IPKAT reports that three Thuringian sausages have been registered to protect their designation of origin. I presume others, such as the Nuremberg ones, are long since protected.
The EU regulation does not translate them, but IPKAT does: Thüringer Leberwurst (Thuringian liver sausage), Thüringer Rotwurst (Thuringian red sausage) and Thüringer Rostbratwurst (Thuringian rib steak sausage).
Liver sausage is OK – for spreading; Rotwurst might be blood sausage (Collins says black pudding, but there are German Rotwürste that come already cooked, and black pudding doesn’t); but the third is mystifying. Rost is the grid or grating you lay the sausages on to grill them. Collins has for Rostbratwurst ‘barbecue sausage’. Fair enough – those gratings are used at barbecues. This is a fairly pale sausage. I found a recipe online using pork shoulder and pork belly (I thought it was veal). But here is more information from the application to the EU:
Name: Thüringer Rostbratwurst
4.2. Description: At least 15 to 20 cm long, medium-fine grilled sausage in narrow natural casing(pig’s gut or sheep’s casing), raw or stewed, with highly spiced taste; …
Composition: coarsely trimmed pigmeat, pork cheek without rind, possibly also trimmed veal orbeef for the filling, not cured; the spice mixtures vary with the handed-down recipes and regionalcharacteristics; along with salt and pepper, caraway, marjoram and garlic are also used.
At least 51 % of the ingredients originate in Thuringia.
Geographical area: the Federal Land of Thuringia.
4.4. Proof of origin: Thuringian Rostbratwurst has a centuries-old tradition. The first documentary reference to it dates from 1404. The Rudolstadt State archives contain a bill from the Arnstadt Virgin Mary Cloister which includes the item darme czu bratwurstin (Bratwurst casings). Theoldest known recipe can be found in the Weimar State archives. It is from the Ordnung für das Fleischerhandwerk zu Weimar, Jena und Buttstädt of 2 July 1613. There is another recipe in theThüringisch-Erfurtische Kochbuch, dating from 1797. Today almost all Thuringian meat and sausage producers carry Thüringer Rostbratwurst in their range; it can be obtained anywhere in Thuringia at special hotdog stands. The provenance of the name has been retained, because at thetime of the former GDRit was used only as a genuine indication of geographical origin.4.5. Method of production: The meat is coarsely trimmed, derinded and ground medium-fine. Thespices are then added and everything is mixed to a cohesive mass which is filled into natural pig orsheep casings. The sausages are twisted off at a length of some 20 cm and then cooked at 75 °Cfor one minute per millimetre diameter. The sausage is sold fresh.4.6. Link: Thüringer Rostbratwurst is a product with a centuries-old tradition. It was appreciated by Martin Luther and Goethe and praised in literature as long ago as 1669 (in Grimmelshausen’sSimplizissimus). Owing to its unmistakable, excellent flavour Thüringer Rostbratwurst today enjoys a good reputation in Germany and beyond
I do wonder who introduced the term ‘hot dog stands’ in there.