What? No German Recipes

"Tag des Deutschen Bieres"

For those of you who don't speak German that translates into "German Beer Day." 

I hadn't given the day much thought other than, "I should buy some German beer," but The Boss suggested I make brats. I liked the idea, but in that moment, I realized that other than brats, I had a limited knowledge of German foods and absolutely no idea how to cook any of them.  Seeing that I'm only four generations removed from Germany, and that I took German for a number of years while in college, I should have at least a little knowledge of German cuisine.

Nope. Brats, sauerkraut, and German potato salad is it.

Not only is that sad, it's cliched, which is even worse.

It was 4 pm... a Saturday... I had no German beer in the house... and I hadn't started the meal I planned for the evening. I knew I would have to do an internet search, run to the store for the ingredients, and then cook up whatever recipe I had found, so I settled for the traditional brats, kraut, and German potato salad dinner, but was determined to do my homework and have better recipes to cook by the time October hit.

Later I searched for German cuisine recipes in my usual go-to places. My favorite cookbooks failed me miserably. The few recipes they did have all relied on the brats and krauts theme. It seems that here in America, when people say German food they think strictly of sausages and cabbage, but it doesn't take a culinary genius to realize that real Germans don't eat that all the time, in fact, I'd be willing to bet they don't eat that even 20% of the time.

I turned to the internet next, and I have to say I was about as equally disappointed. I had to search much longer than I should have to push past the sausage and cabbage themed dishes to find recipes for other German foods I had heard of but had never tried nor made.

One of the more prominent recipes out there is German Beef Rouladen. It seems fairly easy to make and would appeal to the America idea of incorporating beef as a main dish. Others I found were Jaeger Schnitzel, Wiener Schnitzel, and Fleischkuechle. I had completely forgotten about a distinctly German dish called Hasenpfeffer, but I doubt I ever make that because finding, skinning, and stewing a rabbit isn't really practical given the circumstances. Plus, as a previous owner of a pet rabbit, I'd just seem odd to me.

I also found a website called GermanDeli.com which sells all sorts of German foods as well as other German items. I haven't purchased anything from them, so this isn't an endorsement, but maybe it's a place for us all to start.

So thanks again to The Boss, who in her own way, gave me another epiphany and sent me out in search of increasing my ever growing culinary arsenal.

Until Next Time...
Take a few minutes to watch Chef Uwe of GermanDeli.com make up a Rouladen.

mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Michael