Gritwurst or Gritzwurst or Gritwist
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Seems like every thrifty culture has some version of this. Common theme is head meat, meat scraps, offal, a cereal of some sort and seasoning.
One of my favorite variations on this theme is jaternice, and uses bread for the cereal.
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This has been a staple breakfast for most my life. My mom made it all the time. We always had a block of it in the freezer. My grandparents were both german. My grandpa was a Schmelzle and my grandma was a Wilhelm. We always called it porridge for some reason, even though it really wasn’t. I remember seeing pigs head in the kitchen when I was growing up. As that became less common and available, Mom just used whatever pork she had later on. We always ate it fried as a sandwich between buttered bread. Oh so good!
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Have any of you guys from ND, SD, MN, WI, maybe IA that have German heritage ever heard of this or eaten it? It is very similar to goetta from what I am reading. I grew up eating this for breakfast at my Grandparents house. It was a common food among German immigrant farming families. It was traditionally made from the pig head meat but also a lot from pork butt. It is a cooked down mixture of ground pork meat with the fat, steel cut oats, spices, and my Grandma always put dark raisins in it (which was a northern Germany thing from what I have read). It is then fried in a bit of oil and topped with maple syrup or karo syrup. It is sooo good. I haven’t had it in 20 years but I am going to remedy that. My Dad got his Grandmother’s recipe from his great aunt!
ND Mike When we butcher we make Scrapple or Pannas. we cook entire beef and pork heads, livers, hearts, meaty bones in a slow boil all day. sieve out the meat and stuff it in casings. the juice at the bottom we add corn meal to. that is what we call pannas or scrapple. the Germans would do basically the same thing and add oatmeal instead of cornmeal and they called it “Pruetals?” we never used any muscle meat, that was for traditional sausage. you would put the mixture in loaf pans, let it set. when you were ready to eat; cut a slice, flour and fry…heavenly
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Well folks. Im working on putting a version of my wife’s family recipe together. As you can tell from this post, there are various versions based on family and regional recipes. Most of these were never written down as recipes on paper, but passed on from one generation to the next, and as mentioned was a way to use the scrap meat which may have been in various amounts at any given time. So recipes were adapted each cook. This morning I called my father-in-law and after that, I called his brother which is my wife’s Uncle David. Its funny, but neither use a recipe since it was something they learned from their dad. They are both in their upper 80s and still making “gritz”. The funny thing is although they learned from the same person, they have each adapted it to their personal taste and the recipes vary a little. I wrote a lot of notes today and will combine them into a recipe to post soon. I already have a written ingredient recipe from Uncle David, but there are no processes included. Today we talked through it on the phone as I took notes… The process was just learned in person and I have always managed
to muddle through it after the one time he taught me how about 25 years ago. Its nice to see all of the post on how each family has the same basic traditions. Its our jobs to make sure these traditions stay alive. -
not only recipes but many skills and traditions need to be passed down or they will be lost ,my wife is teaching the granddaughters to make quilts
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Well folks. Im working on putting a version of my wife’s family recipe together. As you can tell from this post, there are various versions based on family and regional recipes. Most of these were never written down as recipes on paper, but passed on from one generation to the next, and as mentioned was a way to use the scrap meat which may have been in various amounts at any given time. So recipes were adapted each cook. This morning I called my father-in-law and after that, I called his brother which is my wife’s Uncle David. Its funny, but neither use a recipe since it was something they learned from their dad. They are both in their upper 80s and still making “gritz”. The funny thing is although they learned from the same person, they have each adapted it to their personal taste and the recipes vary a little. I wrote a lot of notes today and will combine them into a recipe to post soon. I already have a written ingredient recipe from Uncle David, but there are no processes included. Today we talked through it on the phone as I took notes… The process was just learned in person and I have always managed
to muddle through it after the one time he taught me how about 25 years ago. Its nice to see all of the post on how each family has the same basic traditions. Its our jobs to make sure these traditions stay alive.GWG8541 well said! I’m glad you are putting pen to paper on this. It is our duty to make sure these things get passed on!
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ND Mike When we butcher we make Scrapple or Pannas. we cook entire beef and pork heads, livers, hearts, meaty bones in a slow boil all day. sieve out the meat and stuff it in casings. the juice at the bottom we add corn meal to. that is what we call pannas or scrapple. the Germans would do basically the same thing and add oatmeal instead of cornmeal and they called it “Pruetals?” we never used any muscle meat, that was for traditional sausage. you would put the mixture in loaf pans, let it set. when you were ready to eat; cut a slice, flour and fry…heavenly
Departing Contestant it is really neat to see the subtle differences in basically the same type of food.
