Dürre
Also known as Duerre, Dürre im Kranz, Rauchdürre, Braunschweiger im Kranz
Vienna and Austria, Austria
Overview
Dürre is an Austrian cured, smoked and cooked sausage made in ring and straight forms. The Austrian Food Codex places Dürre im Kranz among Brätwürste and Dürre in Stangen among Fleischwürste, with several quality classes and double-smoked variants. Its rustic garlic and marjoram profile and substantial texture make it a familiar Jause sausage rather than the liver sausage meant by Braunschweiger in much American usage.
Where it's from
The cut
Identity and terminology
Dürre literally evokes dryness or drought, but the product is a scalded sausage rather than a fully dry salami. The name overlaps with Austrian Braunschweiger in ring or straight form, and the Austrian Codex treats some formulas together. Rauchdürre signals a smoked form. These Austrian meanings are not the German Braunschweiger mettwurst, nor the US Braunschweiger liver sausage. The raw materials and the process differ.
Composition and characteristics
Codex forms combine beef and/or pork, bacon, salted connective-tissue trim, water and potato starch in proportions determined by class. The ring Brätwurst has a fine bound component with visible meat and fat; straight Fleischwurst forms are coarser and may include pork head meat. Garlic, pepper and marjoram are traditional, while caraway, mustard seed or paprika appear in modern seasoning variants.
Production and process
A fine base is made from collagen-rich lean trim, ice water, salt, curing salt and starch. Coarser shoulder and back fat are then folded in, and the mixture is stuffed into a pork casing as a ring or straight chub. After refrigerated curing and surface drying, it is smoked and heat-treated to a measured centre temperature, showered and chilled. Double-smoked commercial forms require a controlled establishment process rather than improvised prolonged warm holding.
History and regional forms
The Austrian Traditional Foods register traces written recipes for Wiener Dürre and Braunschweiger to butcher literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the sausage documented before the First World War. Vienna is the strongest historical association, although the product is made across Austria. The register records tradition and knowledge; it does not create an EU geographical indication.
Use, storage and related products
Dürre is eaten cold as part of a Jause, sliced with bread, mustard, pickles and cheese, or served with roast potatoes and potato goulash. It is related to Burenwurst, Jausenwurst and Austrian Braunschweiger through shared Codex structures. The cooked sausage remains perishable and refrigerated. A maker outside the Austrian Codex system may describe an informed home adaptation but should not imply official conformity.
Recipe and cure
This is not a finished recipe. It is a window into how this meat is traditionally cured. Before you follow any process, run it through one of our curing calculators so the salt, cure and timings are right and safe for your own batch.
Make this — the measured Curesmith version →“Make this” opens the same cure as a measured recipe, scaled to your batch.
- Meat
- Lean pork shoulder
- Cut
- Lean pork shoulder
- Salt (%)
- 2.2
- Curing salt
- Cure #1 as specified in the recipe
- Fermented
- No
- Starter or mould
- None; this product is not fermented
- Smoked
- Yes
- Maturation
- Refrigerate at 0–4°C; use within 4 days after opening or freeze promptly
- Basis
- per 1,000 g lean pork shoulder
- Style
- cured, smoked and scalded Austrian Brätwurst
Ingredients
- Lean pork shoulder100% · 1000 g
- Pork back fat70% · 700 g
- Pork shank trim, finely denuded but collagen-rich55% · 550 g
- Ice water21.6% · 486.5 g
- Fine salt2.2% · 48.5 g
- Cure #1, 6.25% sodium nitrite0.24% · 5.5 g
- Potato starch2.4% · 54 g
- Black pepper0.24% · 5.5 g
- Dried marjoram0.12% · 2.5 g
- Fresh garlic, crushed0.36% · 8 g
Method
- Trim, weigh and chill all meat, fat and equipment to 0–2°C.
- Grind shoulder and back fat through 5 mm; grind shank trim through 3 mm and fine-process with ice water and starch.
- Mix lean meat with salt, Cure #1 and liquid until tacky, then incorporate the remaining meat, fat and seasonings.
- Stuff into 38–42 mm pork casing formed as a ring, remove air pockets and refrigerate 8–12 hours.
- Blend the fine shank-trim base with the coarser shoulder and back fat so the cut face retains visible particles.
- Dry, then smoke at 55–60°C for 90–120 minutes before completing the cook.
Safety. Dürre is cooked, not a shelf-stable dry sausage. Use a meat-block cure calculation, measured cold-point cook, rapid cooling and refrigeration.