Make Oktoberfest complete with authentic sausages

I'm looking for a meat market that makes real German sausages for an Oktoberfest party on Saturday. We did these regularly in Dallas before we moved to Georgetown last year. There, we'd just go to Hans Mueller in Snyder Plaza and get an assortment of weisswurst, Nuremberg brats, knockwurst, beer brats, German mustard and horseradish. Have you any suggestions for where I could find the equivalent in the Greater Austin area? Will I have to drive to New Braunfels?

— Dorothy Randoll, Georgetown

Many German restaurants will sell you bratwurst or other sausages by the pound, but you need to call ahead to let them know you are interested. Since you are already in Georgetown, you're pretty close to Walburg German Restaurant (512-863-8440, walburgrestaurant.com) in Walburg, where you can buy freshly made brats and knockwursts. Nuernberg Brauhaus, the Bavarian restaurant in Pflugerville (990-5544, nbg-brauhaus.com), will also sell freshly made brats and pork and turkey sausages by the pound. In Austin, Scholz Garten (751-5650, scholzgarten.net) sells its brats by the pound, raw or already cooked. Jon Notarthomas, who owns Best Wurst sausage cart downtown, also does catering on the side, so you could email him (jon@thebestwurst.com) to inquire about his double-ground pork sausage packed with pepper and nutmeg. You can buy New Braunfels Smokehouse pork and beef sausages at Lee's Meat Market (467-6700, leesmeatmarket.com), or you can order any of the sausages, including bratwursts, from the 66-year-old smokehouse through the website, nbsmokehouse.com.

If you're looking for sausages and condiments made with local meats and ingredients, check out local charcuterie companies Salt and Time (saltandtime.com), Kocurek Family Charcuterie (kocurekfamilycharcuterie.com) and Dai Due (daidueaustin.com), which are making German-style brats, frankfurters and other links this time of year, as well as condiments like Bavarian sweet mustard.

As for condiments, Spec's Fine Wine and Food and Fiesta Mart have a wide selection of imported condiments, including mustards, ketchups and sauerkrauts, if you're looking for something spiffy.

Out at the Noble Pig (382-6248, noblepigaustin.com), a sandwich shop on RM 620, you can buy their homemade condiments, including horseradish compete and a number of mustards. Horseradish fanatics flock to Morehouse Atomic, which is sold locally at Sprouts, but under the Sprouts label.

For home cooks who want to celebrate German-style cuisine sans sausage, check out these recipes gathered by writer Bob Townsend for our sister newspaper the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The recipes come from the Porter Beer Bar in Atlanta, which is run by husband and wife owners Nick Rutherford and Molly Gunn.

Rutherford and Gunn met when they worked for chef Gunter Seeger at the acclaimed Seeger's restaurant in Atlanta. Though the now-defunct temple of haute cuisine was known for its artistic and exacting tasting menus, homey touches sometimes bubbled up from Seeger's German heritage, including those diminutive egg dumplings known as spaetzle.

Rutherford drew on his experiences at Seeger's to create this Oktoberfest menu for home cooks — making a hearty Bavarian-inspired meal of roast chicken, butter- and beer-braised cabbage, spaetzle with mushrooms and Gruyere cheese, and Black Forest cake.

"I wanted something very German that someone could easily do at home," Rutherford says. "Spaetzle is one of the harder things, but the chicken and the cabbage are very simple, rustic-style food. You see those half-chickens coming out at Oktoberfest, alongside those big beer steins."

For her part, Gunn offered the beer pairings, choosing a malty, Oktoberfest-style lager to go with the chicken, cabbage and spaetzle, and a rich, dark doppelbock for dessert.

"Oktoberfest is a beer holiday," Gunn says. "Oktoberfest beers go really well with a lot of different foods, especially rich dishes. A traditional German doppelbock is a bit stronger and sweeter and makes a great dessert beer."

Simple Roast Chicken

This is an incredibly simple recipe. Trussing helps the chicken cook more evenly and beautifully. And even if you mess it up and overcook the chicken, simply slather on more butter at the end and it will still be delicious.