Fox Bros.’ head sausage-maker, now a Master Meat Crafter, talks about making the Wisconsin staple

Sausage-making and bratwurst are part of history and tradition in Wisconsin, yet there is always something new to learn. That’s the view of Nathan Broker, the head sausage-maker at Fox Bros. Piggly Wiggly. After working his way through a two-year program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Broker earned the title of Master Meat Crafter in December.

Bringing meat industry professionals from around the world to Madison, the one-of-a-kind program launched in 2010.

Broker works out of the Fox Bros.' Hartford location. The company, which has grown to 10 employee-owned locations since 1988, has become known for their award-winning sausages, including receiving accolades at the Wisconsin State Fair for everything from the pre-cooked original brats and spicy southwest chicken brats to mild beef snack sticks, pepperoni pizza sausage, maple breakfast links and original summer sausage.

Broker, who grew up in Hartford, talked with the Journal Sentinel during a break in production at the Fox Bros. Piggly Wiggly in Hartford.

How he went from after-school job to a career as a sausage-maker

I grew up in Hartford and started working at a small meat market in high school. I ended up buying the meat market when I was 22. It was a small standalone butcher shop. We didn’t do slaughter. Our big thing was summer sausage and snack sticks, pretty much all of the traditional sausages, and we had a full meat case. I grew up learning to cut meat and make sausage. When we had kids, I got out of owning my own business. It was too many hours.

Next I worked as a meat cutter (for Fox Bros.) in Oconomowoc. Then I was offered the head sausage-making job at Kewaskum Frozen Foods. I was there for four years before they brought me back to Fox Bros. It will be seven years in May, and today I’m the head sausage-maker.

Traditional favorites versus taste trends

When it comes to sausage, people want the traditional: a bratwurst, summer sausage, snack sticks. You hear about the trendy — the chicken, the turkey, the healthy. We make that stuff. It sells. The regular chicken brats sell pretty decent, but it is nothing compared to the traditional version.

It is part of the culture here. There is such a huge German background so prevalent in every day of life. People don’t even realize. You hear all the stuff about the new trends, but it always comes back to basics. The big sellers are traditional.

What it takes to become a Master Meat Crafter

The program is seven three-day periods over two years. It takes five years of experience minimum in the meat industry (to apply). We were the first class in the new facility. The Meat Science and Animal Biologics Discovery Building is almost over-the-top. It was truly amazing, state-of-the-art everything and equipment you might use for one tiny thing every six months. Everything was very well thought through. Dr. Jeff (Sindelar) spent a lot of time working on all of it, and it shows.

Others in the program came from New York, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Utah, Illinois, Minnesota and Idaho. Over half were from Wisconsin, probably, and it was really interesting to learn about some of the stuff from different states.

The lady from New York, their big thing was called white hot hot dogs — really unique, smaller, and a larger ring bologna diameter. I didn’t care for them particularly, but they make tens of thousands of pounds every year. On the other hand, summer sausage by her in upstate New York, they don’t have a huge market. But that is obviously a huge seller here.

Why he became a Master Meat Crafter

We’d had two people I worked with go through the program and they had good things to say, and I really wanted to expand my knowledge. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I feel like I know a lot, but you can never really know everything. It was trying to bridge the gap and learn more.

Master Meat Crafter covers all aspects of the meat industry. We’re a small subset. We do the sausage, the smoked stuff. We don’t harvest or do some of the other things. It was fascinating to see how other places do it and learn different ways of doing things to tweak our process to be better.

Fun with flavors, and what they're working on next

We now have 30 different flavors of bratwurst. Sometimes coming up with new flavors can be tricky. We’ve tried some out-there ones, including a raspberry beer brat. It was not very good. We used frozen raspberries and a raspberry beer. It was one of the worst things I’ve made!

We’re constantly trying to think of new ideas. It is harder now because we have so many flavors, but I absolutely love playing with it and thinking of new ideas.

Now we’re focusing on adding new products. In recent years we added cocktail wieners in two different flavors. We have a traditional (cocktail wiener) and then our better-selling brat is a cheddar jack and bacon bratwurst, so we did a cheddar bacon cocktail wiener. This year we added a chicken cocktail wiener. We’re always adding different products and more seasonal flavors.

Wisconsin has a big appetite for brats

Our busiest time of year is May through September. Once it gets nicer in the summer, we’re just pounding brats, about 2,000 pounds a day.

This Master Meat Crafter’s budget-friendly favorite

Chuck eye is one, particularly when I started out in this business. Now it is much more popular. People understand how good it is, but 10 to 15 years ago you could buy them for $2.50 a pound. They are as good as a ribeye.

Why he thinks this is a good career path

I’ve thought about it a lot. It’s an amazing career. You can make good money, training is not super long. If you want to be a meat cutter it is a little easier to learn, just learning your cuts of meat. There is more to becoming a sausage-maker, but people are always going to eat, and you will always have a job. Generally your hours are pretty good. You work when the inspectors work, which is weekdays, no holidays. You honestly feel fulfilled every day, and you have something to show for your work. You can literally go home every day and say you accomplished something. It is a career, and you can be successful, without going to college, which is not for everyone.

University of Wisconsin also has a lot of short courses for the person getting into this industry, including basic meat science, and a meat snacks short course on jerky, summer sausage and the basics. Wisconsin is becoming very proactive trying to get younger people into the industry. All the sausage-makers I know, the majority 10 to 15 years older than me.

Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email clewis@journalsentinel.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Fox Bros.’ head sausage-maker talks about making the Wisconsin staple