The Austrian Bosna

Rules stink, and sometimes following your own rules stinks the worst of all. Today is the last day of December, and we haven’t covered the Austrian Bosna yet, a Salzburg street snack consisting of a sausage originally called Nadanitza, ketchup, mustard, onions, and curry powder, wrapped up in a grilled white bun. So unfortunately since it’s the last of our December sandwiches from The List, I have to rush to get this post done, and can’t spend a week eating these. And it is unfortunate, ’cause the one I just finished was delicious.

First off, a word on ketchup. Hate it. I will tolerate ketchup on a burger, but I don’t ever use it on anything else. I don’t use it on fries or eggs or sausages or any of the other things people use ketchup for (and I sure as hell never put ketchup on a hot dog!) Since this is the case, I figured I might as well make my own ketchup and try to make it something I like. I started with this recipe on epicurious, usually a reliable source. I cut about half the sugar out of it and adjusted the spices and still ended up with something too sweet. It had a nice kick though and wasn’t terribly reminiscent of the things I don’t like about ketchup, apart from being a touch too sweet.

Obviously, since Bosna is both the name for the sandwich and the sausage in the sandwich, and since I was unlikely to find a source for Bosna 4500 miles from Salzburg, I would need to make my own sausage as well. Bosna is supposed to be similar to bratwurst but more citrusy and with marjoram, so I started with the bratwurst recipe from the Ruhlman/Polcyn book Charcuterie: the Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (and if you don’t own a copy, why not? the recipe is on page 121) and modified it to use the appropriate flavors. Here is the recipe I used, which is different enough from the book that I hope it’s alright for me to post it here. I’m sure I’ll hear about it if not.

• 4 lbs of the fat cap side of a pork butt
• 1 lb veal
• 3 tbsp kosher salt, erring toward the scant side
• 2 tsp white pepper
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp marjoram
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream

I won’t go through the entire process exhaustively, but essentially I dice the meat into 1/2-3/4″ cubes and combine it with the spices a day ahead of time, leaving it in the refrigerator overnight. That mixture gets spread out onto a cookie sheet and frozen for about an hour until it’s nice and firm but not frozen solid. That way, you get a nice clean grind (through the small die) like this:

Then the ground meat gets combined with the eggs and heavy cream and mixed to create a tacky sausage texture before being stuffed into hog casings.

For the sandwich, I was going to use the Turano French Rolls that are a standard at Italian Beef joints (and even at Christkindlmarket–where, incidentally, you can also get a currywurst that is kissing cousins with the Bosna but not close enough for this post) and a spicy brown mustard, but I wasn’t sure I even had curry powder. I live quite near an Indian market where I shop regularly; I cook a variety of curries and I have bins full of whole spices in the pantry that I use for them. If I’m reading a curry recipe and I see the words “curry powder” I immediately lose interest and move on. But though I dug through the pantry and found a tin of curry powder, a quick sniff told me it was well past its prime. So I read the ingredient list and realized I had every one of those spices in my pantry bins. I used the following, toasting each whole spice and grinding it in a mill.

• Cumin
• Turmeric (powdered)
• Coriander
• Black Peppercorn
• Fenugreek seeds
• Kashmiri chili (powdered)
• Ginger (powdered)
• Celery seeds
• Cardamom

I combined the spices and smelled–it was cumin/turmeric heavy, and needed more coriander and cardamom, so I added more of those and voila!

I spread a little butter on a Turano roll and toasted it in the new panini press I got for Christmas from my stepdad.

I’m still learning to use the thing without setting my face on fire, so I did get the bread a bit on the dark and crisp side, but it still looks similar to the toasted bread I’ve seen in Bosna photos online.

I cooked the sausage using the steam & pan fry method, using a little water in the griddle and covering it until cooked through, then letting the water boil off and browning the outside

Then I dressed it with my homemade ketchup, spicy brown mustard, my homemade curry powder, and some diced onions I’d browned in a pan. The result:

The sausage is delicious; occasionally you’ll bite into a bitter piece of lemon zest that didn’t get minced quite small enough but overall the impression is similar to that of a bratwurst, with the similar white pepper and nutmeg notes but also more citrusy flavors lent by the lemon zest and coriander, with just a delicate hint of the marjoram. Though as I mentioned I am not a fan of ketchup, the more restrained sweetness of mine nicely brought out the curry powder’s aromatics, and of course spicy brown mustard and grilled onions are as fine a sausage topping as exists. The roll was toasted a bit too crisp, but I can correct that with the next one I make.

Which, unfortunately, you won’t get to read about, since I’m on a deadline. Thanks for reading the site, and I hope you’ve enjoyed what we’ve done in our first few months. We’ve got some great sandwiches we’ll be covering in 2015 so please stick with us. Happy New Year!