GERMAN Cuisine
Physical Geography
The third largest country in
European Union lies in the
heart of the Europe
Four regions
Northern Plain: from the board
of Netherlands to that of
Poland: flat plains dotted with
small lakes, marshes, heaths
and undulating hills on the
east.
The Central Mountain
Range:complicated patch
work of mountains, rivers, and
valleys (Mittelgebirge).
Alpine Foothills: triangle
shaped, boarded by the
Danube in the north, Lake
Constance in the west, city of
Passau in the east
South: small section of Alpshighest mountain in Germany.
Climate and land use
• temperate and marine; cool, cloudy,
wet winters and summers;
occasional warm foehn wind;
Moselle and Rhine valleys have
mild climate where vine grows, the
southern and eastern parts and
high elevations have cold winters of
continental climate, microclimate of
island of Mainau in Lake Constance
even permits the palm trees and
lemons.
• 55% for crops, meadows, and
pastures, 30% forest, 14% cities
(2004 est.)
• Dense populated country (589
people on every square miles
compared to 70 in the U.S.)
Agricultural
• Crops: sugar beet, wheat, barley,
potatoes, rye, and hops.
• Meat: a main source of income for
most German farmers; pig farming
in the north and west, cattle, sheep
in the south and poultry in the
south and east.
• Agricultural meets 80% of its
population needs, imports are fish,
butter, eggs, fruit, and vegetables.
Staples Food
Potatoes: King Frederick (17th century)
announced that those peasants who
refused to plant potatoes would have their
nose and ears cut off.
Bread (wheat, rye): not as side, but as main
food especially in breakfast
Vegetables
Cabbage, turnips, dried split peas and lentils
Fruits cooked with meat, as relishes, in
salad, and desserts
Apples
Pears
peaches
Nuts are used in appetizers,
entrees, sauces, and sweets
Meat
Creative ways of using meat: tongue is
extremely popular, also brains, sweetbreads
(the thymus of a young animal), heart, liver,
kidneys, neck bones, the knuckles, skins,
feet, and ears; beef marrow used in
dumplings and in stews.
Pork
Veal
Deer
Rabbits
Wild games
Food changes
• Past eating habit: diet of
potatoes, sausages, and
sauerkraut (washing down with
beers).
• Recently became international:
1960s immigrants from countries
around the Mediterranean
(Greek, Italian, Spanish, Turkish,
Yugoslavian); Chinese, Thai,
Indian are also around.
• New generations became more
health conscious and turned to
lighter food
Staple cuisines cannot be replaced
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German bread (200 kinds)
Sausages (1,500 varieties)
Potatoes (more methods to prepare it
than any other western food)
Typical breakfast: butter, cheese,
salami, sliced meat, boiled eggs, tea or
coffee, orange juice, cereal, yogurt, rolls
(crunchy-crusted Brötchen).
Lunch is the hot meal: meal of the day
Four o’clock: coffee and cake time
(numerous selection of sweets)
Dinner is light: bread, cheese, sliced
meats, salads, pickled cucumbers.
Bread: has a bread museum
• Weuzenbrot: light,crusty
baguette-style French bread
• Roggenbrot: rye bread made
from sourdough.
• Vollkornbrot: made by rough
ground kernels
• Leinsamenbrot: a rye bread
with linseed
• Pumpernickel: baked long time
16-24 hours) under a low
temperature
• Brötchen: rolls
• Stollen: Christmas bread (or
cake) with sugar on the top,
dry and rich, filled with nuts
and fruits.
