During peak autumn season, when the leaves are at their most vibrant, the Missouri River Valley town of Hermann is at its best.
Founded by German immigrants in 1837, Hermann is among Missouri’s most idyllic destinations: Picture gentle slopes of grapevines dotting the countryside, enticing wineries, streets lined with red-brick architecture, and a downtown area that oozes Old-World charm.
It is in the heart of downtown where you’ll find the Hermann Wurst Haus and “wurstmeister” Mike Sloan, who has been cultivating the art of German-style sausage-making for almost his entire life, beginning at his parents’ meat-processing company in Swiss, Missouri.
“I have done this since I was 8 – before school, during school and after school,” Sloan said. “I enjoyed making something then selling it to people who like it and come back for more. I knew when I grew up, this is what I was going to do.”
Now 65, Sloan is the face behind the Hermann Wurst Haus, located in a historic brick building that was once occupied by an auto parts store on East First Street. The shop features a market, deli and a restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch.
When Sloan and his wife, Lynette, opened for business in September 2011, Hermann Wurst Haus had just two other employees. But the shop soon began to expand in more ways than one: Within its first year, the dining area’s capacity increased with the addition of more indoor seating and an outdoor patio, the equipment was upgraded to keep up with the demand, and prestige came in the form of more than a dozen meat- and sausage-competition awards for Sloan’s house-made products.
Today, the Wurst Haus is a popular stop for visitors and locals, who dip into the dizzying selection of sausages, bacon and other meats, and peruse a German-style deli that’s been declared among the best in the country by Food Network for its German Potato Salad and Red Cabbage, as well as the Haus-Made Reuben, Hermann Hawg and Brisket sandwiches.
But as its name implies, the wurst – German for sausage – is the star of the Wurst Haus, and rightly so. There are more than 60 varieties of fresh and smoked sausages and bratwursts, all from Sloan’s own recipes.
The Best of Show Bratwurst is the shop’s best-seller. The recipient of countless local and national awards, the Best of Show has also won the prestigious gold medal from Deutscher Fleischer-Verband (DFV), the German Butchers Association, whose history dates back almost 150 years.
“It’s the oldest sausage competition in the world,” Sloan explained. “My awards are in German – I don’t know what they say. But the only way to win a gold medal in Germany is to get a perfect score. So, our Best of Show Bratwurst got a perfect score.”
Also in the running for the shop’s most popular item is the Caramelized Pear & Gorgonzola Bratwurst, which is pork seasoned with spices, combined with pears and gorgonzola cheese.
“The Caramelized Pear & Gorgonzola was kind of risky to enter in the German competition,” Sloan said. “It did not win gold, it won silver, it missed gold by a point. And the reason it was one point off from a perfect score is that they docked a point for the sweetness. Any time you make a sausage with fruit, you gotta add sugar, so the German judges didn’t care for the sugar.”
Sloan adds the Caramelized Pear & Gorgonzola is one he concocted on his own and much to his surprise, it’s been a customer favorite.
“If I run out of that, they’ll run me out of town. I might as well close up. I just can’t run out of it,” he said.
Sloan also makes varieties from German recipes perfected over the centuries.
“In Germany, every region has their own specific kind of sausage,” he said. “The spices, the species (beef or pork), and also the process (double-grind or chopped) and the amount of moisture they add – all of it is handed down.”
Sloan’s Munich-Style wurst is pork-seasoned with just a hint of lemon. His Nuremberg sausage is made with lemon, mace and nutmeg.
“The Nuremberg sausage has more than 700 years of sausage-making history. It has survived plagues, world wars,” he said. “When people from Germany come in, once I hear their accent, I think, ‘Oh, no, am I going to pull this off?’ My radar goes up.”
Other brat varieties include Andouille, Asiago & Chive, Bacon Potato Cheddar, Boudin, Buffalo Bleu, Chili Cheese, Currywurst, Garlic & Butter Chicken, Jalapeño & Peach, Jambalaya-Style, Macaroni & Cheese, Mango Chipotle, Pineapple & Bacon, Roasted Garlic & Onion, breakfast sausages and more.
The in-house bacon (both dry- and wet-cured) also draws a crowd, with 12 different flavors, including Applewood, Bourbon Pepper, Pecan and the DFV gold-medal winner, Grand Champion Hickory Smoked, which uses logs from Sloan’s own hickory tree farm.
Because he is exacting when it comes to his recipes, Sloan is intentional about where he sources his meats, using his longtime relationships with local farmers to procure most of the beef, pork, chicken and turkey he uses within a 300-mile radius.
Sloan is also always thinking about the next flavor combination, though he admits not all of them will be a hit.
“I don’t sleep at night. I got a notebook pad – those things you actually write down,” Sloan said. “Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. One that did not work was a pumpkin bratwurst. It was spot-on, it tasted just like pumpkin. I only made about 50 pounds, and I had to eat it all. Pumpkin is one of those things you eat once or twice all year long. The flavor was there, but the demand wasn’t.”
Those making the annual fall pilgrimage to Hermann will likely find Sloan front and center at the Wurst Haus and in his element.
“I enjoy making sausages, bacon or ham, but the one thing I like better is selling it,” he said. “At this time in my life, I really like selling and talking to people – that’s what drives me right now. I have people I’ve taught to make the sausage and bacon, but I want to be the one to help sell. I’m here – usually on the weekends – I’m at the door. I gotta be the front man.”
The “front man” these days is spending his time between the Hermann Wurst Haus and a second location the Sloans opened earlier this year in Fulton, Missouri. In addition, all Hermann Wurst Haus meat products are available to ship across the U.S. via the company’s online store.
