Few countries in Europe can boast of landscapes more beautiful or more
varied than those of Germany. By our Standards it is not a large country,
all in all) some one hundred and forty thousand square miles within the
reunifìed borders that include a wide variety of dialects, culinary influences,
architecture. crafts, and folk and religious customs. But in this area, just
a little smaller than Montana, there is every kind of terrain one finds in
the temperate zone. The north German province of Schleswig-Holstein is
a dramatically flat land of dune beaches, farms and windmills, picturesque
fìshing villages and the heather-blanketed Lüneburg Moors. Here you
find the handsome old cities of the Hanseatic League—Hamburg,
Bremen and Lübeck, the briny ports of the Balde, the North Sea and
the Elbe, with damp, chili climates and plenty of warm, snug inns
and taverns with off-yellow walls that always seem to look sunlit.
Travel from Hamburg to Cologne and the Rhinc country and you
are struck by the difference in the air, by the warm, soft climate
of this wine-growing region, a place of green tapestry landscapes
and vineyard-covered slopes. The Castles looming over the river will
take you back to the legends of the Lorelei and the Nibelungen,
and the romantic Heidelberg will recall the whole Gemütlichkeit
era of The Student Prince, set in the Schloss that rises above the
town. The “iron Rhine” is another matter altogether, with its indus-
trial cities along the Ruhr tributary—Dusseldorf and Essen, to name
just two.
In southern Swabia, the Black Forest, with its pine groves and
crystal-clear air, its fruit orchards and vineyards, its cuckoo-clock
chalets and Badekur spas, its casinos and its game forests, is a region
of Walpurgis legends and fairy tales. Here are luxurious hotels at which
the crowned heads of the world look the “eures” in the latter half of the
nineteenth Century, and to which a less celebrated but no less devoted
clientele still flocks all through the summer.
Bavaria, the laxgest state in West Germany, has always been the
archetype, the travel-poster ünage that Stands for all of Germany in the
minds of those who have not been there. It is divided into Upper Bavaria
in the south, Lower Bavaria in the north, the southern region being
upper by virtue of its loftier mountain ranges. Lower Bavaria consists
mainiy of the mountainous Franconia and its Romantic Road—die
Romantische Strasse—that runs from the baroque wine-producing city
of Würzburg to the old Fugger stronghold, Augsburg. Between these two
cities there is a chain of medieval towns, preserved but not restored.
Of them all, the walled town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber is the most
perfect set-piece, with its rampart6, towers and fortresses, Castles,
wrought-iron signs and fountains, and where the main hotel, the Eisen-
hut, is a series of antique burghers’ mansfons. In this area one sees a
unique pattern in half-timbering, called Wild Man—wilder Mann—in
which the crisscrossed arrangement of wood in the masonry looks like
a wild man with arms and legs flung akimbo.
Upper Bavaria is perhaps the best-known area of Germany, with its
Tyrolean overtones, its Alpine ski slopes and resorts such as Garmisch-
Partenkirchen and Berchtesgaden, and the passion-play, wood-carving
town of Oberammergau. Visit Hohenschwangau in the gentian-covered,
snow-capped Allgäu Alps, and the view from your hotel room will un-
doubtedly include the towering castle of Neuschwan stein, only one of the
three wild palaces of Bavaria’s gourmet king, the mad Ludwig II.
Munich, the capital of Bavaria. and its surroundings are dotted with
black onion-dome churches whose interiors are masterpieces of the
heavy German baroque style at its peak, and the area is jeweled with
clear blue lakes, emerald mountainsides and lush woodlands. This is
the home of Lederhosen and dirndls, gray Loden cloaks bound in green
braid, and some of the world’s best art museums. There is even more
variety to the German landscapes: the wild forests of the eastem porüon
of the country, most especially in Thuringia. the gracious old university
town of Hanover, the bustling business-minded Frankfurt that looks
like a transplanted American town, and dozens of beautiful and historic
places that I could go on listing, if space allowed me to. Each of these
areas has its own customs, differing styles of architecture, distinetive
dialects and special holidays.
The German cuisine is almost as varied as the terrain. Just as Bavaria
passes as the archetype for the entire country, so the food of that section
—the dumplings, sausages, beer, pork and cabbage dishes—represents
German cooking to the outside world. Delicious though the Bavarian
dishes may be, they hardly begin to give even a clue to the whole spec-
trum of German cooking—cooking which, by the way, is very poorly
represented in ihe German restaurants In our ovvn country. Unfortu-
nately, these restaurants always seem to lhnlt themselves to what might
be considered the clichés of German cooking, and even those are rarely
as well prepared as they should be. Uke the architecture, art, dialects
and customs, German food varies from one section to another, and tends
to match the cooking of the foreign border closest to it. Eastem Germany,
bordered by Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, flavors its dishes much
as those countries do, with caraway, paprika, sour cream and dried
mushrooms, and here one finds the largest dumplings, the most fréquent
use of Sauerkraut and pork. In Alsace-bordered Swabia, on the other
band, juniper flavors the Sauerkraut, as it does in the French province,
game specialties abound, and potatoes and dumplings are eclipsed by the
wide variety of noodle dishes, most especially the celebrated flecks of
noodle dough called Spätzle. Snails are favorite appetizers, and the rieh
creamy cheese, bacon or union tarts are as populär here as in neighbor-
ing Alsace and Switzerland. Wine and fruit brandies dislilled from the
products of local orchards are served as frequently as beer.
