Wurstsalat
A salad from Bavarian beer gardens, made from a handful of plain ingredients and demanding one skill: cutting. The sausage and cheese are cut into long strips, never dice — strips hold the dressing better and tangle together on the plate. The dressing is distinctly sour, because its job is to balance the richness of the sausage.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Cutting 15 min
- Dressing 5 min
- Marinating 60 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneCut the sausage into long strips
Cut the sausage into 3 mm slices, then each slice into 5 mm strips. Strips, not dice — they catch dressing across their whole surface and tangle together, which is what keeps the salad on a fork.
Ingredients: 400 g cooked sausage · 150 g cheese · 1 pcs onion · 3 pcs pickled cucumbers
Long strips, not dice — they catch dressing better.Cut the cheese the same way
Cut the cheese identically, into strips of the same thickness. Matching strips mix evenly, so every forkful carries both sausage and cheese.
Ingredients: 400 g cooked sausage · 150 g cheese · 1 pcs onion · 3 pcs pickled cucumbers
Soak the onion in cold water
Slice the onion into thin rings and cover with cold water for 10 minutes. Raw onion would dominate a salad this simple; rinsed, it stays crisp and faintly sweet and its bite disappears.
Ingredients: 400 g cooked sausage · 150 g cheese · 1 pcs onion · 3 pcs pickled cucumbers
Ten minutes in water — the bite goes, the crunch stays.Whisk a sour dressing
Whisk the vinegar with the mustard, sugar, salt, pepper and water, then add the oil in a thin stream while whisking. The ratio of vinegar to oil here is one to one — far more acid than an ordinary vinaigrette (usually 1:3), and deliberately so.
Ingredients: 5 tbsp wine vinegar · 5 tbsp oil · 2 tsp mustard · 1 tsp sugar · 3 tbsp water · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Toss and leave an hour
Combine the sausage, cheese, drained onion and sliced pickles with the dressing and leave an hour at room temperature, stirring once. The sausage needs time to take up the dressing — freshly tossed, the salad tastes of vinegar and sausage separately.
Ingredients: 400 g cooked sausage · 150 g cheese · 1 pcs onion · 3 pcs pickled cucumbers
An hour in the dressing — the sausage takes on flavour.Serve with bread and chives
Scatter with chives and serve at room temperature, with rye bread and butter. Straight from the fridge the fat in the sausage sets and the salad tastes of nothing — this is beer garden food, not something from a chiller.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp chives · 4 pcs rye bread · 40 g butter
Before you start
Which sausage
Classically Lyoner, Stadtwurst or Regensburger — firm cooked sausages. Elsewhere: bologna or mortadella bought in a thick piece. Avoid dry or heavily smoked sausages — they are tough and take up little dressing.
Schweizer Wurstsalat
The version with cheese, as here, is called Schweizer or Straßburger Wurstsalat in Germany; the classic Bavarian one does without cheese. Beer gardens often list both side by side.
Two days in the fridge
The salad keeps two days and is better on the second, once the sausage has taken up the vinegar fully. Take it out half an hour before serving and toss again, since the dressing separates when cold.
