MEAT+POULTRY - August 2015 - 104

M E AT- M I N D E D

A legacy of leberwurst
Editor's note: MEAT+POULTRY's monthly "MeatMinded," will profile various individuals directly or
indirectly connected to the meat and poultry industry.
Subjects will range from chefs to researchers, to fastfood executives to legendary sausage makers like Norm
Heinle, who is featured in this month's debut column.
Norm Heinle holds up his disfigured right hand, which he
learned to live with many batches of handmade sausage
ago, as in 39 years.
"All it took was one revolution of the grinder going
backward when it should have gone forward," Heinle
explains of his injury.

Because natural casings cost
more and making the sausage is
labor intensive, Heinle proudly
charges $9.99 per lb. for most of
the 25 flavors of preservative-free
bratwurst in his meat case.
Heinle underwent several surgeries after the accident
in 1976 and ended up losing parts of his fingers. But
the injury didn't stop him from making his acclaimed

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MEAT+ POULTRY | 08.15 | www.meatpoultry.com

sausage, which has been popular throughout northeast
Ohio and the entire state for than 50 years. People will
drive an hour or two to Heinle's Sausage Shoppe to
purchase a pound of bratwurst, smokies or leberwurst.
The 70-year-old Heinle has worked at the business,
which opened in 1938 on the west side of Cleveland,
since 1959. He was 13 when he was hired to perform odd
jobs there, such as mowing the grass and washing pots
and pans, when it was known as Kirchberger Sausage
and operated by a German immigrant, Hans Kirchberger,
who came to America with sausage-making smarts based
on old-world recipes.
When Heinle was 15, Kirchberger taught him his
craft. Soon, Heinle was making German wieners, blood
sausage, mettwurst and other specialty products in the
production area of the modest retail store. After several
years of working at the business and honing his skills as
a sausage maker, Heinle purchased the business from
Kirchberger in 1974.
It wasn't long until Heinle, confident in his craft,
began experimenting and making flavor-centric
bratwursts and other items. He and his wife Carol, his
partner in the business, also took continuing education
courses at The Ohio State Univ. to keep up with the
times. Heinle eventually changed the name of the
business to the Sausage Shoppe, but he never strayed
from Kirchberger's recipes, which put the business on
the map.
"To this day, the recipes for German wieners and
liverwurst are still the same," Heinle says. "We still use
natural sheep casings with our German wieners like we
always have."
Heinle also remains old school in his approach to
processing other items, such as bacon, which he admits
goes against the time-is-money philosophy his peers
preach to move product quickly. Heinle lets pork bellies
cure with a dry rub for 10 days before smoking and
slicing them into bacon to be sold. It's almost a two-week
process from start to finish.
"Everybody tells me we're nuts for doing it like that,"
Heinle says, noting that more traditional processors
inject and smoke bellies overnight and then slice them at
lightening speed into bacon that is sold the next day. "But
people come in and tell us that they have never tasted
bacon like ours."
While Heinle has introduced new bratwurst flavors to
keep up with the taste trends - including Yuengling beer
and cheddar, Jack Daniels, garlic and black pepper - he

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MEAT+POULTRY - August 2015

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