World's first peanut butter & jelly bratwurst

Louis Muench Jr., owner of Louie's Finer Meats of Cumberland, Wisconsin, told reporter Ben Jones in a September 6, 2007 Green Bay Press-Gazette story that "I heard of a guy making a peanut-butter-and-jelly brat."

Muench added, "It gets to be a little ridiculous."

He should talk — he makes cranberry-spiked brats as well as a rutabaga-flavored version, along with blueberry and maple syrup-flavored varieties.

Here's the Press-Gazette article.

Peanut butter brats? State makers expand sausage variety

They sure look like regular bratwursts.

But unless you've watched the sausage being made, your first bite may be a big surprise.

Yes, that is rutabaga you taste.

Wisconsin sausagemakers are expanding the definition of their state's favorite sausage. Producers who have ground out the same links for decades are now tinkering with dozens of new brat varieties, using ingredients like pheasant, blueberries, and even rutabaga.

Some grillers love the new sausages and some just cringe, but to many sausagemakers, there's just about no limit to what a bratwurst can be.

"Anything that tastes good in link form and is served on a bun," said Anne Reams, owner of RJ's Meats and Groceries in Hudson. Her business makes a Hawaiian brat with pineapple, cherries and ham.

Wisconsin sausagemakers were not always as experimental.

When Chuck Miesfeld, a third-generation sausagemaker in Sheboygan began "hanging brats" at age 11 in the late 1960s, the family business sold one brat.

That brat contained beef, pork and grandpa Miesfeld's original spice recipe.

Today Miesfeld's Market's biggest seller is the original brat but it also sells about two dozen others, including a mushroom and Swiss brat, a French apricot Dijon brat and a pheasant cordon bleu brat.

Each year it adds three new brats to its list and drops three low sellers.

"We used to have a chili brat and a taco brat … those got wiped out and we put the new ones in. They just didn't go," Miesfeld said. "Some people loved them and you are always going to disappoint someone, but you say 'try out the new ones' and you win them over."

With help from his manager and sausgemakers, Miesfeld continues to invent the next new bratwurst flavors.

"It's fun to let your mind go crazy and develop things," he said. "We are working on a seafood brat. I don't know if that will fly or not, but it's really fun."

Some grillers need convincing.

"I don't like rutabagas," said Walter Moskal of Clear Lake. "I was born during the Great Depression and folks pushed that on me."

Producers admit that not every brat pleases everyone.

"There are definitely flavors where people say 'Oh ish, I couldn't eat that,'" Reams said. "And we say, hey, pork chops and applesauce, just think about it."

But offbeat brats have some big fans.

Craig Rhode, 25, of Superior raves about a cranberry-spiked brat made in his hometown of Cumberland.

"Like a tall blonde giving you a kiss on the lips," Rhode said. "I'm probably going to sound all fruity here, but it's got a meaty taste with a hint of tartness, you know."

Offbeat brat flavors like cranberry are primarily the domain of smaller sausagemakers who sell their links in on-site retail stores.

These small-scale operations can introduce new flavors at a low cost so experimentation is possible.

"The small markets like ourselves are trying to pick up a niche," said Louis Muench Jr., owner of Louie's Finer Meats of Cumberland, which makes the cranberry brats.

Louie's made a rutabaga brat for an annual summer festival in Cumberland that celebrates the root vegetable. It also sells brats flavored with ingredients like blueberries and maple syrup.

But Muench says there are some flavors that just don't work in a brat.

"I heard of a guy making a peanut butter and jelly brat," Muench said. "It gets to be a little ridiculous."

Still, many small brat-makers stick to more traditional ingredients.

Jacob's Meat Market in Appleton produces brats made with beef, pork, veal and turkey.

"We've done a jalapeno cheddar brat," said Luke Jacobs, the market's owner. "That's the most extreme we've gone."

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Feeling peckish?

Louie's Finer Meats is open for business.