Pinkel

Pinkel is a smoked Kaszanka (German: Grützwurst), a type of sausage which is eaten with kale (Grünkohl) in Northwest Germany, especially in the region around Oldenburg, Bremen and Osnabrück as well as in East Frisia and Friesland. The word Pinkel is East Frisian and derives from pink = 'little finger'.

Another explanation for the origin of the name is that this fatty sausage drips (German:pinkelt) with fat for a long time during smoking. The so-called Kohl-und-Pinkel-Touren ("kale and pinkel trips") or Kohlfahrten ("kale trips") by family, friends and acquaintances as well as employees and clubs are traditional winter excursions to country inns. Grünkohl mit Pinkel ("kale and pinkel") is a nourishing food which, in the form of a kale stew, has belly pork and other sausages added to it.

Ingredients

Pinkel consists mainly of bacon, groats of oats or barley, beef suet, pig lard, onions, salt, pepper and other spices. The exact composition of the recipe is guarded as a trade secret by the different butchers and therefore varies from village to village. Pinkel with a high meat content is also described as Fleisch-Pinkel ("meat pinkel") or Oldenburger Pinkel. Traditionally Pinkel is filled into the edible small intestines of pigs, although today edible artificial casings are also used.