Working as a REALTOR® in the north and east Twin Cities, I often use Hwy 61 as an alternate to 35E when traveling from White Bear Lake to Forest Lake. I'd probably passed this little meat market in Hugo a few thousand times over the years but never thought to drop by. That is until Kare11 did a story on their unusual bratwurst recipe that included Gummy Bears! You heard that right....they actually mix candy into the meat when making the links. Gummy Bear Brats had to be a joke, right? Wrong...well, sort of.
The story goes that a persistent customer who kept sending people over to Grundhofer's Old Fashioned Meats as a joke asking for the unique flavor. Finally the owner gave in and made up a batch. And the rest of the story will become culinary history...as the original gummy bear bratwurst.
So about a year ago, after seeing the news report and driving by the shop for over a decade, we stopped.at Grundhofer's. Heck...we just had to try a gummy bear brat. We picked up a package of fresh gummy bear brats and a package of regular ones too...just in case the candy infused links were too gross to eat. The next time we fired up the BBQ, we roasted gummy bears...wrapped up in a brat, that is. They were surprisingly delicious! And as a further surprise, we preferred the sausages with the cherry, lime, orange and/or lemon candy bits to the regular ones.
Now, every time we have guests visit we roast up a gummy bear brat for them. The reaction is the same at first..."Really? No...well I'll just try a half of one." People are tentative when the see the sausage cut in half and red, green or orange melted candy oozes onto the bun. But they are good!
So if gummy bears brats seem a bit too weird, no worries, Grundhofer's has other a few dozen other options. How about a Grape Koolaid Brat instead?
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