Let’s Try “Rindtsworscht”!

ATTENTION! Important announcement — this is a yantzied post!

Yes, look — this is a product from The Little Country Meat Shop in Winkler of all places! Check it out:

However, I have a confession to make. I know about this because of a ditzied business, MJ’s Kafe. On MJ’s social media, owner Bryan talked about this Rindtsworscht that his establishment now carries, so Andrew and I were very curious and went over and bought some for ourselves.

I’ve never heard of Rindtsworscht before. I liked how instead of using an intestinal casing, it uses a little cloth bag wound with string, sealed with wax. I’m not sure if you can see it in the photo.

Okay so this was an unusual undertaking for me. I hauled out the kitchen shears to open the parcel.

Then I kinda just ripped the little cloth bag, and ta-da! There’s the Rindtsworscht. What is it, though?

I’m spelling it here the way it’s spelled on the actual product itself, but when I google it spelled this way, the only thing hit I get is from MJ’s Kafe & Kornerstore! So I googled The Little Country Meat Shop, and find they spell it differently on their website: Rindswurst. Okay so I googled this, and Wikipedia tells me it’s a Frankfurt beef sausage. Well, the one you buy from Winkler has beef and pork in it… and it’s quite delicious!

So, even though the name made me think this might be some kind of ethnic Mennonite food… it’s not. It was initially created in 1894 as a beef sausage for Frankfurt’s growing Jewish population. So, I suppose the addition of pork is really not true to the original recipe. Although I feel like perhaps this sausage’s history grew and changed as other people groups moved through Germany and perhaps this is how it ended up being made in Winkler, with pork in it. (I feel like by guesstimating all this I may make some folks a little miffed if this is not aligning with their familiar narrative. Hey, that’s fine! I’ll entertain your sausage-related indignation. Let’s go!)

Anyway, I figured this Rindtsworscht might need a little something, so I went to Main Bread & Butter and picked up some Lowensenf, a Bavarian mustard. I think “Lowensenf” translates to Loewen Mustard, or maybe Lion Mustard. Okay all I really know is I first learned about senf when Andrew and I visited Bavaria a long time ago. It’s sweet and a little spicy — a very tasty mustard!

And then I plated it with Bothwell Cheese. All we’re missing is the pickles! (An embarrassing oversight, to be perfectly honest.)

Andrew ate about all of this himself, I just had one piece, so I think this was a real hit. It’s fun to try a new treat from yantzied!