German Cuisine

Many people in other countries think German food is mostly about red meat, roasted or otherwise simply cooked. While it is true that Germany cuisine does include many beef, pork and game (wild board, rabbit and venison) dishes, as well as a vast variety of different sausages, there is also more to German food than red meat.

Some popular German dishes and recipes include:

* Schwenker – Pork steaks, grilled with onions and spices.

* Blood sausage (German: Blutwurst) – A sausage made from meat, blood and barley (similar to English “black pudding”). In the Rhineland it is traditionally made using horse meat. Pickled pig’s tongue may also be added (this is known as “zungenwurst”)

* Frankfurter sausage – A smoked pork sausage, similar but not identical to the American “frankfurter”.

* Sauerkraut – Cabbage finely sliced and then fermented. It can be eaten hot or cold, and is also used as a relish and as an ingredient in other dishes.

* Spatzle – German noodles made from flour, eggs and salt. It is eaten as a side dish, and used as an ingredient in other dishes, such “Linsen, spätzle und saitenw¨rstle” (with lentils and frankfurter sausages), “Kässpätzle” (fried or baked with grated cheese and onions), or “Krautspätzle” (with sauerkraut, onions and butter).

* Gaisburger marsch – Beef and potato stew, containing spätzle, and topped with fried onions in butter.

* Hasenpfeffer – A rabbit stew flavored with vinegar or wine.

* Labskaus – Corned beef boiled in broth with potatoes, onions, beetroot and herring or ham, and then fried in lard. Labskaus is traditionally served with rollmaps (pickled herring fillets).

* Saumagen – Spiced beef or pork with carrots and onions, cooked in a pig’s stomach (similar to Scottish haggis).