Hardly any other food is associated with rituals and taboos as much as the Munich weisswurst. It begins with purchasing: Although other types of German sausages are bought in pairs, this is not the case with weisswursts. Anyone at the butcher’s who orders “two pairs of weisswursts” instead of “four weisswursts” demonstrates that he is not only not from Munich, but also not even from Bavaria.

Munich weisswurst is eaten before the church bells strike 12 noon – or else you’ve just outed yourself as a Prussian or a foreigner. This “commandment” comes from the time of its creation, which, befitting a national symbol, is precisely documented: The weisswurst was invented by the butcher Sepp Moser at the “Zum Ewigen Licht” inn located at Marienplatz in Munich on 22^nd February 1857. His pale creation made of minced veal, pork bacon, veal foot, rind, onions, parsley, lemon peel, clove powder, nutmeg and pepper was sold raw.

And because no preservatives were in use at that time, sausages were hard to keep and thus had to be eaten quickly – before 12 o’clock.

Weisswurst is neither fried, grilled, boiled nor deep-fried – it gets slowly plump in hot water, but bursts if brought to a full boil.

It’s also not proper form to eat weisswurst with potato salad, sauerkraut or ketchup, and if you ask for it the person serving you may say: “Not here you don’t, we’re not Prussians.” Weisswurst is eaten as a late breakfast or pre-lunch snack along with a bread roll or a pretzel and sweet mustard – nothing else. Expect for a litre of beer of course. White beer (wheat beer) preferably.