ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
We'd like to take a moment now to recognize greatness. Earlier this month in a grocery store parking lot in Prescott, Wisconsin, the world's largest bratwurst was cooked.
PATRICK PTACEK: Fifty-two feet and two inches.
(APPLAUSE)
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
The brat was grilled in honor of the 100th anniversary of Ptacek's IGA. Patrick Ptacek co-owns the store. He and his family paid for the massive brat and made it in the store.
SIEGEL: Actually, we should say brats. They made two.
PTACEK: Just in case a pterodactyl comes out of the sky and just snatches it off the grill somehow. You know, I know it's not real possible, but weren't going to not break the record that day.
SIEGEL: Now, seriously, what's more impressive than a record-breaking brat?
BLOCK: Well, the bun. Baking it required trial runs, taking over an industrial bakery and a semi-truck to move it.
SIEGEL: In fact, the Ptacek's brat was really about 60 feet long.
PTACEK: We were limited to a 52-feet, two inches because that's the size of the semi, so it showed up and it only had one thing, and it's a big old brat bun.
BLOCK: And now, the brat is recognized by a group called the World Record Academy as the world's longest.
SIEGEL: The World Record Academy, really?
BLOCK: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
SIEGEL: Now, this brat story actually comes with a twist. On the same day, about 80 miles away in Dallas, Wisconsin, another big brat was being grilled more than twice as long as Ptacek's brat.
ANN LEE: So the brat that they cooked this year was 135 feet.
BLOCK: That's Ann Lee, co-owner of Valkyrie Brewing Company. You won't find Lee's brat in the record book because she didn't want to pay the $1,900 fee to certify it. So the record goes to Prescott and bragging rights go to Dallas.
LEE: I don't brag.
(LAUGHTER)
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BLOCK: This is NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.