The Rhineland, being wine-land, features a cuisine that is lighter, less
spikcd with vinegar, and which puts a German accent on many dishes
that were French in origin. Schleswig-Holstein, long a part of Denmark,
has specialties close to those of that northern country. You see this in
the lavlsh use of butter, eggs and cream, in their seafood and herring
specialties, in the use of crab-flavored cream sauces on fish and in the
way they combine meat and herring in many dishes. Whipped cream
flavored with horseradish is favored here for carp and poultry sauces, as
in Denmark, and here too bakery Windows are füll of the butter-rich
yeast puff pastries which we call Danish pastry and which the Danes
and Germans know as Vienna bread (Wienerbrot).
Not even the names are the same, or intelligible, from one section to
the other. Ask for a “Halbes Hähnchen” in Berlin and youll get exactly
what you asked for—half a chicken; ask for it in Cologne and you will
get a cheese sandwich on a small round roll that looks like a chicken
breast, hence the name. A potato is a Kartoffel in the north, but an
“earth apple”—Erdapfel—in the south, a direct translation of “pomme
de terre.” Munich’s steamed pâté. Leberkäse, can almost never be found
in Bremen or Lübeck, and Hamburgs briny oysters served with a slice
of Cheshire cheese and a glass of red wine would shock the Berliner al-
most as much as it would you. The Holsteiners, by and large, think carp
served with the south German sauce of beer and gingersnaps is a trav-
esty on a fish they like with whipped cream. And the thick sauce of
the Rhineland Sauerbraten, made golden brown and velvety with cara-
melized sugar and flavored with raisins, is as différent from the thiii,
red-wine vinegar version made in Munich as it is from an Italian pot
roast seasoned with bay leaves and Chianti.
In spite of the fact that it is so badly represented in this country, Ger-
man cooking has more appeal to the average American palate than the
cuisine of any other foreign country. True, those of us who live in large
cities, especially along the coasts, have developed a taste for Mediter-
ranean food, but this is certainly not favored by the majority of people
in the Midwest and the South, Traveling through Germany, one con-
stanüy meets American tourists from these are as who agrée that the
food in that country is, for them, the best in Europe. It is a préférence
that is easy to widerstand, for the German seasonings, fats and food
combinations are more closely related to typical American cooking than
are the wine, tomato, garlic and herb seasonings of France or Italy.
Basically, Germans eat a meat-and-potatoes diet, as do most Americans.
The fats used are mainly butter, lard and bacon, and the German taste
for dishes that are sweet-and-sour, or for sweet condiments with meat
courses, is not too stränge when you consider the American prédilection
for pineapple and sugar on ham, cranberries and sweet potatoes and
marshmallows with turkey, and ail of the sweet relishes and pickles
served here with hamburgers and hot dogs. Those last two arc rcminders
of all the German dishes that have been adopted outright by Americans
—not only hamburgers and frankfurters, with or without the ever-
present Sauerkraut, but the jelly doughnut that was first the Berliner
Pfannkuchen; Boston cream pie, which in Germany is “Moor’s Head”;
the love of ham or bacon with fried eggs; the range of Christmas cookies
and even pretzels; and the old stand-by of ladies’ luncheons, creamed
chicken in a patty shell, that appears in every German Konditorei as
Königinpastetchen. Both German and American cuisines go better with
beer than with wine; both favor gravies rather than sauces; neither uses
much garlic or olive oil.
Germans have always been great traders and travelers, and thus have
developed a strong taste for the foods and seasonings of other countries
—always adjusted, however, to their own palates. The last time I was in
Hamburg I went to see a performance of Franz Lehâr’s Land of Smiles,
a typical Viennese operetta where the sentiment is as thick as Schlag-
obers. It tells the story of a Viennese gênerai and nobleman whose daugh-
ter falls in love with an Oriental (Laotlan, I believe) prince and am-
bassador. She tells her father that she plans to marry him and live in a
far-off Eastern land. The father asks sadly why she has chosen a man
whose home is so far away. Holding a small jade Buddha, she replies
in a warbling contralto voice, “Papa, ich liebe das Exotische . . .” It
Struck me that this love of the exotic is certainly reflected in the
German taste for food. All restaurant menus list specialties that are
prepared aecording to the styles of Italy, Spain, India, France, Hungary,
and so on. Many dishes are flavored with curry, and the aromatic spices
of the East had a place in German cupboards even before the ships of
the Hansa League brought them home. Any German city of moderate
size has several good foreign restaurants, much frequented by local peo-
ple. and food shops carry as many stränge and outré items as do ours.
