# Why isn't German cuisine more popular in the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848 "2008-09-09T21:23:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/121 "2008-09-23T00:43:30Z")
Y’all please excuse me if this has been answered, but I find that the reason you cannot find a decent German restaurant in the US, is because the ingredients for the foods cannot be imported. It’s like the story with the beers: Yeah you can now get Bitburger here, but does it taste the same as in Deutschland? Not to me, it doesn’t. Have you been to Germany and enjoyed their breads and the “Brötchen”? Tried to get the same taste here? Nope. Do you like that so called “sparkling wine/champagne”, Sekt? Have you tried to find it here? Closest I came was Harry’s Farmer’s Market in Marietta, and I got the last bottle and they don’t excpect to get any more. And forget about real Blutwurst. You may find something close, but not dead-on. It’s why I love to go home (Rothenburg ob der Tauber) whenever I can. Again, sorry I am just now jumping on this, but I hope I have been of some help in answering. Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/122 "2008-09-23T06:16:30Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > I have always heard that anglicization of German names was common during World War **I** (not II). There’s a reference to the phenomenon [here](http://www.4crests.com/kisner-coat-of-arms.html): > > …but I’m having trouble finding a more authoritative source. (Which makes me wonder if it might be an urban legend.) Urban legend or not, it is true that the German language was used by some entire small farming communities in the Dakotas and elsewhere in the upper Midwest, through the eary 20th century. Lawrence Welk is perhaps the best known example of that; though native-born American, he grew up in one of those communities and never learned to speak English until he was 21 (which is how he got that accent). By some accounts he never did learn to speak it well; he himself said that one of his early bands quit on him because his poor command of English was an embarrassment to them. He admitted that even in later years he would make flubs such as asking the singer to step up to the “microscope”. At any rate, by 1925 or 1930 English had supplanted German. The war might have had something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![PitJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9bcb4/32.png) [@PitJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PitJ)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/123 "2008-09-23T14:31:24Z")
> [@robby](#): > > I think you mean “Wiener Schnitzel.” Sauerbraten is more like a pot roast. Sauerbraten is marinated and cooked beef, eaten with mash potatoes and cooked red cabbage (Rotkohl). Originally, it was made from horse meat but that got rather cancelled when horses became cute instead of food. Apart from this, for me as a German living in Germany this discussion is very interesting. We have a lot of restaurants serving what some of the contributors call traditional German food, but they are rather non-spectacular and often combined with our local form of pubs, the “Kneipe”. Also, the food is really much the same all over and you only get something different if a) the influence is Italian, French or Spanish or b) they really go into local specialties. In case of b) however, it is normally much better than this pan-European pizza sauté stuff but also more expensive. Just my 2c. ---
**Author:** ![andyhayes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c6cbf5/32.png) [@andyhayes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andyhayes)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/124 "2008-09-24T01:22:52Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Urban legend or not, it is true that the German language was used by some entire small farming communities in the Dakotas and elsewhere in the upper Midwest, through the eary 20th century. Lawrence Welk is perhaps the best known example of that; though native-born American, he grew up in one of those communities and never learned to speak English until he was 21 (which is how he got that accent). By some accounts he never did learn to speak it well; he himself said that one of his early bands quit on him because his poor command of English was an embarrassment to them. He admitted that even in later years he would make flubs such as asking the singer to step up to the “microscope”. At any rate, by 1925 or 1930 English had supplanted German. The war might have had something to do with it. And here in Montana there is an “English Lutheran” church - I’d never thought of the English as being Lutherans, mostly Methodists or Episcopalians - then I found out the reason was that American Lutheran churches held services only in German or Swedish until well into the 20th Century - so when a new generation came along after WWII that couldn’t speak the old country languages, they started “English” (speaking) Lutheran churches. ---
**Author:** ![andyhayes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c6cbf5/32.png) [@andyhayes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andyhayes)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/125 "2008-09-24T01:31:39Z")
Has anyone mentioned the influence of “The Joy of Cooking” by Irma Rombauer and her daughter Marian Rombauer Becker? This was the best-selling cookbook of the fifties and sixties, there’s even a new edition by Marian’s son. Very teutonic. My thoroughly Scotch-Irish\* Presbyterian mother practically raised us on these recipes. I remember Irma writing that American cooking was basically a fusion of Native American and German. \*Ethnic joke - A town’s churches held an ethnic food festival; the Italian catholics had pizza, the Polish catholics pierogies, the Lutherans sauerkraut and wurst - etc - the Presbyterians had white bread and mayonnaise sandwiches. ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/126 "2008-09-24T03:40:59Z")
I wonder what the effect, if any, the [General Slocum disaster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_slocum) and the subsequent fracturing of New York’s [German-American neighborhoods](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Germany,_New_York) might have had on German food. The loss of a concentrated ethnic neighborhood in such a large city, followed closely by the anti-German sentiment of World War I\*, could have hastened the fading of a German culinary identity in America. \*Data point: While the spelling of the family name never changed, my ancestors Anglicized its pronunciation after the Great War began. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/127 "2008-09-24T04:08:11Z")
> [@andyhayes](#): > > Has anyone mentioned the influence of “The Joy of Cooking” by Irma Rombauer and her daughter Marian Rombauer Becker? This was the best-selling cookbook of the fifties and sixties, there’s even a new edition by Marian’s son. Very teutonic. Was it ever. We made Irma’s recipe for _Rote Grütze_ (basically grits-like porridge with sweeeet raspberry sauce) one Thanksgiving. Man! was that good. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/128 "2008-09-24T08:39:06Z")
If you think about it, the American Christmas tradition is really the German Christmas tradition. And this extends to the art and tradition of American baking and Christmas cookies. I’m not saying that Americans haven’t developed their own bakery art over the years, but I think that generic “American Baking” probably has its strongest roots in German Backerei, or by extension, Middle European Bakery Arts.I wouldn’t characterize American bakery traditions as descending from the more delicate French style, but the heavier, buttery, alpine traditions. From Rye and Pumpernickel, to coffeecake, yeast rolls and Betty Crocker, gingerbread, pretzels… on down to chocolate chip cookies, brownies, doughnuts, and even wedding cakes I’m pretty sure there is a German binary or originator. Maybe **Baker** can help out here, always good to hear from a professional. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/129 "2008-09-24T11:48:34Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > … but the heavier, buttery, alpine traditions. From Rye and Pumpernickel, to coffeecake, yeast rolls and Betty Crocker, gingerbread, pretzels… I’ve been a professional chef, but I’ve never baked a Betty Crocker. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/130 "2008-09-24T21:40:20Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > I’ve been a professional chef, but I’ve never baked a Betty Crocker. You’ve never baked a betty crocker layer cake from mix at home? Even though Betty Crocker is a made-up food personality, I would argue that her cake mixes and the frosted layer cakes that are her mainstay are more in line with German style Kuchen and Torten than a true gateux. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848/131 "2008-09-24T22:27:53Z")
The first introduced and successfully nonperishable Betty Crocker cake mix was Ginger Cake, soon to become Gingerbread Cake and Cookie mix (G.-[Lebkuchen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebkuchen)). There might also be a German tradition in Betty Crocker’s stock and trade, Devil’s Food Cake (G.-Teufelstorte, Nahrung/Kuchen des Teufels, u.s.w.), but that is debatable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-german-cuisine-more-popular-in-the-us/462848.md?page=6)