp. Oreo Priest ^talk 18:27, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

There is even an English language press sheet from the museum itself giving the same numbers. I hate to play this role, but let me note that the museum gives no source either, and cannot well be assumed to have calculated the numbers itself, as they are older than the museum, e.g.

• August 2002
• August 2002
• June 2003 (including 70 million for Berlin)
• October 2003 (text may be inaccessible if you don't come from a search engine)

I would suggest the following wording then, inserted after the Volkswagen paragraph:

For all of Germany, up-to-date consumption statistics are unknown, but the claim of an annual consumption of 800 million has been quoted in various press publications since at least the year 2002. In addition, 70 million are occasionally claimed for the city of Berlin.

It is admittedly a very cautious wording, but we are talking about serious matters after all ;) SKopp (talk) 19:02, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

That's much too cautious (and long!)! How about:

The Deutsches Currywurst Museum estimates that 800 million currywursts are eaten every year in Germany, with 70 million in Berlin alone.

which is much simpler? By including the source, those who choose to doubt it because of that are free to do so. Thoughts? Oreo Priest ^talk 19:45, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

Fine by me. SKopp (talk) 20:12, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

Great! I'm glad we could reach an agreement! Oreo Priest ^talk 02:21, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

References

Volkswagen

Volkswagen does not only produce the sausages but also the curry ketchup and sells it as an "original VW part" with it's own original part number (in german "Teile Nummer"), the TN 199 398 500 B which is btw one of the most sold "parts" in the history of this company — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.56.67.148 (talk) 06:16, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

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Typo

There seems to be a typo here: “[…] by Herta Heuwer.Herta Heuwer: The roots of currywurst […]” I’m not sure how to fix it. NotFromMarkkleeberg (talk) 01:47, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Origin

A new scientifically researched book proves the real inventor of the dish, and also the political reason why the inventor has remained quiet

The dish was invented by Dutch immigrant Peter Hildebrand who sold the dish at Peter Pomm’s Pusztetten-Stube in Duisburg since 1936. The curry was ordered as 'English recipe curry powder' in Hamburg. The dish was patented in 1949 by Herta Heuwer, who sold the dish from a food stand in Berlin. ."

--Heteren (talk) 11:27, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi Heteren, it's a new book and thus a new theory that contradicts established theories. You can depict exactly that but not go and swipe established theories away. Kind regards, Grueslayer 11:36, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

The 'established theories' are proven to be wrong, not only by this book by many other sources. So, we need to delete these theories. Even Herta Heuwer did not claim to be the inventor in her later years anymore, she only claimed that she held the patent. Heteren (talk) 11:27, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

Two authors have established a new theory and some newspapers have picked this up. However, the status quo is still that Heuwer is the inventor, and Wikipedia should reflect that. If anything, this new theory raises more questions than it answers. "Peter Hildebrand" sounds more like a German name than a Dutch one as the surname Hildebrand and the forename Peter are more frequently found in Germany. If Hildebrand sold currywursts in his imbiss, why wasn't his story known earlier? It wasn't like he kept it for himself, he allegedly sold it to customers in his imbiss. Surely someone in Duisburg would have made this "creation" known to the public much sooner. It also doesn't seem like Hildebrand's sausage catched on, as his name is only mentioned now. Why was that the case? What ingredients did his currywurst consist of (can we call it a currywurst)? Years ago, there were also claims that someone in 1945 already created a currywurst, with Heuwer's position in danger, but Heuwer was still regarded as the inventor after that. So what makes it different this time? What makes it certain that there wasn't someone who already made currywursts in the 1920s?

Reading the Trouw article, Heuwer still regarded herself as the inventor, because she held the patent. These doubts over her priority at the end of her life could have also been from that 1945 claim, it's not mentioned clearly that it was about Hildebrand. I also have questions marks about the Nazi theory presented. It doesn't look like Hildebrand was a non-Aryan man, so why would the Nazis put all that energy into erasing his name? Especially since Germany has hundreds types of sausages. If this sausage of Hildebrand didn't really catch on, why would the Nazis have done that? Heuwer made her currywurst in 1949, so long after the Nazis were defeated, so they couldn't have influenced that narrative. Just because two authors wrote a book doesn't mean we should erase all previous theories. As we all know, all books contain some errors and ambiguous parts. If the 1936 date does seem to be the correct one in the future, then this article should reflect that. As of now, the consensus is that it's Heuwer's, so there is no need for an overhaul. 2001:1C01:2235:F700:89B9:7F95:E2B3:7600 (talk) 20:52, 30 September 2024 (UTC)