Baboon Achievers, Family, Food, home, Uncategorized

Bratwurst Bun Perfection

41 Comments

Last week, Husband sent, via overnight UPS transport, four bratwurst buns that he had baked,  to his brother-in-law, John,  in Omro,  Wisconsin. This was expensive.

Husband and John both grew up in Sheboygan,  Wisconsin, which touts itself as “The Bratwurst Capital  of the World “.  Bratwurst is certainly a staple in Sheboygan, and there are competing opinions regarding which butcher shop makes the best and what is the best way to prepare them. It is a sacred food there.. There is a flourishing industry in shipping Sheboygan brats to far flung Sheboygan expats.

True Sheboyganites are as concerned about the buns as they are about the sausages. Buns don’t ship as well as sausages. Husband  likens the search for the perfect brat bun to finding the best bagel.  The perfect brat bun is light and crusty with a moist  interior and a slightly malty flavor, traditionally baked on a bed of cornmeal.

Husband and John have a mutually supportive rivalry in attempting to bake the best brat buns at home. They have found recipes on-line from defunct Wisconsin bakeries, and try to adapt them for home use. Husband is an accomplished baker. John not so much. My sister-in-law has had her fill of bakery experiments.  (Note: In Sheboygan,  baked goods are referred to as “bakery”).

The quest continues. . .

What are you trying to perfect? What is your favorite culinary  accomplishment?

41 thoughts on “Bratwurst Bun Perfection”

        2. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around how you can possibly get your mouth around two brats at the same time. Or why you would want to. Must have something to do with tailgating, is my guess.

          Liked by 2 people

  2. I love to cook but I don’t consider myself adventuresome. Most of the time if I try something new I just plop it on the table even if it’s for guests. This normally works out well. I did make a cornucopia out of puff pastry about 10 years ago for Thanksgiving that was really fussy. It turned out well but it was enough fussiness that I never made it again. I am particularly proud of my tarte au soleil. It’s also made with puff Pastry and I did actually do a practice run on it about a week before I served it to guests. It looks much fancier than it is to make, although it is a little fussy. But I’ve made it several times since then because it’s so fabulous looking and yummy. However I must say that I would never fed ex it to anyone!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. The only two that really stands out as complicated are the crack pie (because first you have to make the cookies, then you have to crumble them up to make the base, then you have to do two different pieces to make the filling). And the other one is the tangerine pie because I have to make tangerine curd from juice and that takes a while.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  3. After more than 40 years of evolution, I have perfected (to me) a pasta sauce that I believe I could sell to grocery stores. It is our number one comfort food and we eat it twice a week most weeks. The problem is it’s probably prohibitively expensive compared to other pre-made sauces, so I doubt I’d ever try to market it. Not sure though, I never priced out the ingredients and the cost per serving.

    Chris in O-town

    *Oh, yeah, I guess I’m trying to perfect my writing. (hah!)*

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  4. I once tried a Spanikopita recipe – kin to VS’ tarte de soleil, I see when I searched it. It turned out fairly well, but I probably won’t attempt it again, pretty putzy. My hats off to a friend who, rather than buy prepare puff pastry, buttered each sheet of the pastry herself…

    I used to make pastitsio (kind of a Greek lasagna) that took all day… I wouldn’t say I perfected it, but there was nothing complicated, again just putzy.

    Today I’m going to try to perfect a Green Tomato Pie (and/or Crisp).

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

        1. I only mess with phyllo dough maybe once a year. The whole set up with the damp towels on the dough and the melted butter it just seems like a lot of work to me.

          Liked by 1 person

      2. You just have to work fast. I use phyllo a lot. I recently used some Serbian/Bosnian phyllo I had from a Bosnian grocery store in Fargo. It was larger and a little thicker than the Athens brand phyllo I usually get, and a little easier to work with.. Never use Pepperidge Farm phyllo, by the way.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  5. After experimenting with many stir fry sauces over the years, most of them acceptable, I finally have one I tweaked to make a stir fry that is comparable (in my opinion) to good Chinese take out. And of course I can make the stir fry itself with a much more generous array of ingredients that one gets in the typical take out.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  6. Gave up on perfection. Settling for survival. I was a long way from perfection when I quit woodworking, pastels, drawing, carving, and writing. Looking at what I have left of my work, I know it was the journey and not the destination. Cooking is for need and since I make only a very things, I should seek perfection but I seek Sandy not getting sick. For six months I was improving some dinner rolls Sandy fell in love with. But then as so often happens they started irritating her colitis.
    My two teenage grandkids moved into the kitchen. 17-year old girl is working on desserts. She had to make a model of the human brain for school. She made hers out of dyed Rice Krispy treats. 15-year-old boy tries most everything else. Where he seeks perfection, and does seek it, is barbecue sauces and smoking and barbequing meats. He currently has 5 sauces fermenting.
    Clyde

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  7. My idea of perfection has evolved over the years. I’ve come to understand that what I consider perfect is an ever changing concept. Nowadays, it’s not so much something that I strive to achieve as it something that I strive be aware of. Gratitude for all of the little things that cheer me; the parts of my body that are still functioning as they’re supposed to; a relatively comfortable and peaceful life. Heaven only knows there are plenty of things to complain and be upset about, but it really does make a difference where your mind dwells.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. These look good. I might have to try them but I don’t know if they will surpass the chocolate chip cookie recipe that I got from Anna years ago in fact I have it printed out in my recipe binder and they’re called Anna’s chocolate chips

      Like

      Reply

  9. Like Clyde and PJ, I’ve become leery of perfection. Perfect is an absolute term, and one I’m not comfortable with. With all human endeavors, perfection seems unlikely. That’s no problem if you can be happy when things are relatively good. Better seems a more realistic goal to me than perfect.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I’d put it this way, Steve: perfection is fleeting. For some reason that reminds me of the Robert Frost poem: Nothing Gold Can Stay:

      Nature’s first green is gold,
      Her hardest hue to hold.
      Her early leaf’s a flower;
      But only so an hour.
      Then leaf subsides to leaf.
      So Eden sank to grief,
      So dawn goes down to day.
      Nothing gold can stay.

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

        2. I followed that link, but though it didn’t show the photo, I think I know exactly which photo it is. The post itself is before my time on the trail, but it’s a photo that Steve showed me the first time I met him. The comments are a marvelous collection of wabi sabi and memories. What a treasure trove. Thanks for posting, Linda.

          Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.