Door County Basics

In the 1800s  Belgian immigrants settled in Wisconsin and brought with them culinary traditions that persist to today.

The largest wave of Belgians arrived between 1853 and 1858.  They spoke a French-influenced patois and settled the wooded land extending from Green Bay to the southernmost extent of Door County.  By the 1880s there were more than 5000 people of Belgian descent who had settled in several communities in the area.  To this day it constitutes the largest concentration of Walloon Belgians anywhere in the world outside of Belgium.  It's a national treasure.  But I digress.

Getting back to the subject of culinary traditions I happened-upon this short video published only a few years ago.  I'm sharing it as it is about the tradition of hog butchering in both English and the original lingua franca. 

One of the elements of the past that is alive and well is a local favorite called Belgian Trippe.

Trippe (pronounced like trip) is a sausage similar to a bratwurst but with a not-so-secret ingredient.  The thrifty Belgian settlers extended their pork sausage with the inclusion of cabbage.  Further seasoned with onion, salt, pepper, thyme, nutmeg and ginger it is made locally by Marchant's.

It's pretty good stuff for breakfast, lunch or dinner and you won't find it anywhere outside of northeast Wisconsin.

Here's a newspaper clipping from 1963 with a recipe for 60+ pounds of the sausage for serving at a Kermis - or Belgian harvest festival....

click on image for a closer look