Usinger's Brats

Does anyone know if/where Usinger's bratwurst can be purchased in the Chicagoland area?

I'm not sure if you want them fresh or cooked but my local Sams Club in Lansing,Il sells them in 5lb packages fresh. In the city I believe Treasure Island sells them pre-cooked but also carries them fresh around summer holidays.

Potash Bros. on Clark(Sandburg Village): smoked and cooked as well as a plethora of other Usinger's products.

Dont know if they have them this second but over the summer I would always grab a few different Varieties of Usingers, including brats at Treasure Island in Lincoln Park. Im sure if you call them they will let you know whether or not they have them in stock.

Trader Joe's on Clybourn has them.

Also, Woodman's carries them as do all the Trader Joe's stores that I have been in.

Yup - Trader Joe's. I buy them regularly.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I e-mailed Usinger's, and they told me that the following stores in the Chicago area should have fresh supplies of their products:

Butera (on Nagle)

Potash Bros.

Treasure Island

No mention of TJ's, but from this list it sounds like they should have 'em.

I ended up going to Butera, who had just about every conceivable Usinger's product except for the bratwurst. Did try their cooked Italian sausage, which wasn't bad.

No visible brats, but I've noticed that the venerable Marketplace on Oakton has begun carrying Usinger's products. I picked up some excellent smoky Canadian bacon yesterday. This is a nice development, as Marketplace has long been a Bobak's-oriented deli (not that that's a bad thing, I just like variety). I've also noticed some new Spanish chorizo's in the deli case.

The owners and managers of Marketplace are very visible and approachable. I'm sure they'd take requests for other deli items from Usinger's.

Best,
Michael

Marketplace on Oakton
4817 W Oakton
Skokie
847-677-9330

Pre-cooked Usinger brats are a totally different product than regular Usinger brats. The pre-cooked are finely ground and more like a veal knackwurst whereas the regular brats are coursely ground. The two brats are not interchnageable in cooking methods either. For a treat when in Milwaukee, go to the factory store on Old World Third Street. Bring a cooler!-Dick

budrichard wrote:Pre-cooked Usinger brats are a totally different product than regular Usinger brats.

Tell me about it. I was pretty disappointed. I think I'm just a coarse-ground kind of guy. Maybe I'm not that into veal in my brats either.

Bratwursts are generally veal sausages in Bavarian. In areas of the midwest were most of the German immigrants were from Bavaria and southern Germany (like southern Indiana and Cincinnati), you will find that most of the "bratwurst" is a white veal sausage that is finely ground.

They are two completely different products. Personally, I prefer the veal sausages ... if they are prepared well.

Usinger regular brats must be precooked, usually in beer with onions, then grill until hot and nicely marked. Pre-cooked are just grilled. Both are great depending on your tastes and needs.-Dick

budrichard wrote:Usinger regular brats must be precooked, usually in beer with onions, then grill until hot and nicely marked.

Dick,

I cook fresh (raw) brats one of a few ways, depending on the crowd. For just myself, wife and a few friends, I slow grill on a very low fire or sear/grill mark over the hot side of a two stage fire then finish off on the indirect side.

Brats on a two stage fire


For a crowd I pre cook in the traditional Wisconsin combo of beer, onion and hot sauce then finish on a grill.

Occasionally I toss a few fresh (raw) brats on a smoker, usually as cooks lunch during a longer smoking session.

Enjoy,
Gary

Sams Club carries them..Usinger used to have a store right here in Roselle then it moved to Westmont..dont know if its still there

Usinger's to the best of my knowledge has only had one store and that is at the factory in Milwaukee.-Dick

jlawrence01 wrote:Bratwursts are generally veal sausages in Bavarian. In areas of the midwest were most of the German immigrants were from Bavaria and southern Germany (like southern Indiana and Cincinnati), you will find that most of the "bratwurst" is a white veal sausage that is finely ground.

They are two completely different products. Personally, I prefer the veal sausages ... if they are prepared well.

Having grown up a stone's throw from Sheboygan, Wisconsin (the Bratwurst Capital of America), where many/most of the locals are of German descent, I can safely say that we always used "bratwurst" to refer to the coarser ground sausage made primarily from pork. The fine ground, white, precooked sausages were invariably called "veal brats", or even just called "Usingers". I like them both, but much prefer the regular brats, like Johnsonville makes.

Please read my post. Germans from the southern end of Germany make the brats of veal. Germans from the north tend to use pork.

jlawrence01 wrote:Please read my post. Germans from the southern end of Germany make the brats of veal. Germans from the north tend to use pork.

Are you perhaps referring to weisswurst?

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1093683,00.html

YoYoPedro wrote:Having grown up a stone's throw from Sheboygan, Wisconsin (the Bratwurst Capital of America), where many/most of the locals are of German descent, I can safely say that we always used "bratwurst" to refer to the coarser ground sausage made primarily from pork. The fine ground, white, precooked sausages were invariably called "veal brats", or even just called "Usingers". I like them both, but much prefer the regular brats, like Johnsonville makes.

YoYo,

Possibly I am reading this wrong, but you seem to imply Usinger's does not offer a fresh (raw) all pork brat. I believe that to be incorrect as evidenced by Item # 2157 on the Usinger's web site.

