I have posted before about a long-remembered childhood
pleasure-relatives would bring (on ice in a cooler) locally-made brats
from Wisconsin, unlike anything I have seen in the stores.

I have tried to replicate the experience by trying every version of
Johnsonville brats (yuck) and never before found a match. Until
yesterday at SuperWalmart in the bacon/sausage/polish sausage section.

It was a package of 4 brat burgers. Klement's was the brand. It
resembled my old memory of a white pork meat with a course grind that
wasn't very spicy.

Absolutely a match. Delicious. Fried two for burgers Fri night and
reheated the other two and chopped into my scrambled eggs the next
morning.

On Sunday, June 9, 2013 11:14:46 PM UTC-5, The Other Guy wrote:
> On Sun, 9 Jun 2013 22:10:32 -0500, (z z) wrote:
>
>
>
> >I have tried to replicate the experience by trying every version of
>
> >Johnsonville brats (yuck)
>
>
>
> I don't mind their brats, but their Italian sausage SUCKS bigtime.
>
Johnsonville's "Hot & Spicy" are wonderful. Best grilling sausages ever.
Did a few yesterday over peach wood.
http://www.johnsonville.com/products/hot-n-spicy.html

--Bryan

Dittos I can't hardly tolerate the plain old Johnsonville Brats..all I can taste in there is sweet..but the fully cooked stuff they are dispensing these days is very good. We like the chipolte chicken version. Hot and Spicy too.

Recipe Brats: Thanks for the tip on Kelement Brat Patties from WW. Will try seek some of those. Most regular old Brats dont have enough zing for the Texas palette..but will give them a try. I came up with a ho made version to help some Illinois and Joisey refugees one time. They said they were much better than what they got back home. Here's the recipe if you want to try it at home. Patty them up and skip the gut stuffing.

Bigwheel's Lonesome Yankee Bratwurst (2000)

5-7 lb pork butt
1 cup water
2 T. salt
1 T. sugar
1 t. coriander
1 t. sage
1 t. paprika
1 t. teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 t. rosemary
1 t. MSG
1 T. dry mustard
1 T. black pepper (fine grind)
1 big pinch ground nutmeg
1 small pinch ground cloves
hog guts

Mix all spices into the liquid and place in the freezer while you debone the butt and cut the meat to fit the grinder. Pour spiced liquid over the cut meat and mix well. Run through med or fine plate and mix well again. Stuff into the guts and twist into links about 5" long.

Lonesome Yankee Bratwurst (2003)

10 lbs. boston butt
3 T. salt
1 T. sugar
2 T. dry mustard
1 T. MSG (optional or use less if you want..if you skip it add another T. of salt)
1 T. ground coriander
1 T. ground sage
1 T. paprika
1 T. black pepper
1 T. ground rosemary
2 t. cayenne pepper
2 t. nutmeg
2 cups water or beer or a combo of the two*

Add all spices to liquid. blend and refrigerate. Cut meat to fit grinder. Add spiced liquid to meat and mix well. Grind through fine plate. mix well again. Stuff into medium hog guts. Twist into 5 inch links or therabouts. Refrigerate immediately and freeze any not used within a couple of days.*Beer seems to intensify the flavor of the spices. So if you like a little more pronounced spice flavor use beer.(Budwieser works well). If you like a little blander use water. To split the difference use a cup of each.

On Tue, 11 Jun 2013 03:01:08 +0100, bigwheel
> wrote:
snip
>
>Recipe Brats: Thanks for the tip on Kelement Brat Patties from WW. Will
>try seek some of those. Most regular old Brats dont have enough zing for
>the Texas palette..but will give them a try.snip
I would think you would have a fine selection of spicy brats available
to you in Texas given that there was a German immigration to that
area. Not so?
Janet US

Yep..bunch of Germans..Chezks..Poles etc. in the State. Oldest Polish settlement in the US in fact. Quite a few good sausage makers in the crowd. None of them seem to fool with making Brats. They are generally regarded as bland yankee food. We eat a normally cured variant full of red pepper and other good things...which are called Hot Links. The only way we can tell when its time to eat is when the coola quits burning..lol. Now the Chezks (who make the best of everything..cept Mexican food) make some stuff called Entreneichka (sic)..which is a spicy liver and rice combo that would flat make a person chunk rocks at Cajun Boudan Blanc.

On 6/11/2013 11:06 PM, bigwheel wrote:
> Janet Bostwick;1839962 Wrote:
>> On Tue, 11 Jun 2013 03:01:08 +0100, bigwheel
>> wrote:
>> snip-
>>
>> Recipe Brats: Thanks for the tip on Kelement Brat Patties from WW. Will
>> try seek some of those. Most regular old Brats dont have enough zing
>> for
>> the Texas palette..but will give them a try.snip-
>> I would think you would have a fine selection of spicy brats available
>> to you in Texas given that there was a German immigration to that
>> area. Not so?
>> Janet US
>
> Yep..bunch of Germans..Chezks..Poles etc. in the State. Oldest Polish
> settlement in the US in fact. Quite a few good sausage makers in the
> crowd. None of them seem to fool with making Brats. They are generally
> regarded as bland yankee food. We eat a normally cured variant full of
> red pepper and other good things...which are called Hot Links. The only
> way we can tell when its time to eat is when the coola quits
> burning..lol. Now the Chezks (who make the best of everything..cept
> Mexican food) make some stuff called Entreneichka (sic)..which is a
> spicy liver and rice combo that would flat make a person chunk rocks at
> Cajun Boudan Blanc.

Texas seems to be losing a lot of our kolache shops, which saddens me.
The closest one to me was open for over 100 years, then they closed
about 15 yrs ago. I loved going in there, buying kolaches and bringing
them to work. They had every flavor you could imagine. A Kolache Factory
opened in town, but I have not tried them yet.

Becca

Hear you on the kolaches Becca. Have been known to knock back a few myself..lol. Now not an aficionado by any means...but do appreciate a good one or two. Up in my part of the world we have a little Bakery called Busy Bee's. All home grown goods and mighty tasty without having to drive down to the hick country. Dont even get me started on Chezk bbq..they have the best. Now the Greeks are good at grilling..lol.