How to make curry ketchup for currywurst – and all about Oktoberfest

A lot of good things have been cancelled this year: holidays, festivals, sporting events… and Oktoberfest.

Every year, around 6m people from all around the world descend on Munich to celebrate Oktoberfest, from 19 September to 4 October. This coming Sunday should be the end of the festivities.

The festival has been going since 1810, and this year is the 25th time it’s been cancelled. That’s right, coronavirus is up there the Napoleonic war, cholera and a couple of world wars...

However, while the centre of the festival might be in Munich, people love to get their German beer and brats on all around the world. I decided I needed to do just that this year: any excuse to tuck into a currywurst and a stein of Bavaria’s finest bier.

Official Oktoberfest beers

Despite Oktoberfest being cancelled this year, the breweries have still made their official Oktoberfest beers.

It turns out there are a few rules governing what makes an Oktoberfest beer ‘official’. The beer must be produced within Munich, be just under 6% abv, and conform to the Reinheitsgebot (purity law). The only six breweries that meet all that are: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Löwenbräu, Hofbräu, Spatenbräu and Paulaner.

Usually when Oktoberfest is on, around 9m litres of beer are consumed over the 16 days of the festival. That's enough to fill 2.5 Olympic swimming pools!

The ‘festbier’ are amber-coloured lagers that are smooth, with a strong malt flavour and light hops. Basically, really easy to drink…

If you want to pretend you’re living it large in Munich, when in fact you’re sat at home feeling very un-festive, Beer Hawk has got a range of Oktoberfest beer cases available. I’ve been drinking the ‘Discover Oktoberfest 2020 case’ alongside my currywurst, which comes with five beers and a tankard.

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What about the food?

While much of Oktoberfest is focused around the beer, you’ll find all sorts of German food available, as well as your currywurst of course : sausages, pretzels, whole roast chickens, sauerkraut, dumplings and spätzle, among plenty of other dishes I’m sure the German FoodTribers out there will share.

I wanted to tuck into some currywurst and feel like I was at an Imbiss, but didn’t have the proper curry ketchup – so I decided to make some of my own. Having tried currywurst in Germany a few times, this is very, very close to what I’ve tasted over there. Here’s my recipe.

Recommended: Way more curry ketchup to dip on your chips

Recommended: Way more curry ketchup to dip on your chips

Homemade curry ketchup for currywurst

Bring Oktoberfest to you, wherever you are in the world

Serves4

CuisineGerman

MealDinner

Ingredients

• 250ml tomato ketchup
• 4 teaspoons of mild or medium curry powder (I used medium but it does give you more of a kick than the ‘traditional’ curry ketchup)
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 8 tbsp beef stock

Instructions

1. Warm up your ketchup in a saucepan on a low heat for a few minutes.
2. Add your smoked paprika, garlic salt and curry powder. Mix thoroughly and leave for 5 minutes.
3. Add the beef broth and Worcestershire sauce, and leave on the heat for another 5-10 minutes.
4. You are ready to go! The consistency is probably a little thicker than you'd get in Germany, so do add more beef broth/a bit of water if you'd like things a bit runnier.

Serving

1. Grill your brats, cut into slices, add as much curry ketchup as you want, sprinkle with a bit of extra curry powder, and enjoy.
2. Serve with fries or a pretzel, and make sure you've got an Oktoberfest beer to hand. Delicious.

Recipe by

Rachael Hogg

Have you ever been to Oktoberfest, or are you celebrating at home this year?