Item 2157: Fresh Bratwurst (pork, approx. 4-5 links to lb., NC, also available in a 6 lb. CW carton)

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

YoYoPedro wrote:Having grown up a stone's throw from Sheboygan, Wisconsin (the Bratwurst Capital of America), where many/most of the locals are of German descent, I can safely say that we always used "bratwurst" to refer to the coarser ground sausage made primarily from pork. The fine ground, white, precooked sausages were invariably called "veal brats", or even just called "Usingers". I like them both, but much prefer the regular brats, like Johnsonville makes.

YoYo,

Possibly I am reading this wrong, but you seem to imply Usinger's does not offer a fresh (raw) all pork brat. I believe that to be incorrect as evidenced by Item # 2157 on the Usinger's web site.

Item 2157: Fresh Bratwurst (pork, approx. 4-5 links to lb., NC, also available in a 6 lb. CW carton)

Enjoy,
Gary

I didn't mean to imply that, I apologize if you inferred that from my post. All that I was saying is that in and around the land of bratwurst in America, we (the local folk, primarily people of German descent) used the term "bratwurst" to refer to relatively coarse-ground, fresh (raw) sausages made primarily of pork, although occasionally other meats were incorporated, albeit on a much smaller percentage scale. When someone would serve the precooked, pale-grey, nearly white, finely-ground sausages made primarily of veal, such as the ones that earlier posters mentioned, we referred to them as "veal brats", or sometimes just called them "Usingers" in much the same way someone would use the term "Kleenex" to refer to a tissue, or "Merkt's" to refer to cheese spread. E.g., at a cookout in someone's backyard, if both types were available (which was relatively uncommon, as the fresh pork brat was the norm), the host might ask you, "Hey, George, what'll you have? Do you want a brat or a Usingers?"

YoYoPedro wrote:

G Wiv wrote:

YoYoPedro wrote:Having grown up a stone's throw from Sheboygan, Wisconsin (the Bratwurst Capital of America), where many/most of the locals are of German descent, I can safely say that we always used "bratwurst" to refer to the coarser ground sausage made primarily from pork. The fine ground, white, precooked sausages were invariably called "veal brats", or even just called "Usingers". I like them both, but much prefer the regular brats, like Johnsonville makes.

YoYo,

Possibly I am reading this wrong, but you seem to imply Usinger's does not offer a fresh (raw) all pork brat. I believe that to be incorrect as evidenced by Item # 2157 on the Usinger's web site.

Item 2157: Fresh Bratwurst (pork, approx. 4-5 links to lb., NC, also available in a 6 lb. CW carton)

Enjoy,
Gary

I didn't mean to imply that, I apologize if you inferred that from my post. All that I was saying is that in and around the land of bratwurst in America, we (the local folk, primarily people of German descent) used the term "bratwurst" to refer to relatively coarse-ground, fresh (raw) sausages made primarily of pork, although occasionally other meats were incorporated, albeit on a much smaller percentage scale. When someone would serve the precooked, pale-grey, nearly white, finely-ground sausages made primarily of veal, such as the ones that earlier posters mentioned, we referred to them as "veal brats", or sometimes just called them "Usingers" in much the same way someone would use the term "Kleenex" to refer to a tissue, or "Merkt's" to refer to cheese spread. E.g., at a cookout in someone's backyard, if both types were available (which was relatively uncommon, as the fresh pork brat was the norm), the host might ask you, "Hey, George, what'll you have? Do you want a brat or a Usingers?"

At the recently held Stuffed Sausage Symposium, this distinction was discussed by a couple of noted authorities in the field who said that the variation in brat types was a regionally-based one (as jlawrence01 posted above), which originally developed in Germany and was brought over to the U.S. by immigrants who continued to produce the specific types of brats with which they were already familiar, once they arrived here.

How this has subsequently played out in various geographical areas here, seems like an interesting point of focus.

=R=

So can you get fresh veal brats anywhere?

T Comp wrote:So can you get fresh veal brats anywhere?

How about here?

http://www.cheesensausage.com/vealbratwurst.html

Lincoln Quality Meat Market has them as well, or at least I bought some veal brats there recently that were not pre-cooked.


Lincoln Quality Meat Market
4661 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
773.561.4570
http://www.lincolnqualitymeatmarket.com/

If you can get out that way, Randy Ream's Elburn Market, in the middle of downtown Elburn on Route 47, has the best Brats you have ever tried. The walls of his small market are completely covered with awards and trophies from various processed-meats symposiums.

He also makes garlic brats and wieners, cheddar brats, and every kind of sausage you can imagine. Also a top-quality selection of all kinds of meats and prepared items.

a good destination for a Saturday fall-color tour (closed Sunday.)
Take a BIG cooler.

Mike

MikeLM wrote:If you can get out that way, Randy Ream's Elburn Market
... (closed Sunday.)

Actually, I was just at Ream's last Sunday, and can report that they were open. Their website indicates that the Sunday hours are 11-4 as of last March.

It was my first trip, but I agree, the brats were great. However, I don't think they were veal; they are definitely coarse ground and the perfect counter to my disappointment with the mass-packaged Usinger brats, which weren't to my taste.