Ahen the business departments published the sales figures from Rügenwalder Mühle two years ago, many were amazed: the vegan substitute products made more profit than cold cuts and sausages made from meat – in other words, what the family company from Lower Saxony has been earning its money with for almost 200 years. Due to the ongoing veggie boom, Rügenwalder is even gnawing at the production limit for meat-free products.
Nevertheless: In Germany, vegetarian sausage is still a niche product. However, the demand for alternative proteins is growing worldwide. The study “Food for Thought: The Protein Transformation” by Boston Consulting Group and Blue Horizon predicted last year that meat consumption will have peaked in 2035, i.e. in 13 years, in Europe and North America.
Mirko Großmann, the managing director of Curry 36, has expanded the range.
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Photo: Jens Gyarmaty
What does a visit to Berlin’s well-known currywurst snack bar, where meat has been the main focus since 1981, say about the trend towards veggie sausages? A lot, because a vegan currywurst has been enriching the range of the four Berlin branches of Curry 36 for three years. “The vegan currywurst is very popular,” says Mirko Großmann, manager of Curry 36. “It has already overtaken the organic currywurst in terms of demand. However, the newcomer cannot compete with the “real currywurst” made of meat. But: “We don’t need to close our eyes, not eating meat is an important lever to counteract climate change,” says Großmann in his office above the headquarters at Mehringdamm 36 in Kreuzberg. As a snack bar you have to go with the spirit of the times. Vegan substitute products are a matter of course today. Nothing to ask for extra.
And what’s inside?
Curry 36 buys its vegan sausages from a retailer who also supplies other major customers. So that it comes as close as possible to the original in terms of texture, it is fried, not grilled on the grate next to the meat sausage. “The soft, al dente sausage meat gets a crispy coating that imitates the crunch of currywurst with casing.”
The vegan currywurst (left) even looks almost like the original.
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Photo: Jens Gyarmaty
And, contrary to what you might think: Substitute products don’t need tons of flavor enhancers, fat and salt to taste like meat.
A look at the ingredients of the veggie sausage: in addition to the main ingredients soy protein, water, rapeseed oil and wheat protein, thickeners, aromas, spice extracts and smoke aroma are used. Polysaccharides such as carrageen and unspecified flavors in vegan sausage are diphosphates
and monosodium glutamate in the list of ingredients for the “pork sausage with intestines”, for which meat from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is used. The normal sausage doesn’t taste good without any help either.
Either way: equating a sausage with the health value of a freshly squeezed juice or a vegetable soup – this calculation doesn’t add up anyway. Rather, this type of fast food is about animal welfare. “Despite the high product quality, we don’t advertise that our products are healthy anyway,” says Großmann. The currywurst is something you treat yourself to from time to time. Then gladly. And full of pleasure. In terms of price, both sausages do not take too much. The meat sausage at Mehringdamm costs two euros at 85 grams, the larger veggie sausage costs 2.50 euros at 115 grams.
Should pork and vegetable sausage eaters continue to tease each other: At Mehringdamm 36 they are harmoniously and at a distance. And it’s not just women who eat meat-free: First, a young man in his mid-30s orders a vegan currywurst, followed shortly afterwards by an older man. With two out of seven hungry customers, this makes a share of almost a third within ten minutes. At the end follows the personal comparison. Our photographer, who also eats meat, likes the vegan sausage, the meat version better, it’s juicier. The author, who has been a vegetarian for 20 years, likes the vegan sausage very much: she can finally eat currywurst again.