Achtung! Sing the Praises of German Cooking!

Cafe Society
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Boy oh boy, am I sick of Food Network going on and on about Italian and Southern cuisine.

Oh sure, sometimes they’ll give a nod to Latino or Asian dishes. But do you know what kind of cooking they never, ever mention?

German food! Good, hearty, basis of American cooking German food. Not a goddamn word about it on that channel!

I looooove German food!!! I love slow cooked pig’s knuckles with fat chewy skin covering tender mouthfuls of meat. Braised in sweet sauerkraut and soft new potatoes. Roast goose with crinkly skin aside a mound of earthy red cabbage. Pickled herring and pickled beets, mmmmm.

No other folk treat the falsely maligned liver so well. Liver dumpling soup and liverwurst, fantastic! And hackepeter (sp?) otherwise known as steak tartare. Beef at its rarest, echoing the earliest origins of humanity, when we first fell in love with meat. Best on dark bread, with onion and capers, to mark the ascent of man into settled agriculture, and sophistication.

And with the abovementioned liverwurst, are a vast array of sausages, as varied as the numerous regions of Germany itself. If France and its cheeses are such a big deal, why isn’t Germany and its sausages just as frequently discussed? Plus Germans understand that cold cuts aren’t just for lunch sandwiches. They’re for breakfast with cheese and marmelade on crispbread, on beautifully arranged hospitality platters if you like.

I’ll leave it to others to praise the famous beer. Now I want sacretorte (sp?) for dessert.

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There used to be a lot of German-Americans on the north side of the city when I was a child, along with Italian-Americans. Over the years, the Italians are still hanging in there, but the Germans are mostly gone, dispersed, displaced. There used to be three or four German restaurants in the city, and a few in the suburbs, but today other than a German meat market with a hundred kinds of sausage, alas, there are no more restaurants left. Once in a great while you can find sauerbraten in a family restaurant, or the sauce alone in a grocery store. I have a sauerbraten recipe from my grandmother, who lived on the north side and had German friends. It is one of the few recipes that doesn’t use gingersnaps for thickening…I love German food, it’s a shame this cuisine is so obscure here now. It’s just a steak-and-taters, or red sauce town now.

3

I’m currently on extended holiday in Austria rather than Germany but there is a lot of cross-over between Bavarian and Austrian cuisine.

I had a lovely Sachertorte for lunch whilst relaxing at one of the many outdoor pools ringed by looming mountains and forests (it was big enough to feed me and my son).

I am currently drinking a very fine Steigel pilsner.

It is our first day here so plenty more places and food to explore. What I really love are the various soups, my son adores proper butter-fried schnitzel with the dark brown maggi-seasoning (Austrian soy-sauce he calls it), my daughter likes the pretzels, fresh-baked, as big as your head, crispy on the outside and studded with big salt crystals but like cotton wool inside. My wife swears by a germknodel, soft yeast-dumpling with plum jam in the middle and sprinkled with crushed poppy-seeds and sugar.

If I find anything particularly and suitably germanic enough to not constitute a hijack, I shall let you all know.

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I know it’s not the healthiest of foods, but every trip to Germany (for me) had at least one meal with a good Schweinshaxe. So delicious! And spaetzle. And good German beer.

I wouldn’t want it every day, but especially on a cool autumn or winter evening, it hits the spot!

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Lots of elements of the traditional German cuisine don’t really appeal to me, such as the above-mentioned Schweinshaxe, but I do love me some Leberkäse—literally, ‘liver cheese’, which confusingly is actually a type of sausage that contains neither liver nor cheese. Also, Schupfnudeln.

But I think where German cooking really shines is in the variety of bread on offer. All shades from the darkest Pumpernickel to the lightest Weißbrot (white bread)—whenever I’ve spent some time abroad, upon coming home, I crave a nice dark rye bread with a thick crust; you don’t seem to get that too many places.

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I loved the Wienerschnitzels at a local restaurant when I was stationed in Germany. And one night, my squadron went to a place that served a huge banquet including whole pig, spaetzle, and purple cabbage, that was the best meal I’ve ever had.

And I can rhapsodize about German white wines for a long time.

