You heard right: sausage salad. Salad made from sausages. Ham sausage to be exact. This may sound weird, but it’s really delicious.
It’s a Bavarian beer garden classic and I guess that’s why this dish was invented: the sausage keeps fresh longer when you put it in a sour and salty solution. And you needed that when the only available air condition was chestnut trees… By the way, most beer gardens in Bavaria are still “cooled” with old chestnut trees and are BYO (“bring your own”), but a little differently as you might expect if you were born in an English speaking country: you’re allowed to bring your own food, but you have to buy the beer there.
Sausage Salad / Wurstsalat
700 g ham sausage (“Schinkenwurst”, “Leberkaese” or “Lyoner”)
1 large onion
1 cup gherkin slices
1 cup gherkin brine
6 tablespoons vinegar
6 tablespoons water
salt and pepper to taste
Peel the sausages and cut them into 3-5 mm thick slices.
Put them into a large bowl.
Cut one large onion (or 2-3 smaller ones) into fine stripes and put them on top of the sausage slices.
Add 1 cup of gherkin slices (I buy them whole and slice them myself), then give the mixture a toss, so that everything is evenly distributed. Then add salt and pepper and all the liquid ingredients – they should nearly cover the whole mixture. Put it all in the refrigerator and let it there over night.
Serve with pretzels and a nice cold beer.