Meat And Greet

Ancient Bratwurst Recipe Is 600 Years Old

A hobby historian has discovered the oldest known recipe for German sausage, a list of ingredients for Thuringian bratwurst nearly 600 years old. According to the 1432 guidelines, Thuringian sausage makers had to use only the purest, unspoiled meat and were threatened with a fine of 24 pfennigs - a day's wages - if they did not, according to a spokesman for the German Bratwurst Museum. Historian Hubert Erzmann, 75, found the ancient recipe, inscribed with pen and ink in a heavy tome of parchment, in the eastern town of Weimar. Museum spokesman Thomas Maeuer said, "The discovery shows that there were already consumer protection laws in the Middle Ages."

FOOTNOTE: In for a pfennig, in for a pound.