Interest in food is enormous In Germany and it is fascinating to watch
people order in restaurants. There is much more careful choosing there
than in our own country and diners are rarely bound by menu catégories.
One mlght start with a plate of pale pink smoked salmon and then have
only an entrée of creamed wild mushrooms, regardless of whether these
were listed as appetizer and vegetable; a fish course may be ordered as
an appetizer; and an appedzer such as cold Lobster Mayonnaise might
be the entire meal.
This same practice of combining appetizers for a complète meal is
now populär here and is in keeping with the trend toward smaller
portions of a greater variety of foods. and our currenuy fashionable
“grazing” method of eating. Similarly, the German use of fruits with
nonsweet seafood and meat dishes anücipated France’s nouvelie
cuisine chefs, who act as though the idea they once shunned was theirs
in the first place.
Although this book’s main purpose is to tell you how to cook authentie
German meals at home, its secondary purpose is to serve as a somewhat
informai guide to anyone who would hke to eat his way around Ger-
many. Therefore it would seem convenient for you to have some idea of
the daily eating schedules in that country. Hotels serve you any kind of
brcakfast (Frühstück) >*ou want, but in rural homes it generally is a
pièce of bread, with or without butter, and a cup of coffee with milk. The
only common addition is a single soft-boiled egg, and schoolchildren
will probably have a hot cereal such as oatmeal or rice cooked with milk
and flavored with sugar and perhaps raisins. The larger morning meal—
“bread time” (Brotzeit) cornes at about ten-thirt>’ or eleven. This snack
varies with the locale. In Munich it consists of Weisswurst, bread and
beer, while in Cologne it would be the cheese sandwich. Halbes Hähn-
chen, described above. In Swabia the morning snack is the Vesper, which
consists of raw bacon on sour rye bread and a glass of kirsch, a combi-
nation that is known as Strammer Max in Berlin, where it is served with
Schnaps made of barley. In other parts of the country a local cured
ham, bacon or wurst is served, and anywhere it might be a cream pastry
or coffee cake in a Konditorei. Lunch is served at twelve. Traditionally
this was the big meal of the day, with the complète meat-and-potatoes
routine, and it still is in rural are as or where workers can get home for
lunch. Otherwise, office workers in large cities bring lunch from
home or eat in restaurants much as we do, and have their large meal at
night. At about four-thirty or five the wurst stands and Konditoreien are
jammed again, depending on whether one wants a hot dog and beer or
cake and coffee, and seven o’clock brings us to dinner. Those who had
their big meal for lunch now have a cold cheese-and-meat platter with
perhaps a rather rieh dessert, or a thick soup and a dessert made with
eggs or fruit. Those who had a light lunch now have their large meal.
Anyone awake at eleven or twelve eats again—wurst and cheese, open
Sandwiches, goulash soup, curry wurst, cake and coffee, according to
préférence and locale.
Restaurants in Germany are excellent, offèring varied menus, good
service and huge portions. As in Italy, there are various classifications of
restaurants, though the catégories are perhaps not as rigid as they once
were. In the top-price bracket you find the grills, dining ruoms and restau-
rants of the leading hôtels, which, with the luxury eating places, feature
food that is more Continental than German. More interesting are the
typically German restaurants: the Weinrestaurant or Weinhaus that
serves elegant food to go with wine and the Weinstube that does the
(Fasmachtkrapfen), but I can’t belleve that anyone does, considering
the alternate (and less calorie) enticements.
Bock beer season falls during Lent also; new spring beer and Bock-
wurst sausages are the specialties for that rime.
Holy Thursday, just before Good Friday and Easter, ls known as
Green Thursday (Gründonnerstag) in Germany. A creamed green soup
made of seven spring herbs or sìmply of new spinaci) is served on that
day, gamlshed with hard-cooked eggs that are sliced in half lengthwise
and tiny meat balls lightly browned in butter and poached in the soup.
Fried or poached eggs on a bed of creamed new spinach is the alternate.
Good Friday, known as Grieving Friday (Karfreitag) is the most im-
portant and solemn holiday throughout the country, in both Catbulic-
ami Protestant áreas. I will never forget being in Munich one Good
Friday and being told that any place I wanted to Visit was “geschlossen”
—closed. Never in my life hâve I been in a place so absolutely ge-
schlossened. But the churches were open and magnificent, their
altars banked with hyacinths, tulips and heavily perfumed tuberöses, and
rimmed by rows of glass bowls filled with red, yellow, blue, violet, and pink
and green water, each lit from behlnd by a single candie. Since thls is a
meatless fast day, various fish dlshes are served but none that is
especially tradì tional.
