Wurst: Many Americans, especially in the Midwest, at least know about "bratwurst". Yet even that is generally misrepresented in supermarkets by the mild, pale white veal-based sausage, which is actually "weisswurst" (white sausage). Real bratwurst is darker and has much more flavor. A superb example is the "Thüringer Rostbratwurst" available at Karl's Sausage Kitchen on Rte. 1 in Saugus.

But "wurst" also stands for cold cuts, i.e., slices to be put on bread or into sandwiches. Here we're not talking about baloney on white (i.e., generic cold cuts on foam rubber bread), but a huge variety of types of wurst to be eaten on firm flavorful real bread. For those who know, there's Jagdwurst and Bierwurst and Cervelatwurst (includes Thüringer)and Bauernschinken and many more; it makes the mouth water just to see the names.

To get the sense of the breadth of what's available, visit KaDeWe in Berlin (that stands for KDW, or Kaufhaus des Westens) if you can. The variety is overwhelming - there's display case upon display case of wurst from the different regions in Germany. But here, locally in the Boston area, Karl's Sausage Kitchen has a delicious, if necessarily smaller, selection. Everything, just like the bratwust above, is homemade in the store.

That also gets us to some of the more esoteric delicacies like Blutwurst and Sülze. It's easy to get put off by the names, "blood sausage" for the first and the dreadful "headcheese" for the second. A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but these selections need marketing help: "boudin" is certainly much easier to enjoy than "blood sausage", while Sülze has none of the disagreeable connotations of "headcheese".

So just what is Sülze? Chopped meat pieces in a sour aspic base with some spices. A large cold slice with fried potatoes (Bratkartoffeln) is an absolutely superb lunch.

A lot of these specialties derived from the principle of not wasting any part of the animal after slaughter; now we see the choicest cuts offered in the market, and never even wonder where the rest goes. Even liver is unusual enough that it has to be sought out. In my youth I never wondered why we would have kidneys or lung hash as a main meal; these were less expensive and my mother knew how to cook them to taste good.

One of my favorite meals is still chicken liver with apples and onions, served with mashed potatoes: Slice some apples and onions and sautee them until soft. Put them aside and sautee floured chicken livers. When they're almost done, stir in the apples and onions to blend the flavors. What could be better?

Or potato salad, which was often served at home with fried flounder: Boil potatoes in their skins until done (not overdone), then peel and cut them. Mix in some mayonnaise, some chopped apples, some chopped pickles (capers are also good) and vinegar (or pickle juice), some salt and pepper; there's no real recipe - it's all to taste.

Goose Fat: Roast goose, our traditional Christmas meal, generates lots of goose fat. Instead of discarding it, I render and then freeze it, to use throughout the year. It makes a fine cooking fat and an exceptional substitute for butter as a spread on bread, especially if rendered with some chopped apples and onions, and a touch of marjoram. It may even be more healthy than some other fats - some long time ago I had read a newspaper article which said that goose fat resembled olive oil in its chemical composition.

Very tasty scrambled eggs: begin with chopped onion or scallion sauteed in goose fat before adding the eggs.

Getting back to the sliced wurst (i.e., cold cuts) on bread - that's excellent with goose fat (instead of say, butter or mustard) on the bread, especially the goose fat with chopped apples and onions.