The Legacy of Sheboygan Sausage Company
It's not every day that history walks right into the shop. Recently, a woman stopped by who identified herself as the daughter of the original founder of the Sheboygan Sausage Company. She wanted to know what became of the company after it left her family's hands all those years ago.
In Sheboygan, the "Bratwurst Capital of the World," the history of meatpacking runs through overlapping family traditions and corporate buyouts. Here's where those iconic recipes ended up.
From Thielmann's to Old Wisconsin
Many people connect the "Sheboygan Sausage" legacy to what is now Old Wisconsin. That lineage starts with Frank Thielmann and William Stolzman, who ran a shop in Sheboygan originally known as Thielmann's. By the 1950s it had grown into Thielmann's Old Wisconsin Sausage Company.
The business kept expanding, acquiring the Rammer Sausage Company in 1976. The major turn came in 1981, when Carl Buddig and Co. another family-owned giant in the meat industry bought the company.
Under Buddig's ownership, the brand was officially renamed Old Wisconsin Sausage Company. It's now a national brand, though production remains in Sheboygan.
The modern Sheboygan Sausage Co
If you see a product labeled Sheboygan Sausage Co. today, it took a different corporate path. That label became part of the Specialty Food Group (SFG), which Indiana Packers Corporation later acquired.
The ownership changed; the flavors didn't. Those "Old World" recipes Wisconsin butchers developed over a century ago are still what's being sold.
A lasting heritage
Johnsonville stayed in the family. Old Wisconsin didn't. Either way, those original founders left something behind. The recipes at today's backyard cookouts and ballparks came from those same Sheboygan families.
These recipes have family names behind them.
Originally prepared for the shop blog.