German cuisine widely available, but do not play an important role. Meat is usually braised; fried dishes also exist, but these recipes usually originate from France and Austria. Several cooking methods used to soften tough cuts have evolved into national specialties, including "Sauerbraten" (sour roast), involving marinating beef, horse meat or venison in a vinegar or wine vinegar mixture over several days. A long tradition of sausage-making exists in Germany; more than 1,500 different types of sausage () are made. Most "Wurst" is made with natural casings of pork, sheep or lamb intestines. Among the most popular and most common are "Bratwurst",
Bratwurst recognised as a PGI under EU law. Triggered by the discovery in 2000 of an account entry of 1404 first mentioning the "Bratwurst" in Thuringia in the town of Arnstadt, the association "Friends of the "Thuringian Bratwurst"" was founded in 2006. In the same year, the association established the "Erstes Deutsches Bratwurstmuseum" (First German Bratwurst Museum) in the village of Holzhausen. A two-metre-high wooden monument of a "Bratwurst" in a bun on a local traffic roundabout advertises the museum. The -long "Nordhessische Bratwurst" (from northern Hessen) is similar to the "Thüringer Rostbratwurst" in taste. It is made from coarsely ground