Wacky Wednesday #6: The Wursts, Part 2

I never did manage to post about the 2nd day of processing the beef in my parents basement..... and since I know that all 3 of my followers have been dying to see a picture of a cow's tongue, here it is.

My dad.  Holding a cooked cow's tongue.

The meat cooking on the stovetop in the basement.

Day 2 of processing the cow is all about making the Rinderwurst.  Never heard of it?  Well, you're not alone.   A quick google search shows that it's not real popular among the recipe networking sites of the day.  I found numerous sites where people remember the German dish from their childhood, but can't seem to find a recipe for it.  So, you've got the inside scoop here.  :)

I am by far NOT an expert.  I showed up after being absent for more than a decade, played upstairs with the kids, and came downstairs every once in a while to take some photos and get the down low on what was going on.

The process started early in the morning with the 'leftover' meat from the day before cooking on the stovetop in those big pots (shown above).  The meat cooks for 5 hours-ish and then the extended family shows up to work on making the wurst.

Everyone gets a pan with cooked meat in it.  The job is to then pick apart the good meat from the yucky stuff (fat, etc).  I do have memories of participating in this in high school.  The rule is that if you don't want it in your rinderwurst, don't put it in the 'good' pile.

Family folk picking apart the meat.

What you're left with is these bowls full of the good stuff.

Then the good meat is put through the grinder.... along with things like the kidneys.  (By the way, Marty and my friend Megan who came for a visit, did taste the kidneys.  Really.)

Then you have big tubs of cooked meat that look like this.

Then a whole bunch of oatmeal gets cooked in these giant pots.

Uncle Ron & my mom making the oatmeal.  Lots of oatmeal.

And now it is ready to be mixed up with the giant wooden paddles.

I guess I may have missed one important detail.  What exactly is in Rinderwurst you may ask?  It is the aforementioned cooked meat which is then ground up with onion.  Cooked oatmeal is then added, as well as the spices (allspice, salt & pepper).  Like most recipes that have been around for many generations, there aren't any exact measurements.

The finished product!  (Along with some BV - the Iowa drink of choice).

 What do you do with it now?  When it is fresh we eat it spread on crackers.  The rest of it is packaged into roughly one pound packages and is cooked up and served for breakfast (think sausage.... like as a side with pancakes & eggs).

Megan trying the Rinderwurst.  Marty was done trying things and didn't give this one a try.