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I don’t know much of anything about German cooking, but if anyone’s got a delicious family recipe for sauerbraten I’d love to take a look at it. :slight_smile:

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A favorite restaurant in Frankfurt served rahmsteak, which was similar to a pepper steak made with cream sauce, served with spaetzle. Another restaurant served what they called a dreck Schaufel. It was all different types of grilled sausages and other meats served on what looked like the end of a large wooden shovel. I also loved the little Schnell Imbiss carts that served bratwurst.

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There’s a Catholic church here in town that was originally mostly German, and still has a GermanFest every year. Folks line up down the block for the food.

I love German baking and have several books on it. The first gingerbread house I made was with a recipe from one of those books.

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As it happens, I was just watching an english bread making documentery. 100 years ago, English baking was dominated by Austrian immegrants. Apart from being migrants (working in jobs nobody else wanted), apparently they were at the cutting edge of bread and pastry development.

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As I mentioned in my post, my grandma lived amongst Germans and I have a family recipe for sauerbraten we’ve used for 50 years, if not longer, and I will look around for it and get back to you. It’s not that its so precise, but it’s a little different from the typical sauerbraten recipe. (can’t wait till it cools down in a few months so I can make it.)

Looking tonight, will let you know.

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I was also going to ask for the recipe! I’ll come back and look later. Yum. I did a sauerbraten for Thanksgiving once, instead of turkey.

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OK, I found it: My Grandma’s Authentic Sauerbraten

5 lb. chuck roast, not too fatty (I surgically cut out the biggest chunks of fat)

Marinade: Mix together: 8 bay leaves
1-1/2 cups dark brown sugar
3 cups of vinegar (grandma just used apple cider vinegar)
3 cups of water
1 bottle of chili sauce (note: this is the stuff you find on the shelf
near the ketchup - not cocktail sauce or Mexican chili sauce, just
a bottle of plain Heinz chili sauce.)
12 peppercorns
mix well, and add 1 peeled onion studded with 12 whole cloves

Marinate the meat in a pot with this overnight or even a couple of days, covered, in the refrigerator.

Simmer the meat in the marinade on low, covered, on the stove, or in the crockpot, or even in a covered dutch oven, as you would cook any pot roast. Till it is tender, but not falling totally apart. I can’t give a precise time, 3 hours at least. Test it with a fork. You don’t want it in shreds, but tender and ready to be sliced or cut in pieces. Cool, then refrigerate the meat and marinade overnight.

The next day, skim off any fat, remove the meat. Strain the liquid in a colander and throw away the solids. Bring the strained liquid to a boil and stir in:

3/4 C. of flour mixed with 1 C. of water and 1 TB. salt (to make a paste or roux)

Wisk this into the boiling liquid, then turn down the heat and just let it simmer till thickened somewhat, about 1/2 an hour, stirring occasionally.

Slice the reserved meat or cut in chunks and heat up in the spicy gravy. Serve over broad egg noodles (sometimes my mom fried the noodles briefly in hot oil to make a kind of noodle cake, but I haven’t tried it.)

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Oh my, that sounds really good. I’m going to have to try it. The gravy/sauce part ensures nothing is wasted, that is very German.

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Medieval German is one of my favourite period cuisines to cook - even then, the menu was as heavy on the sausages and dumplings and liver as you’d expect, but also such delights as Garlic-roasted Mutton, Sour Orange (Pomeranian) Salad, Pear Tart and Apple Dumplings. And the sauces - honey-and-mustard, verjuice, cinnamon…

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Rouladen, Spaetzle, Graff Dracula, red cabbage, and German fried potatoes, Spargel suppe. All Food of the Gods!
Recipes in the links. Now I’m hungry, dammit!

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I came to German food rather late in life, when I started going to Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City, California. It’s a casual sausage/pretzel kid of eatery, but every Saturday at noon they prepare a more elaborate dish as their special. This is where I first tasted sauerbraten with spaetzle, roasted pork loin stuffed with prunes, and roast chicken with altbier sauce. We initially started going there for the excellent beer, but then got hooked on the cooking. It’s a bit too hot right now to eat German lunches, but as soon as autumn cools things off, we’re going back for a lunch.

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Some things I miss from my days in Deutschland are griessbrei, kaiserschmarrn, and Erdnussflips.

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There’s this great German pub near where I live that serves the most incredible wienerschnitzel…crispy and juicy and they serve Guinness too. :slight_smile:

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Erdnussflips are THE most addictive snack ever!