Bratwurst

A bratwurst is a fried sausage. Usually eaten with mustard and bread, it is a popular snack in German-speaking countries which is sold at various fast food outlets and often consumed standing upright.

A bratwurst is also part of a traditional dish served at restaurants. It includes a fried sausage, sauerkraut, and potatoes.

In the United States, the term is used to describe such a sausage, regardless of how it is cooked. This is usually a misnomer, as these 'bratwurst' are generally grilled, so that 'grillwurst' would be a more accurate term. Like German bratwurst, the American variety is usually eaten with bread (a hot dog bun, for example) and topped with mustard and many of the other condiments often eaten with hot dogs. Bratwurst, while not strictly a regional cuisine, are strongly identified with Milwaukee, Wisconsin and other areas in a band stretching from the North side of Chicago up through Minnesota. They are popular in the US anywhere that Americans of German descent predominate.

The usual, small bratwursts were invented in Nuremberg.