VICTORIOUS PACKERS' BRATWURST “HOT TUB”

(page 341)

No doubt that the Greenbay Packers are indebted to the Weber for bringing on victory in Superbowl 45. The win must absolutely be attributed to the Hot Tub Bratwurst!

Let me start with the negatives, so we can dwell on the positives. First a 22” Weber is of insufficient size to adequately address this recipe if one is cooking for more than 3-4 people—even then it still might be too small, for grilling over indirect heat, and having a “Hot Tub” also on the grill is very difficult, while trying to avoid the tub boiling or the coals going out…. Second, it is strongly suggested to use only one type of brat so you can get even cooking accomplished. If you use different varieties of brats at the same time, they all have different cook times, browning times, amount of grease released, etc. It unnecessarily complicates things even if serving a variety and having different choices available is a goal. Also, focus on proper bratwurst rolls. We searched high and low, trying to avoid standard Wonderbread hotdog rolls, and found some organic vegan buns from Whole Foods. Quite frankly, pun intended, and universally decided amongst our family and guests, the rolls were terrible. I’d rather not have a roll… Now, on to the good stuff….

We sought out several sources for our Brats, from our once weekly neighborhood farmers’ market where a guy who makes his own comes every week, to the Heidelberg Bakery and Deli in Arlington, to Whole Foods. Result was we had Stachowski Brand Wisconsin Style Fresh Bratwurt, Binkert’s (standard combo of pork & beef) Brats, Binkert’s Weisswurst (veal brats), and some Trader Joe’s Hofbrau Brats.

I fired up the grill and over direct heat cooked the (salted, peppered and butter-brushed) onions and red and yellow peppers. Tossed the cooked veggies into the tub and added Leinenkugels’ Sunset Wheat Beer, enough to cover them. As the brats were browned (combo direct and indirect heat per Steve’s method), I tossed them into the tub, too, adding beer to ensure that everything was properly soaking in the brew and that it was not boiling. (Again, the “not boiling” was hard to do, both at this point and also during the approximately 2 hours of soaking/smoking time.) I used water soaked applewood chips with the charcoal to increase the smoky flavor as well as to dampen the coals.

First, start your meal with great appetizers: fabulous goat cheese, stupendous brie, spiced shrimp, and a Packer logo veggie platter (see photo). That’ll get your mouth watering and the beer flowing and turn all of your guests into Packer fans.

Next, we served the brats right out of the tub, grabbing some of the onions and peppers to cover each brat. Appropriate hot or sweet mustard—whatever your fancy—finished off the outstanding flavors exploding in your mouth. Now add a neighbor’s yummy coleslaw as well as some absolutely outstanding warm German potato salad that Julie and Mary made, and voila, you have a SUPERBOWL championship meal, worthy of any good Packers’ fan. The potato salad involved 5 pounds of red potatoes (peeled by Grammy), 5 stalks of celery, onions, ¾ lb. bacon, apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, flour spices, etc. Uummm good. Leinenkugels’, Stella Artois, Spaaten, and some St. Pauli’s washed everything down. Yeeehaaa! Final score, Brats 31, Pittsburgh who cares.

I almost forgot the mandatory cheesehead centerpiece on the table. And, last but not least by any means, Tracy easily and wonderfully satisfied our game ending sweet tooth with fabulous cupcake sized “individual” raspberry swirl cheesecakes.

The Pack is Back! And so are Hot Tub Brats!