Usinger's - Milwaukee

Usinger's Sausage Factory in downtown Milwaukee is unlike any neighborhood butcher or meat shop you'll find across the Midwest.  It truly is a meat packer that happens to sell their goods in a butcher-style shop.

Usinger's has a rich history in Milwaukee.  Frederick Usinger, a German immigrant who was a sausage maker in Frankfurt, Germany, began to work in a small butcher shop on 3rd St. in Milwaukee.  Within a year, Fred bought the butcher shop, married the niece of the butcher shop owner and began to make his own sausages that many saloon and restaurant owners used in their establishments. 

Fred Usinger

Usinger's secret sausage recipe was by far the best in Milwaukee.  His business grew so much that he was shipping his sausages as far away as New York City.  In fact, the original sausage recipe hasn't changed since 1880, and now the 4th generation of the Usinger family is running the company.

Usinger's is in the Old World Third Street area of downtown Milwaukee - a historic German district that is the home to such fine places as Mader's Restaurant, Buck Bradley's Saloon and The Spice House. Usinger's building is the biggest on the street and it is very tough to miss. 

The sausage shop at Usinger's is the exact same as it was when it opened in the early 1900's.  Spacious and ornate, the market has meat counters on three sides filled with their packaged sausages, brats, hams, smoked pork chops and other items the company makes.  Ladies man the counters and take your order.  Many times you have to take a number to be waited on, it's that busy.

I especially like Usinger's Summer Beef Sausage, their Garlic Summer Sausage and their Thueringer Summer Sausage.  They also make great brats - including an onion bratwurst and a spicy cajun bratwurst.  They also have bologna, olive loafs and real German headcheese (eeyew!).

One other thing that I like to get at Usinger's are their all-beef hot dogs and their bacon - both hickory and apple wood smoked.  A lot of times, they have bacon available on their "seconds" table - it's usually end cuts, or cut too thick (nothing wrong with that) or cut in weird shapes.  They're about $1.99 a pound and if you don't care that your bacon is not in perfect strips, they're a great bargain.

And Usinger's makes great andouille sausage, too.  I use it when I make cajun food around the house (and that's going to happen this week).  And their spicy Italian sausage has been part of many spaghetti meals I've made, as well. 

Usinger's mascot is Fritzie the Elf.  Elves are important to German lore as they were said to finish the work of laborers at night.  Fred Usinger felt the tradition of elves in Germany had to be part of the Usinger Sausage Factory.  As Usinger's grew, more elves became part of the story of the business.  And in the sausage shop, a mural painted in 1906 depicts a number of elves making sausage in the factory at night. 

Usinger's is a must stop every time I go to Milwaukee.  Don't forget to bring a good sized cooler.  I always fill ours each time I visit. 

Comments

[Janet Mahlan-Murray]

My parents used to buy white bratwurst. Do you still make them?