Some things are just meant to go together: cookies and milk, tea and crumpets, wine and cheese, and most importantly beer and bratwurst. It didn’t take us long to realize that the Weeping Radish needed a truly authentic bratwurst to complement our amazing beers. Owner Uli Bennewitz placed an ad in a German butcher’s publication looking for a joint venture partner and was immediately contacted by Gunther Kuehle. The result was a pairing just as successful as beer and brats!
Gunther, a fifth generation Master Butcher from Ülm, shipped over his equipment and started cooking. The average sausage is made by putting chunks of meat through a grinder and adding a few spices; this would never make the grade in Germany! It takes five years of training to earn the title of Master Butcher. the program is a combination of classroom training and apprenticeships and covers everything from the best way to raise animals to recipes for finished products. Culinary schools are popping up all over America, but they do not have the level of intensity of the German Master Butcher’s Guild.
Uli and Gunther agreed that the best recipes and techniques in the world are not enough to create high quality products so they set out to find superior pork and beef. They contacted small family farms that only raised all-natural free-range animals and filled the Weeping Radish kitchen with Bratwurst, Beer Brats, Hot Dogs, Pastrami and so much more. The farmers were so excited by Gunther’s skill that they started sending him cuts of meat that they couldn’t sell at market to be turned into sausages and other charcuterie products.
As Gunther can’t spend months away from his butchery in Bavaria, he and Uli came up with a unique arrangement: Gunther sends a fully certified Master Butcher to the Weeping Radish for a year and comes over periodically to refresh procedures and recipes.
Right now we are delighted to have Frank Meusel as our resident Master Butcher. Originally from Kassel, Germany, Frank has spent the last five years working in Kazakhstan! His excitement and creativity are almost tangible. Not only is he working like mad in the butchery, but he is also exercising his culinary talents in the kitchen. His delicious marinated pork chops flew out of our retail counter and his test batch of pork schnitzel was out of this world! The schnitzel was such a hit that plans are underway for a weekend schnitzel bar at the cafe in Currituck.
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