Awl sausage
The Ahle Wurst (also Ahle Wurscht or Worscht , in some areas also red sausage ) is an air-dried or lightly cold-smoked long-life sausage made from freshly slaughtered pork , which is traditionally made in- house in Northern Hesse . In essence, it corresponds in consistency and color to a raw sausage . The sausage is very similar in production and use to Italian salami . The name "Ahle" comes from the Central German term for the word "old", ie "old sausage", because it is very longmatures .
Manufacturing and traditional forms
Production is carried out in addition to the offal , bones and tendons as well as shares of bacon (allows a maximum of 35% fat ) almost the entire pig still slaughter temperature medium coarse with the meat grinder crushed and seasoned. Seasonings are table salt and pepper as well as locally different spices such as garlic , caraway , nutmeg and mustard seeds (natural spices ), some sugar , saltpeter and beech wood smoke . While the sausage is still warm, it is tightly filled into the middle rim intestines as a sausage casing . Now the sausage has to mature for at least four weeks in a “sausage chamber” at a temperature below 15 ° C and then it is a drought round . For the stracke ('straight'), the sausage mass is filled into large-caliber middle intestines or into breathable, water- and steam-permeable and elastic synthetic casings and must mature for at least six weeks because of the larger sausage diameter. The rest of the production is identical. As the sausage ripens, it loses about a third of its mass (at least 30%) and becomes deep red in color. It can now be consumed and stored up to a maximum of 22 ° C, but is often hung up for several weeks or months, even up to a year or more, for subsequent ripening in order to achieve the desired degree of hardness and ripeness. However, the sausage can spoil and turn gray if the sausage mass in the sausage casing is not compacted enough during its production or if it was stored incorrectly during ripening so that a cavity could form in it. Ahle Wurst is also available in the "Schmalzhaut" or "Schmerhut" ( peritoneum sewn to the sausage casing ) as Feldkieker .
The warm meat processing in raw sausage production that has been practiced in Northern Hesse for centuries - it is otherwise only found in Eichsfelder Feldgieker - the use of preservatives and rapid ripening agents as well as flavoring or coloring additives is dispensed with, because these would be for the development of the typical flavor and the long Detrimental to the shelf life of the Ahlen sausage .
Cultural and economic importance
Large parts of North Hesse are historically and still today characterized by forests and agricultural use. In earlier centuries, almost anyone could keep pigs, as the pigs were driven into the forest for fattening and often no additional feeding was necessary. This led to the development of small-scale animal husbandry for the annual needs, which contributed significantly to the supply of the rural population. Long-life sausage specialties, especially the Ahle sausage , were created to preserve meat for a long time . The sausage stock had to range from slaughter in winter to harvest in summer.
The "Feldkieker" was already known in 1488 in Büraberg near Fritzlar . In the “attacks” - an early budget plan - of Landgrave Wilhelm the Wise in 1568, “rode sausage” and “bratwurst” were also listed. It is also mentioned in the "Directory of all kinds of food" of the Kasseler Hof from 1580 and in the tax code of 1622. Quality issues were legally regulated as early as 1791: According to the "Regulation of how to keep slaughter and meat sales in the local residence" should be "red sausage “Made exclusively from pork.
The tradition of making Ahlen sausage continues to this day and, through direct marketing, helps many small and medium-sized farms, which are typical for North Hesse, to survive the enormous structural change in agriculture economically. The Slow Food initiative included the Ahle Wurst , which has now achieved cult status , under the name North Hessian Ahle Wurscht in its “Arche of Taste” in June 2004 in order to promote the traditional production method and secure it as a cultural asset. On May 18, 2016, the status of a PGI - protected geographical indication - was applied for for the North Hessian Ahle Wurscht and North Hessian Ahle Worscht .
literature
- German Patent and Trademark Office : Markenblatt 27 of July 3, 2015, part 7a-aa ; 13597-13600.
- Thomas Fuchs: In the greatest need, the sausage tastes even without bread. "Ahle Worscht" - cultural-historical and culinary consideration of a North Hessian specialty. In: GhK : work results October 16, 1991; 5-13.
- Hermann Jakob: Successful raw sausage recipes. Deutscher Fachverlag, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 978-3-87150-794-6 ; P. 99.
- Heinrich Keim: North Hessian Ahle Worscht. A sausage with cult status. 4th edition, Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2011. ISBN 978-3-8313-1595-6 .
- Friedrich-Karl Lücke, Ingo Vogeley: Traditional 'air-dried' fermented sausages from Central Germany. Food Microbiology 29 (2), April 2012; 242-246.
- Regina Wenk, Angelika Teichert, Angelika Ploeger: Traditional practice of rural self-sufficiency and the culinary heritage of North Hesse. Thesis. In: IAKE : Mitteilungen December 15, 2007; 29-37.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fuchs, p. 5.
- ↑ Products in the application process ( Memento from December 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Website of MGH GUTES AUS HESSEN. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ^ Lücke, Vogeley, p. 245.
- ↑ Storage at higher temperatures for a short time is still possible.
- ↑ Fuchs, p. 8.
- ↑ German Patent and Trademark Office: Markenblatt 36 dated 09/05/2008, Part 7b ; 46519 (DPMA decision granting the application: Göttinger Feldkieker ).
- ↑ North Hesse's culinary heritage ( memento from December 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Slow Food Deutschland eV website. Accessed July 19, 2014.
- ↑ Entry in the DOOR database
