Vienna Sausage - A Mystery Encased in an Enigma

During a radio broadcast in October 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described the interests and intentions of Soviet Russia as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”  This would be my response if I were asked to describe the meat product we know in this country as Vienna Sausage.  Is it really a sausage, and if so, did it originally come from Vienna?

During my first trip to Europe in 1968, and during my student days in Freiburg a few years later, I began a life-long enjoyment of genuine German sausages.

http://lookingtowardportugal.blogspot.com/2020/12/my-wurst-days-are-often-my-best-days.html

But this was not always the case.  In my younger days “sausage” meant one of two things; what we commonly call “breakfast sausage” (links or patties) and, of course, Vienna Sausage, those little meat tubes packed into a round can with aspic and sold here in North America.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

Let us first consider the sausage indigenous to Vienna, the capital of Austria.  Wiener Wurst, or its diminutive Würstchen or Würstle - is essentially a long, thin sausage traditionally containing pork and beef encased in sheep intestine and then parboiled  and/or smoked at a low temperature.  Today they are also frequently produced using spiced ham in a very light, edible casing produced from collagen and cellulose.  A first impression is that they look very much like what we refer to as a hot dog as they are traditionally served on a bun with condiments.  In fact, this is were we get the term “wiener” as another name for the traditional American hot dog.  

The “wiener” such as we know it today, originated not in Vienna but in Frankfurt, Germany and the very beginning of the 19th century.  Johann Georg Lahner (1772–1845), a son of a Swiss farmer and a butcher trained in Frankfurt, began in 1805 to produce boiled sausages from a mixture of pork and beef.  At first he referred to his combinations as a "Lahner Würstle," but later simply call them “Frankfurter" to commemorate where he learned the art of butchering.  He eventually ended up in Vienna where these sausage quickly became a delicacy which over time became know as Weiner Würstchen, using the diminutive as they were smaller and thinner than other locally produced sausages.  They continue to be sold in Germany as a “Frankfurter” which is yet another term used for the hot dog in this country. 

So how did what we know today as Vienna Sausage in this country come to be?  Is it a sausage originally from Vienna, or is it something more akin to the sausage Lahner produced in Frankfurt before moving to Vienna.  It is a story that remains a mystery within an enigma.  Surely the basic idea arrived in this country with European immigrants.  Perhaps it is only an urban myth, but its origin is frequently attributed to an Archibald K. Wortham who was born in Vienna, Austria and who traveled to this country in the early 20th century.  He worked in a tin-can factory outside Baltimore, and then spent the rest of his life in Vienna, Virginia, outside of Washington, DC.  As early as 1903, "Vienna sausage" came to mean only short smoked and canned wieners.  So I guess the question is . . . are these sausages named after the Vienna in Austria or the town in northern Virginia?   I have been to Vienna many times and I can assure you that I never encountered any concoction closely resembling the small, pasty fingerlings of whatever we call Vienna Sausage.  And what became of Mr. Wortham?  He is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis and his grave is marked by a stone in the shape of a Vienna Sausage.   Every year on July 19, his birthday, fans of the mystery meat leaves empty cans on his grave as a tribute.   

Today Vienna Sausage is produced much like hot dogs.  Meat is finely ground to the consistency of paste to which salt, herbs and spices, and chemical preservatives are added.   The mixture was then stuffed into a thin synthetic casing and then thoroughly cooked, cut to size, and canned in a gelatin similar to aspic.  Eventually the casing was abandoned in the 1950s.  They are ready to eat and can also be used in recipes like any other sausage.  Still there is no mistaking them for other types of sausages.  They are distinct in shape and size..

Consumption of Vienna sausages peaked in this country in the 1970s, but has steadily declined since then.   Still, it is not rare to find cans stocked away in the pantry along with SPAM, deviled ham and various potted meats.  This is not to say that Vienna Sausage was not a favorite snack food when I was young, but we often tend to outgrow such hankerings.  But not always.  Even today as I watch my wife make a Vienna sausage sandwich I know I will be the beneficiary of the two or three she will not need which I then eat right out of the can with a dash of mustard. 

As I write this I am reminded of the TV series Bosch and a scene during which a murder suspect on the lam in an abandoned mountain cabin outside LA looks for something to eat and finds a can of Vienna Sausage.  Trying to open it (this was before the easy to open tin was introduced) he becomes frustrated and throws it across the room, draws a large handgun, and in a fit of rage threatens to shoot it.   But he doesn’t.  He eventually opens the can and fishes the meaty tubes from their gelatinous reservoir with his fingers and eats them with relish.  Such is the love-hate duality they evoke.

I also remember reading a couple years ago about a Louisiana man ending up in jail charged with aggravated second-degree battery as a result of a tussle involving  Vienna Sausage.  A neighbor allegedly approached the man, who was confined to a wheelchair, and asked for one of his sausages.  When he refused, the neighbor allegedly struck the man who then pulled a knife.  The neighbor ended up with a cut on the nose and the man’s bond was set at $25,000.  You can buy a lot of Vienna Sausage with that kind of money.

So now you know the rest of the story.   You are welcome!