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This has been a staple breakfast for most my life. My mom made it all the time. We always had a block of it in the freezer. My grandparents were both german. My grandpa was a Schmelzle and my grandma was a Wilhelm. We always called it porridge for some reason, even though it really wasn’t. I remember seeing pigs head in the kitchen when I was growing up. As that became less common and available, Mom just used whatever pork she had later on. We always ate it fried as a sandwich between buttered bread. Oh so good!
Grimpuppy nice! I bet it is really good your family way too!
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Have any of you guys from ND, SD, MN, WI, maybe IA that have German heritage ever heard of this or eaten it? It is very similar to goetta from what I am reading. I grew up eating this for breakfast at my Grandparents house. It was a common food among German immigrant farming families. It was traditionally made from the pig head meat but also a lot from pork butt. It is a cooked down mixture of ground pork meat with the fat, steel cut oats, spices, and my Grandma always put dark raisins in it (which was a northern Germany thing from what I have read). It is then fried in a bit of oil and topped with maple syrup or karo syrup. It is sooo good. I haven’t had it in 20 years but I am going to remedy that. My Dad got his Grandmother’s recipe from his great aunt!
ND Mike, My parents bought a Buckwheat version without added blood see https://www.recipelion.com/Preserving-Meats/BUCKWHEAT-SAUSAGE-RECIPE, at meal time the contents of the sausage was removed and fried with a little bit of water and fried onion, tasted good but heavy on the cholesterol .
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ND Mike, My parents bought a Buckwheat version without added blood see https://www.recipelion.com/Preserving-Meats/BUCKWHEAT-SAUSAGE-RECIPE, at meal time the contents of the sausage was removed and fried with a little bit of water and fried onion, tasted good but heavy on the cholesterol .
billow99 a little different recipe. I’ve never seen that one. I know buckwheat groats were used here in ND.
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German American sausage making was influenced by German colonists that lived in eastern Europe and Russia (https://feefhs.org/resource/germany-settlements-in-eastern-europe) my great uncle left Russia pre ww2 and moved to Iowa . Please note that there are Jewish versions (using chicken and beef brisket) of this sausage as well .
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German American sausage making was influenced by German colonists that lived in eastern Europe and Russia (https://feefhs.org/resource/germany-settlements-in-eastern-europe) my great uncle left Russia pre ww2 and moved to Iowa . Please note that there are Jewish versions (using chicken and beef brisket) of this sausage as well .
billow99 my wife’s family are Germans from Russia. My German side is from Prussia and Northern Germany.
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ND Mike, My parents bought a Buckwheat version without added blood see https://www.recipelion.com/Preserving-Meats/BUCKWHEAT-SAUSAGE-RECIPE, at meal time the contents of the sausage was removed and fried with a little bit of water and fried onion, tasted good but heavy on the cholesterol .
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My grandparents were relocated (pre ww1) from Russian Poland to the steppe in Kazakhstan the grandmothers were very good in preserving and cooking but both of them passed early in their 50s so it’s up to me to spark up the traditional family recipes and customs.
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My grandparents were relocated (pre ww1) from Russian Poland to the steppe in Kazakhstan the grandmothers were very good in preserving and cooking but both of them passed early in their 50s so it’s up to me to spark up the traditional family recipes and customs.
billow99 it us up to us for sure to pass on those family traditions to the next generation.
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My grandparents were relocated (pre ww1) from Russian Poland to the steppe in Kazakhstan the grandmothers were very good in preserving and cooking but both of them passed early in their 50s so it’s up to me to spark up the traditional family recipes and customs.
billow99 I have been compiling recipes from my parents and both of their mothers. Some are hand written and some are recipes out of cookbooks that they have added notes to, it is interesting looking through old recipes.
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My grandparents were relocated (pre ww1) from Russian Poland to the steppe in Kazakhstan the grandmothers were very good in preserving and cooking but both of them passed early in their 50s so it’s up to me to spark up the traditional family recipes and customs.
billow99 its up to us to keep those recipes alive, but more importantly, to keep up the traditions.
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YooperDog Love Kishka, having breakfast for dinner tonight. Kishka, eggs & rye toast. Must be the Polish & Czech in me.
Improvise, Adapt and Overcome! Semper Fi
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YooperDog Love Kishka, having breakfast for dinner tonight. Kishka, eggs & rye toast. Must be the Polish & Czech in me.
Bob Stehlik said in Gritwurst or Gritzwurst or Gritwist:
YooperDog Love Kishka, having breakfast for dinner tonight. Kishka, eggs & rye toast. Must be the Polish & Czech in me.
You have that meal dialed in. I will be heading to a Polish shop to pick up some kishka on Saturday. If they have some in the large ring size I might be making some sandwiches.
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billow99 its up to us to keep those recipes alive, but more importantly, to keep up the traditions.
GWG8541 You need to know what stock you are from. Growing up I didn’t think to much about traditions,it just what we did. Older now and passed the same on to our kids. As I got older I was surprised that so many had no specific or special traditions, no tie to the past and no history.
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