Sausages
• Each region has different specialties
mostly made with pork products and
some with beef and other meats
• Leberwurst: coarse, pork liver and
pork sausage. (use as a spread on a
piece bread)
• Bratwurst: pork and veal (for frying)
• Knockwurst: smoked, heavily
seasoned with garlic, spicier than
hotdog
• Weisswurst: white veal sausage
made with cream and eggs (boil)
• Frankfort (hotdog)
• Blutwurst: blood sausage or pudding
• Hot mustard, sauerkraut, and
horseradish are common condiments
Regional Sausages styles
•North Germany – spicy sausage
•Nuremburg (Southeastern
Germany)– finger size sausage – all
sausage has to come from the city
Examples:
• Berlin
• Munich
• Frankfurt
Berlin
• Berlin Currywurst
(diced bratwurst)
• Fast food – served at
lunch stands
everywhere
• Sausage cut into
sections, covered in
tomato sauce,
sprinkled with paprika
and curry powder
Munich
• Weisswurst ( white sausage,
also called bockwurst)
• Made of calf’s head, veal, and
seasoning - boiled
• Tradition says you must eat it
before you hear the chimes at
midday
• Weisswurst etiquette –
remove sausage from bowl of
hot water, cut in half, dip in
mustard, then suck the
sausage out of its casing
• Only eaten with pretzels and
beer – nothing else!
Frankfurt
• Frankfurter – made all
over Germany, but must
be called frankfurters in
this region
• Made of lean pork, bacon
fat, salt, and spices
• Put into a casing and
smoked, has a yellowish
tint – long and thin
sausages
Based on two cooking books
POULTRY
bacon
pork
ham
62
41
17
beef
veal
liver
chicken
lamb/mutton
duck
venison
rabbit
partridges
pheasants
30
24
15
12
9
7
3
2
2
2
AND
MEAT
butter
eggs
milk
white stock
cheese
beef stock
turkey
goose
escargots
ox tail
ox brains
calf's head
sheep's tongue
81
80
30
24
22
17
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
SEAFOOD
herring
anchovies
haddock
eel
salmon
trout
sole
mackerel
pike
flounder
carp
17
10
7
7
5
4
4
3
3
3
2
oysters
shrimp
mussels
sardines
turbot
codling
crayfish
codling
perch
red snapper
lobster
caviar
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Based on two receipt books
onions
potatoes
celery
carrots
lemons
apples
leeks
tomatoes
cucumbers
mushrooms
currants
cabbage
asparagus
beetroot
peas
lettuce
spinach
pears
raisins
rice
juniper berries
chesnuts
cherries
FRUITS
171
60
49
35
35
32
24
20
17
15
14
12
10
10
8
8
8
7
7
7
6
5
5
AND
VEGETABLES
plums
melons
raspberries
cauliflower
oranges
strawberries
beans
apricots
green beans
gherkins
turnips
corn
grapes
red peppers
green peppers
lentils
prunes
parsnips
artichokes
peaches
pineapples
walnuts
radishes
5
5
5
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
HERBS
black pepper
salt
parsley
nutmeg
peppercorns
sugar
garlic
cinnamon
thyme
majoram
sage
tarragon
shallots
cloves
98
90
87
44
36
35
30
25
22
19
16
16
16
15
caraway seeds
paprika
dill
mustard
chervil
cayenne pepper
horseradish
rosemary
watercress
ginger
sorrel
basil
vanilla
mint
15
11
10
10
10
9
9
8
5
4
3
2
2
1
Cooking Methods
• Meat is usually roasted
• Sausages are grilled, pan fried,
sautéed
• Vegetables boiled, fried,
sautéed
Sauces
• Horseradish, Sauerkraut, and
remoulade sauces are common
• Others include anchovy,
beetroot, carrot, asparagus,
cucumber, cauliflower, egg
mustard, onion, mushroom,
herring, nuts, fruits.
