KulturClub #1 Bavarian Cuisine

Hello Steemit!

Welcome to our first Kultur Club Blog posting! This is a trial run of this style of blog posting and we look forward to receiving feedback from the Steemit community! We hope that you enjoy learning about various aspects of our German culture as much as we enjoy sharing them with you.

In this first series of blog postings we will be talking about the different regional cuisines that can be found in Germany. When most people think of German food, they likely think of bratwursts and beer. While we Germans certainly enjoy a good bratwurst and beer, there is far more to German cuisine than these two items, with regional variants and specialties found throughout the country.

In keeping with our recent WanderLust travel series on Oktoberfest and Munich, we thought that we would begin the KulturClub series with a discussion of Bavarian cuisine.

As we discussed in our WanderLust posts, Bavaria is the southeastern most state in the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland), more commonly referred to as simply “Germany.” As a landlocked, traditionally rural region, Bavaria has what might be called a traditionally “meat and potatoes” style of regional dishes.

One feature of Bavarian Cuisine that some foreigners require some acclimating to is that, as with many types of sausages, Bavarian sausages make us of all the different parts of the animal. For example, Leberwurst is a type of sausage created entirely from spices and liver.

We have different favorite Bavarian dishes, but both of our choices are very popular and traditional dishes. Erika loves a traditional Schweinshaxe with Kartoffelknödel, or pork knuckle with potato dumplings. Johanna prefers a well-made Sauerbraten, a(n often) beef dish that takes a lot of patience to make, but that is well worth the wait. Sauerbraten is a type of pot roast that involves marinating the meat in a mixture of spices, seasonings, and red wine or vinegar for around a week before simmering it for a few hours. This marinating breaks down the meat and results in an extremely tender dish with a rich flavor profile.

Marinating the beef for Sauerbraten

The finished meal! Sauerbraten with red cabbage and potato dumplings

Schweinshaxe

In addition to kartoffelknödel, another popular side dish is Spätzle, a type of egg noodle that is sometimes combined with cheese. Although many people outside of Germany think about Sauerkraut when they think about a traditional German side dish made of cabbage, a more popular cabage dish for serving with Sauerbraten is rot kraut or red cabbage prepared in a similar manner to its white alternative.

If you are interested in a traditional type of Bavarian sausage, you can return to our WanderLust #3 posting where we show a lunch that we had during Oktoberfest comprised of Weißwurst, pretzel and mustard. Weißwurst, or white sausage, is a parsley-flavored sausage made from veal and often boiled and served in a large bowl as a group.

Now we get to the fun part, dessert! Johanna’s favorite dessert is a traditional Bavarian cream. This is a traditional cream and egg dish similar to flan that is often topped with a berry sauce. Johanna recommends trying it with raspberry sauce (Himbeer in German). Erika prefers an Apple Strudel. A traditional Apple Strudel is made by folding a pastry and filling it with tart apples, sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. People often add a little flour or bread crumbs to provide the filling with more body. This is usually served with a cream-based dish, often vanilla sauce drizzled on top.

Apple strudel with vanilla cream

We hope to hear from you and will incorporate your suggestions into our future posts. You can expect our next posting shortly and we will try to include any good suggestions that we see before that posting.

Auf Wiedersehen!
E&J