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Currywurst is Berlin's street food with a precise birthday: Herta Heuwer, a snack stand operator in the Charlottenburg district, created the sauce on September 4, 1949, by mixing ketchup with Worcestershire sauce and curry powder — she had obtained the spices from British soldiers. The dish is simple: a steamed or grilled pork sausage (either with or without skin, a distinction Berliners feel strongly about) sliced into coins, drenched in Heuwer's Chillup sauce, dusted with additional curry powder, and eaten standing at a Imbiss counter with a small plastic fork or wooden toothpick. Berlin alone consumes roughly 70 million currywurst annually, and the dish has a dedicated museum in the city. Outside Berlin, the sausage is firmer and the sauce more ketchup-forward; in Berlin, the sauce is thicker and the curry more present.
If using store-bought Bratwurst, cook them according to package instructions. They can be grilled, pan-fried, or baked until fully cooked and browned.
In a saucepan, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat.
Add the finely chopped onion and cook until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the minced garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
Add the ketchup, tomato paste, and apple cider vinegar to the saucepan. Stir to combine.
Add the curry powder, paprika, sugar, ground cumin, and ground coriander. Stir well.
Simmer the sauce over low heat for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper to taste.
Slice the cooked sausages into bite-sized pieces or keep them whole.
Pour the Curry Ketchup Sauce over the sausages or serve it on the side for dipping.
Optionally, garnish with additional curry powder or chopped fresh parsley.
Sliced pork sausage in ketchup-curry sauce; Berlin's iconic post-war street food; eaten standing at an Imbiss counter with a small plastic fork or wooden toothpick. The dish is disarmingly simple but its sauce — originally created by Herta Heuwer in 1949 — is the centerpiece.
Berlin, 1949. Herta Heuwer, a snack stand operator in Charlottenburg, invented the sauce using British-supplied curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup. The sauce is so closely tied to Berlin's identity that the city has a Currywurst Museum dedicated to it.
Pork sausage (Bratwurst-style, with or without skin), ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, curry powder. The distinction between skin-on and skin-off is debated seriously in Berlin — choose your side.
The sauce should be warm. Use a generous amount of curry powder dusted on top after the sauce — this two-layer application (sauce below, powder on top) is the authentic finish. Without the curry powder dusting, it's just a hot dog.
Pommes (fries) with mayo; eaten at the counter, not at a table; cold Berliner Pilsner beer. The experience of standing in a crowded Imbiss, eating from a paper container, is as important as the food itself.