Currywurst — Berlin Curry Sausage

Name: Currywurst — Berlin Curry Sausage
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: German (Berlin)
Ingredients: 4 Pork sausages (Bratwurst or Bockwurst); 250 ml Passata or tomato purée; 3 tbsp Tomato ketchup; 2 tbsp Mild curry powder; 1 tsp Sweet paprika; 1 small Onion, finely chopped; 1 tbsp Sugar; 1 tbsp White wine vinegar; 100 ml Water; Oil; Chips (fries), to serve

Sliced grilled pork sausage under a slick of warm, tangy-sweet curry ketchup with a snowfall of curry powder on top. Post-war Berlin's most famous invention, eaten standing up with a wooden fork and a pile of chips.

Fuente

Receta de Berlin street stalls · 🏺 Tradicional · Berlin's Imbiss (snack-stand) culture — postwar street food eaten standing up with a wooden fork

Berlin · a documented postwar invention (1949) — This is a genuine Berlin invention, not an ownerless folk dish. The cited article attributes it to Herta Heuwer, who in Berlin in 1949 mixed ketchup (or Worcestershire sauce) and curry powder obtained from British soldiers and poured it over grilled pork sausage; she patented the sauce as 'Chillup' in 1951. Heuwer is credited here as the historical inventor, not in `source.cook`, because she did not author this recipe's steps. The article confirms the dish is pork sausage with curry ketchup, hugely popular in postwar Berlin. Quantities and method here are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

SevGrillz Scuffed Kitchen Home Chef Geoff

⏱ 30 min🍽 4 porciones🔥 480 kcal🇩🇪 Alemania🌶️

Sin lácteosSin frutos secos

Pasos

Soften the chopped onion in a little oil over medium heat until translucent. Stir in half the curry powder and the paprika and let them toast for 30 seconds — this wakes the spices up.
Add the passata, ketchup, sugar, vinegar and water. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring, until it thickens to a pourable sauce. Taste — it should be tangy, lightly sweet and warmly spiced, not hot.
💡 Want it smooth like the Imbiss stands? Blitz the sauce with a stick blender. Leaving the onion whole is just as correct.
Grill or fry the sausages over medium heat for 12–15 minutes until browned and cooked through. Some Berlin stands fry them skinless; a natural-casing sausage grilled whole is just as good.
Slice each sausage into thick coins and lay them in a shallow bowl. Spoon the warm curry sauce over generously, then dust the whole thing with the rest of the curry powder.
Serve at once with chips and a wooden fork, in true Imbiss style.

💡 Consejos

The finishing shower of curry powder over the top is what makes it currywurst, not just sausage in sauce. Do not stir it in — leave it sitting on the surface.
Ordered at a stand as 'mit Darm' (with skin) or 'ohne Darm' (skinless) — Berlin argues about which is correct, and both are.