Tommy Thompson's "Bratwurst of Liberty"

Look what I found on the White House website: Tommy Thompson's Bratwurst of Liberty...

Secretary Thompson's "Bratwurst of Liberty"

 

A Wisconsin tradition for the 4th of July .... Bratwurst!

Step 1: Plan ahead, marinate in garlic, onions and your favorite spices.
Step 2: Grill them on the BBQ
Step 3: Place in a bun
Step 4: Top with your favorite condiments, from onions to peppers to mustard to whatever.
Step 5: Enjoy!
Step 6: Repeat til the fireworks start

Side dishes:
Corn on the cob, also on the grill
Watermelon

Beverages:
Cool Wisconsin products, such as .... milk.

The idea of a milk mustache in the context of Tommy Thompson's bratwurst is deeply disconcerting. Definitely not kosher.

 

Comments

[aeroman]

The idea of a milk mustache in the context of Tommy Thompson's bratwurst is deeply disconcerting.

It brings new dimension to the phrase "human services".

[dan]

That's the lamest excuse for a recipe I've ever seen. Step one: buy some bratwursts. Step 2: flavor them, if you feel like it. I dunno, onions or whatever. Step 3: Cook. Reminds me of the old Far Side cartoon in which an equation falls apart at step two, "A miracle occurs." If you want to offer corn-pone testaments to your humility and folksiness, at least pretend that you've cooked a brat in your life. Ridiculous.

If I ever run for political office, my first national ad buy will be a two minute long, extremely detailed explanation of how I make my chili. Voters instinctively trust people with profound, detailed and longstanding commitments to their chili recipes.

[joejoejoe]

I'm not sure how Greg Mankiw's "Fourth of July Coq Au Vin" made the menu at a time when Congress still had a ban on French Fries. Save it for Bastille Day, you barbequofascist.

[Cass]

Thompson leaves out the best part: a generous side helping of "liberty cabbage". Really though, this is pretty lame. Wait 'til I show you my secret family recipe for "Fried Eggs In A Pan."

[B-Money]

Oh Tommy. What are you doing? What kind of Brat recipe is that? Being a Cheeshead by birth, I am disgraced by this poor and simplistic recipe for cooking a great WI and tailgaiting staple like bratwursts. Real brats, as any legit tailgaiter knows, are made with BEER! Jeez!

Seriuosly though, the brats aside, this guy has no chance at ever being more than a party wonk at the national level. Unless Herb Kohl retires and does not run next term. TT could make a run at Sen. in WI. But he is a WI guy who plays well there, as the article points out. He is just wasting time and money with the farce of a run at the White House.

[kaleidescope]

Real brats. Having grown up in southeastern Wisconsin and having fond memories of polkaing with my grandma at the Sheboygan Brat Festival, I have some relevant experience.

The best bratwurst are almost identical to Italian sausage, except without the Italian spices, such as fennel. I actually prefer the Italian spices so, when I'm grilling brats, I usually buy hot Italian sausages for myself.

Getting them at a local butcher shop that makes its own sausage is usually the best way to go. These places usually slaughter locally raised animals that haven't spent time in giant feedlots being fed overdoses of antibiotics.

Beer has nothing to do with brats except that a lot of people in Wisconsin drink a lot of beer while eating bratwurst. Indeed, for many people, bratwurst are just another excuse to drink beer.

The classic way to prepare bratwurst -- as eaten along the shores of Lake Michigan north of Milwaukee -- is to grill it naked (no beer, no marinate) over charcoal so you get the flavor of the fat that volitilizes off the coals. This contains high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are very potent carcinogens, but, hey, bratwurst aren't exactly health food anyway.

When the brats are done, you cut them in half lengthwise, so you have two curved half round strips of meat. You lay these side-by-side flat on a Zemmo Roll, which is like a Kaiser Roll. You can then put whatever condiments you want on them, I prefer raw onion, fresh hungarian banana peppers, mustard and ketchup. Some people like kraut on their brats, but not me.

The silly hype you hear about beer-soaked brats at County Stadium (I mean Miller Park) is just that, packaged ersatz schmaltz for those Milwaukeeans who are not as integrated into Wisconsin culture as those of us who grew up in places where there were radio stations that played nothing but yodelling, polka and um pah music. The brats at County Stadium are to real bratwurst what Miller Beer is to beer.

And for the true hard core eastern Wisconsinite (which Tommy Thompson, who is from the Uf Dah land of Sparta), brats are passe.

Blood sausage is where it's at.

[B-Money]

-Beer has nothing to do with brats except that a lot of people in Wisconsin drink a lot of beer while eating bratwurst. Indeed, for many people, bratwurst are just another excuse to drink beer.-

This is just plain false! Having been born and raised in Milwaukee, WI, and with 4 generations of my family from either SE WI or the UP of Michigan, brats have been a family tradition for YEARS!! And we ALWAYS yuse beer to cook our brats. As do THOUSANDS of others. I just went to Opening Day at Miller Park 3 weeks ago and tailgated. ALL of the people around us had boiled their brats in beer to pre-cook them before grilling. When I go to Packer games at Lambeau, which I do at least 3 times a year, we also tailgate and there is always brat talk with the others around us and beer is used in preparation extensively! So while maybe YOU do not use beer in brat prep, but recognize that MANY others do and it is quite good. (By the way, I have been to Brat fest in Sheboygan, and it is a fraud! I have had better brats at Miller Park!)

-And for the true hard core eastern Wisconsinite (which Tommy Thompson, who is from the Uf Dah land of Sparta), brats are passe.-

This is another falsehood. I now live in Chicago, but am still a tried and true Cheesehead who maintains WI roots, and I make my way back to Milwaukee many times a year. In the summer, brats are a staple of any cookout and let's not even dicuss sporting events. I have a lot of family in WI as a whole, and many friends as well, and I can tell you that brats are not "passe".

It appears kaleidescope is out of touch. And the slams on Miwaukeeans seems to smack of a little inferiority complex from an outlander like yourself. While I am from Milwaukee, I have been all over the great state of WI and know all about polkas and yodeling and the staples of the WI culture.

(You do make a solid point however about where to obtain quality bratwurst. Most novices with buy Johnsonvilles, Usinger or Klements. While these are tasty sausages, they are not the grade A quality you can obtain at a local butcher.)

[superdude]

I think the reason for boiling them in beer is that alcohol has a lower boiling point than water. Thus, the liquid inside the brat gets near the boiling point without ever getting hot enough to make the brat burst.

[B-Money]

That very well could be superdude, but I am not thinking about the science when I prep my brats. I do it because it makes the brat juicy and tasty. And you only brown them in the beer. You do not cook them all the way. It is basically a soak in the beer. I generally soak the meat overnight in the beer in the fridge, them I heat them up in the beer for about 30 minutes to an hour. Then its into a baggie and off to the grill!

[herbert browne]

Why not a "kosher" brat & cold white? They grow lots of soybeans back there... ^..^