''Stippgrütze'', also called ''Wurstebrei'', is a German dish from

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

which is similar to '' Grützwurst'' or '' Knipp''. It consists of barley

groats Groats (or in some cases, "berries") are the hulled kernels of various cereal grains, such as oat, wheat, rye, and barley. Groats are whole grains that include the cereal germ and fiber-rich bran portion of the grain, as well as the endosp ...

cooked in sausage juices (''Wurstbrühe''), which are enriched with pieces of

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

offal Offal (), also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, is the organs of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but usually excludes muscle. Offal may also refe ...

, such as

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as ca ...

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...

liver The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it i ...

and seasoned with

spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices a ...

s and

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

. More rarely, finely chopped

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the on ...

s are added. The cooked ingredients are minced after the juices have been poured off and a crumbly cake is left which is held together with fat and which sets on cooling. There are various recipes, but they all contain barley groats, fat and meat. A classic recipe contains pig offal or heart, belly pork with rind, lard greaves, barley groats, water, salt, pepper,

allspice Allspice, also known as Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, is the dried unripe berry of ''Pimenta dioica'', a midcanopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, now cultivated in many warm par ...

and

thyme Thyme () is the herb (dried aerial parts) of some members of the genus ''Thymus'' of aromatic perennial evergreen herbs in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are relatives of the oregano genus '' Origanum'', with both plants being mostly indigen ...

. The nutrition varies; one portion made from about 300 g of pork and 60 g of groats contains about 850 kJ.Dr. Oetker, ''Kochen von A-Z'', p. 502, Dr. Oetker Verlag KG, Bielefeld 2004 Its relatively high fat content means that ''Stippgrütze'' keeps well and is often preserved or frozen, so that it can be used over the winter. The season for ''Stippgrütze'' begins with the traditional '' Schlachtfest'' or country feast in October or November, when the pigs are slaughtered, and lasts until spring. In the shops ''Stippgrütze'' is usually sold in sausage form in clear artificial casings about 12 cm in diameter. To prepare it a large piece is fried in a pan without any additional fat, until a firm crust forms on the underside, occasionally it is stirred and fried again. A sort of porridge or puree (''Brei'') results, hence its other name of ''Wurstebrei'' (sausage puree). ''Stippgrütze'' is served hot out of the pan and usually consumed at

dinner Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the largest and most formal meal of the day, which is eaten in the evening. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around midday, and called dinner. Especially among the elite ...

(evening meal) together with or on top of coarse

rye bread Rye bread is a type of bread made with various proportions of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat ...

. For a main meal around midday salt or roast

potatoes The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...

are usually served with it. It is common for ''Stippgrütze'' to include a pickled gherkin. Its acidity supports the digestion and palatability of this fatty meal. Due to its high fat content ''Stippgrütze'' is also commonly eaten before enjoying alcoholic drinks. The use of cooked offal together with coarsely-ground cereal exists in many cultures and used to be viewed as 'poor man's food'. Examples include the Scottish

haggis Haggis ( gd, taigeis) is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while traditionally encased in the animal's stomach though n ...

prepared in a very similar way from

oats The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human co ...

and sheep's innards or the Swedish dish, '' Pölsa''.

References

External links

Stippgruetze - German Website about the famous westphalian Groat-SausageStippgruetze on Facebook - Facebook Fansite about Stippgruetze
Westphalian cuisine German sausages Precooked sausages {{germany-sausage-stub