Easter (Oster) in Germany is the time for colored eggs, candy or
cake chicks, rabbits and lambs, as it is almost everywhere else. In
lì a varia, Easter breakfast includes bread that was blessed in church on
the previous day, a custom one also finds in eastern Europe. Throughout
Germany, bakery Windows are filled with Easter bread (Osterfladen), a
sweet yeast coffee cake similar to Stollen or the Italian panettone. But
the most dazzling sights of ali are the candy-shop Windows, crammed
with chocolate eggs of every slze, some encrusted with almond or hazel-
nut praliné, others decorated with candied violets or mimosa and
sugary sprays of pussy willows—the Kätzchen which are the favorite
harblngers of spring and which, incldentally, are what one receives
in church on Palm Sunday (Palmsonntag) instead of palm fronds.
Towering over the candy lambs, bunnies and chicks are the magnificent
roosters, with heads and combs of colored marzipan, chocolate bodies
and regal tails fanning out in ribbons of chocolate. If anyone can eat
after ali that cake and candy, the feature of the Easter dinner is ham
(Osterschinken), usuali y served with a puree of fresh or dried green
peas.
May i, May Day (Maitag) is a day of picnics, maypoles and the
woodrufT-scented white wine punch, the Maibowle, or its more sophisti-
cated counterpart, a bombe of Woodruff ice and strawberries.
The end of September ls the rime for Munlch’s Oktoberfest, a bit of
calendar juggling I have never quite understood, except that the festival
ends in October, so perhaps that explains it.
The third Sunday in October is a church consecration day called
Kirchweih. It is celebrated mostly in rural areas and is a sort of farmers’
Labor Day. If you were to visit a farmhouse on that day, you would be
greeted with beer and either the Kirchkucherl or Kirchnudeln crullers or
fritters, depending on which part of the country you were in.
November il is St. Martin’s Day, Martinmas, or, in German, der
Martinstag. St. Martin was the patron saint of geese, drinking and
merrymaking, and bis day is celebrated accordingly. By coïncidence,
geese are considered to be at their fattest and most succulent during this
season; stuffed with prunes and apples, they are served with chestnuts,
red cabbage or Sauerkraut, and with big dumplings to absorb the rieh
gravy—a stränge fate for geese on the day of their protector.
December 24, Christmas Eve (Weihnachtsabend oder Heiliger Abend)
is a meatless fast day for Catholics and the specialty is carp. In Swabla it
will probably be cooked with gingerbread or gingersnaps, while in Ba-
varia the Bohemian method prevails. Though Schleswig-Holstein is
Protestant and does not observe the meatless nillng, carp is something
of a tradition there also on this night and is served hot, poached, and
with clouds of whipped cream and grated horseradish. Rice pudding or
soufflé, or rice cooked with milk, is also something of a tradition on
Christmas Eve, mostly in northern Germany. Only one portion contains
an almond, and the one who recelves it gets a special prize.
December 25, Christmas Day (Christtag oder erster Weihnachtstag),
should be a day that honors the German talent for superb baking. Dozens
of kinds of cookies, large and small cakes, fruit breads and sweet yeast
breads like Dresden Stollen are all prepared for this day. Familles begin
baking four weeks ahead of time, during Advent, and by Christmas Eve,
homes are richly scented with ginger, cardamom, anise, nutmeg, vanilla
—everything, in fact, except frankincense and myrrh, which probably
wouldn’t taste so good anyway. AU of this Christmas baking is known
as Weihnachtsgebäck. In addition to cakes and cookies, a big feature of a
German Christmas is the marzipan or almond paste, which is colored
and shaped into fruits, vegetables, animais, angels and all sorts of
Yuletide signs and Symbols, as well as into the Hat glazed hearts
studded with citron and cherries which have been favorites of mine
since I was a child, though I haven’t been able to find them for years.
Goose, with the trimmings described above for St. Martin’s Day, is also
served for Christmas dinner, along with a plum pudding which might
be flambéed with nun, or covered with Vanilla or Foamy Wine Sauce.
December 31, New Year’s Eve (Silvester), is again a meaUess holiday
for Catholics and carp is featured. In some parts of northern Germany,
especially in Berlin, the fish is served unscaled and each person takes
one scale and keeps it as a good-luck token for the year ahead. New
Year’s Eve revelry usually winds up at midnight with a hot or flaming
wine punch.

How visitors found this page:

• difference between Weinhaus and Weinstube
• dusseldorf knuckle recipe
• german recipes schleswig holstein
• osterfladen bavarian
• swabian osterfladen
• what is osterschinken

Be Sociable, Share!

•