My hypothesis, even before reading the thread and seeing **dropzone **and **cracka **making the same one, is that traditonal American cuisine is nothing more than German cuisine made our own. Hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, deviled eggs, and apple pie are quintessential picnic foods here, and they’re all very German.
What we think of in that line is mostly Bavarian, anyway - that heavy-duty Oktoberfest fare. My gg’s were known to make potato pancakes on the odd Sunday morning, but they were a treat, not a staple.
Go to a German deli, like Koglin’s in Grand Central Station, and you’ll see a lot of chilled salads (potato, beet, meats and such) in addition to the ubiquitous charcuterie and kraut dishes.
To add to the thought that most German food is already just part of “American” food, I’ll note that the things which didn’t make it into the standard are mostly spicy chunks of all the bits of the animal you never wanted to know about.
You’ll notice that while hamburgers are fairly common, you’ll rarely find the precursor which was just the patty (no bun) with a lot of spices and onion and whatnot mixed in. I’ve had it in Japan and frankly find it pretty gross.
Hotdogs and hamburgers made it through because they became bland and thus could be paired with your choice of condiment, be it ketchup, mayo, or sauerkraut.
Oh my god, this thread has given me such a bratwurst craving! I am going to take my boyfriend downtown for german food next week! Mmm, bratwursteses…
Some of it might be distribution of the immigrants also. There certainly is no shortage of German and East European cooking here in the Midwest. Go to Cleveland’s West Side Market sometime and you’ll find over 150 types of sausage. One local sausage maker just down the street from me has 12 different types of bratwurst alone.
And besides German, there are Czech, Polish, Lithuanian, Slovenian, and every other Eastern European nationality you can think of. (Even President Clinton had to stop and try the pierogies! :))
And Amish Country is not too far away, with large concentrations in Holmes county, among others. (Most people don’t realize there are more Amish in Ohio than Pennsylvania.)
So visit us here in “flyover country” sometime if you want German or East European food.
Exactly what I was going to say. Sure, the grandmothers still cook up a storm on Sundays and holidays, and they sure do love to put gravy and sauces on everything, but to be honest, most Germans I knew in Berlin would prefer Italian or Chinese restaurants.
When I lived in Berlin, I probably went to dinner at a restaurant serving German food maybe every two months or so, tops. Even the best German restaurants - the pricey, fancy establishments or hotel restaurants - might possibly have one or two items of German food on their menu, but mostly it was French or Italian or some other nationality.
To be honest, traditional German food is quite good, but unless you want to weigh 400 pounds and die of a heart attack by the time you are 30, you won’t want to eat it very often.
Italians also immigrated to the US more than a century ago. Granted, they still kept on coming into the 1920s, but so did other groups such as Poles and Ashkenazi Jews.
I grew up in a region with a massive Polish-American population, but I can only count the number of Polish restaurants I know of there on the fingers of one hand. (That’s not including small sausage stands at an old-time market in the city.) There’s tens of Polish hole-in-the-wall bars, but they tend to serve old-time pub group. Meanwhile, there’s literally hundreds of Italian restaurants and independent pizzerias in the region.
A WAG as to the rarity of German restaurants in the US: maybe it’s because German cuisine really isn’t that much different than American comfort food.; beef, potatoes, vegetable-based soups, bread rolls, condiments such as mustard and horseradish, and so on.
FWIW, one of the best German restaurants I’ve ever been to is in El Paso, of all places.
EDIT: beaten on the “German food is almost like American food” opinion.
We have a FANTASTIC hole in in the wall German place here in town, and every time we go there the next day my boyfriend just can’t resist telling me all the lurid details of his “Schnitzel Shit”.
You BF considers a veal cutlet shit an event?
I’m not so sure about other ethnic groups, but in some of my family research, I’ve found that the Germans (Poles as well) tended to come to this country in family groups. Mama likely did the cooking at home and there was no need to go to a restaurant, tavern or pub to eat.
Other groups, Chinese, Italians and Mexicans come to mind, the men tended to emigrate before bringing their families over. They had to eat somewhere. Others in their ethnic group saw a business opportunity and ran with it.
Just a WAG.
Wow, ignorance being fought here, I never knew that I use the German method of knitting!
A sizeable German-speaking community has set up in my part of town, so that there is a wonderful German bakery nearby, as well as an excellent German restaurant. The food is a little heavy, fat, salty, so that it is not exactly in line with current food habits.
More on the “German food has been assimilated theme:
Schnitzel = breaded pork tenderloin, fritter
Jager schnitzel = with mushrooms on it
Holsteiner = with a fried egg on it
Rahm = with a cream sauce, chicken fried steak
Wener = plain
Sauerbraten = pot roast
Kartoflen puree = mashed potatoes
Pom frits = french fries
Hackflesh = hamburger
Remember a great deal of the Great Lakes, the Central Plains, the old Northwest Territory and East Texas was settled either initially or in the second wave by German immigrants and they adapted their menu items to the local conditions. Those things are now the local American food items.
Even earlier, there were sizable German immigrant communities in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Chickenfried steak is evidently a descendant of sauerbraten.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beef/ChickenFriedSteak.htm
That’s one link, I’ve heard the link between the two many times.
You want a fun odd fusion? Mexican lyrics to oompahpah german music. Ahhh…I do love Texas. (but it’s awful if you hate accordians).
And there are large German heritage communities in Texas still. Google Fredicksburg.
Meh, Chicken Fried Steak is just Beef Schnitzel…
Even if it’s completely wrong, I love this theory. Great observation.
Hot-dog-ization and potato-salad-ification makes sense as one explanation for where all the German food went. (Kind of the culinary equivalent of dinosaurs becoming birds, rather than disappearing outright.)
On the other hand, we eat a lot of mac and cheese, pizza, and spaghetti in this country, too, but we’ve also still got a lot of mid-level and fine dining restaurants that specialize in Italian food. Given that apparently Kochkunst isn’t all that popular even in Germany, is it partly a matter of German cuisine not being all that tasty, even to Germans?
Hey, if you want schnitzel, come to Israel - we’re the schnitzel capital of the world!
Of course, Israeli schnitzel is made of chicken or turkey breast, and eaten in a pita. With hummus.
I think you mean “Wiener Schnitzel.” Sauerbraten is more like a pot roast.
Think of it from the restaurant’s point of view. How long does it take to fill a burrito? Stir fry some chicken? Slap a pizza in the oven? 5 minutes?
How long does it take to whip up some Wiener Schnitzel?
A lot of German food takes time to prepare and doesn’t easily adapt to fast food mass production.
We went to Schmidt’s on my birthday! Excellent schnitzel!