Göttinger Feldkieker

Appearance & taste

The Feldkieker is a coarse-grained, sliceable raw sausage. Depending on its degree of ripeness, it is a strong reddish colour. It is typically filled into bladder-shaped casings, stretched or compressed, so its diameter changes along the sausage. This sets it apart from the Göttinger Stracke with its constant calibre, which leads to a different ripening and a different taste.

The sausage is particularly dry: it has lost at least 35 % of its weight during drying. It does not taste sour but meaty and aromatic, seasoned with pepper, coriander, nutmeg and garlic.

Production

At least 65 % of the meat comes from older animals, sows and heavy barrows fed for longer, which are at least one year old and have a carcass weight of 150 kg. According to the specification, this meat is firmer and more solid; thanks to the quality of its fat, the sausage does not turn rancid during ripening. Younger pork may make up at most 30 to 35 %. The prime cuts are used fresh from slaughter: shoulder, ham and belly.

The meat is minced in a mincer and gently mixed with the spices, rum where applicable, a little sugar, starter cultures with yeasts and nitrite curing salt, and where applicable also table salt and saltpetre. The sausage meat is filled without air pockets into casings with a calibre of 70 to 105 mm and air-dried. The entire production takes place in Göttingen.

Origin & history

According to the specification, Göttingen and its surroundings are traditionally known for their skill in making meat products. The “Göttinger Blasenwurst” has been documented since the 18th century, among other things by a list of shipments of Göttingen bladder sausages from October 1793 to September 1794.

Businesses in the city have been making Göttinger Feldkieker on a larger scale since the 1960s. In a survey in 2005, 58 % of respondents knew it; most associated it with a Mettwurst and named its bladder-shaped form and its hearty taste as its special features.