A sauce is often made of the liquid
of vegetables and vegetables
served in the sauce
Popular dishes
• Sauerkraut
• Klosse
• Spaetzel (fluffy egg)
• Stollen (Christmas cake)
Sauerkraut
• Cabbage that has been
salted, shredded, and
fermented for weeks
• Word means “sour
cabbage” in German
• Chinese invented it over
2300 years ago
Klosse
• Light bread balls
• Consists of bread, eggs,
herbs, and either meat,
poultry, or fish
• Not to be confused with
English dumplings which are
heavy, Klosse are light, puffy
bread balls (sometimes made
of potatoes)
Spaetzel
• Traditional German pasta
• Thicker noodles than
Italian pasta
• Made with eggs, flour,
butter, water, salt
• Traditionally egg based,
but modern times has
seen outside influence
and more pasta is made
with wheat
Stollen
• Hundreds of German bread
recipes
• Bread is an important part
of meals, eaten for
breakfast and not
considered a side dish
• Stollen popular – traditional
Christmas bread
• Is a dry, rich cake with
powdered sugar on top –
can be made with fruits
and nuts
Beer
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Often consumed during meals (2 quarters of beer
in one evening is not uncommon)
All regions have their specialized beer (ranging 2
to 28% alcohol); Each town has at least one
brewery, and local people drink local beer
Pilsner beer: most commonly brewed
Lighter beer is called “hell”, darker ones called
“dunkel”
Beers delivered to customer in Munich like milk
was delivered, except customers bring out their
own jugs to be filled.
Bavaria has 1600 brewers (beer county)
North Germans: lighter in both alcohol and color
and drink chilled beers; south Germans: dark and
sweet beer at room temperature
Most German beer in the US comes from the
North – Becks
Germans frown upon imported beers – because
they don’t adhere to the Reinheitsgebot – a
source of pride of Germans
Reinheitsgebot: early years’ type that used barley,
hops, and water (no yeast used)
Munich
• Paulaner
• dark wheat (weizen)
beer
• Don’t chug beer like
this
• Oktoberfest favorite
• Hefeweizen and
strong Bock beers
also popular
Berlin
• Berlin Weisse (white
beer)
• Fruity/tart wheat beer
• Most kinds have fruit
syrup added
Hamburg
• Dry pilsner lagers –
unlike sweet pilsners
in Bavaria
• Czech brewers in
their town of Pilsen
took legal action
against German
brewers
• Shortened to Pils in
Germany
Dussledorf
• Alt beer (old beer)
• Bitter beer
• Often consumed with
cheese
Cologne
• Kolsch beers
• Pale ales
• If your in Cologne, you
drink Kolsch and nothing
else – as the locals do
• Bad form to ask for it in a
pub, wait to be offered a
beer
• Kolsch as a name can
only be used in Cologne
– extends for entire EU
Wine and other spirits
• white wine is most popular, and
Riesling wine is the
predominant kind, which is also
the dominant cooking wine
• Weinbrand (burst wine) is the
German name for brandy made
from wine. Example: Asbach
Uralt
• Spirits are made from fruits
such as cherries (Kirsch- nicer
than sleep pills), pears, plums,
raspberries, blackberries.
Pork knuckles
Eels, fried potatoes, eggs (northern German)
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Anderson, Jean and Wurz, Hedy. The New German Cookbook. New York: Harper
Collins, 1993
Bernstein, E. Culture and Customs of Germany. Greenwood Press., Westport,
Connecticut, 2004.
Lewis, D., J. Schwitalla, and U. Zitzlsperger. Contemporary Germany. Arnold,
London, 2001 .
Wason, B. The Art of the German Cooking. Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden
City, New York, 1967.
Whitfield, Nella. Cooking the German Way. New York: Spring Books, 1958
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http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Cuisine-of-Germany
http://www.geometry.net/basic_g/german_cooking_page_no_2.php
http://www.krispkraut.com/glkraut/about+kraut/faq/default.asp
http://aquanic.org/publicat/govagen/fas/gm5062.htm
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http://lerayonvegetarien.chez.tiscali.fr/recettes/spaetzel/11.jpg
http://www.absolut-mecklenburg.dc/root/portal/public/3/pics/klosse100.gif
http://sbbakingco.com/products/images/stollen.jpg
http://www.thehouseatthebridge.com/TravelInfo/CurryWurst.html
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/munich/0099020001.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A653744
http://www.internationalreports.net/europe/germany/hesse/2003/thefrankfurter.html
http://www.esn-network.com/46.0.html
http://www.germanfoods.org/consumer/beerforeverypersonality.cfm
http://www.germanbeerguide.co.uk/styles.html
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Acknowledge: Jeffery A. Foster contributed material and pictures
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