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The Cuisines of Germany: Regional Specialties and Traditional Home Cooking
This impressive work will appeal to culinary historians and cooks alike. Food writer Scharfenberg has gathered together hundreds of Germany's traditional and regional specialties, prefacing each recipe with notes on the origin and cultural and culinary background of the dish. He has sought out little-known regional creations and resurrected unfairly forgotten dishes; there are contemporary versions of traditional favorites as well as classic renditions. Scharfenberg's readable style and sense of humor add to the appeal of the book.
511 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 6, 2023
This book got on my radar when i was looking up the origins of some dishes every so often... and one of them was 'the origins of Swiss Steak'
which isn't really found in Switzerland
So i found the Wine Lovers Page
[definately a fun thread!]
quote
So I had to go do some digging. It was no surprise to find out, firstly, that you can't order this dish in Zurich. Giving something a foreign name back in the day was a linguistic way of identifying something as different from the normal way of doing things, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and swissing , according to John Mariani's Dictionary of American Food & Drink , was an English term for rolling and pounding cloth flat which was then adopted as a food term for the process of pounding flour into meat as a preparation for braising.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines swiss steak thusly: "A round steak pounded with flour and braised in stock with vegetables." Webster's agrees, and mentions "smothered steak" as another name for the same dish. James Beard's 1949 The Fireside Cookbook mentions simply a braised beef "sometimes called Swiss Steak."
Cooking in America 1840-1945 by Alice McLean agrees. The base recipe cited by every one of these sources involves tougher cuts (round, chuck or shoulder) treated to a long, slow braise with acidic canned tomatoes as the base of the braising liquid. The recipe differs mildly in quantities, but basically they are conceptually the same recipe as appears in Bob's grandmother's 1943 edition of the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook (and amusingly, very unlike my mother's.) It is approximately 2 lbs of beef and 1/2 cup or more of flour, wherein the flour is "pounded into the meat until the meat will accept no more", browned in drippings, and then braised with a can of tomatoes, chopped onion and whatever stock or water is needed to create enough braising liquid. Salt and pepper are the only two seasonings.
According to Silvia Lovegren's Seven Decades of Fashionable Food , though the recipe first appeared in print in 1924, it didn't appear in cookbooks until the 40's "the method points to Pennsylvania Dutch origins" but that's conjecture and there's no evidence of who first made the dish. Regional cookbooks of the time describe it as a Wyoming specialty, and it was also spotted by one Clementine Paddleford in Indiana. What does seem undisputed is that it's popularity surged during the post-WWII years when the better, tenderer cuts of beef became too expensive for the average pocketbook.
---
Interesting subject, Jenise. The OED found a couple of very interesting uses of the name:
1932 E. CRAIG Cooking with Elizabeth Craig 175 Swiss Steak... Take a..2 pound slice of steak. Sprinkle thickly with flour. Pound... Brown steak on both sides.
1947 L. P. DE GOUY Gold Cookery Bk. vi. 345 Swiss Steak. The original name of this recipe was ‘Schmor Braten.’ It is three centuries old.
1973 Black Panther 12 May 10/1 Safeway was charged with..mislabeling swiss steaks as round steak for an extra profit of ten cents per pound.
---
Interesting topic. My father used inexpensive roast cuts, or rump roast etc. (cuts that make good stews, in other words), braised slowly in tomato sauce with herbs and (I think) garlic. I remember them being not bad, once cooked long enough to be tender. (With patties shaped from ground beef instead, he called them Salisbury steaks.)
Whatever the name or its US history, this is a type of braise with many variations around Italy. There they make "drunken pork" where the liquid is mixed wines plus tomato puree. Or a type of pot roast where you lard a big piece of meat with garlic, then braise it long with tomato puree, chopped mixed vegetables, and herbs. Basically these dishes are versions of stews with the meat in a different shape. Though I agree a good tender piece of meat is best when just cooked, braising moves beyond "well done" to gradually tenderize the meat, and dishes with flavorful ingredients in the braise put something into the meat as they leach out its juices -- which then are retained in the sauce.
Meat braises like this with their bold savory sauce serve up very well -- very well indeed, Clive Coates would add -- with noodles, spaetzle, etc.
---
Origin of Swiss Steak: tough meat.
---
Yes, I was checking this in some standard cookbooks. Louis De Gouy begins "The original name for this recipe was 'Schmor Braten.' It is three centuries old." [In 1947.] De Gouy browns a 3-pound piece of round steak, then braises with water, onion, and a big bouquet garni for an hour, then adds tomato puree and a little mustard; "continue simmering for another hour, or until done, and the meat may be cut with a fork."
Scharfenberg in his modern German cookbook gives, as "Swiss Steak," an updated version of a 1790 Germanic recipe for braised Sirloin. In this case the meat is larded, then braised in its own drippings, without added water. Today, "In Germany, this dish would be prepared with a less formidable cut called the Blume," approximately a rump steak. Scharfenberg's German name for this particular dish is Mürbraten auf Teutsch.
That entry (to speak as a practical cook) follows after Scharfenberg's very useful Westphalian stew recipe "Beef Hot Pot with Pepper," Pfeffer-Potthast, a glorious and emphatically recommended meat-onion stew cooked in beer but flavored unusually with lemon slices, allspice, and lots of black pepper, and thickened with crushed rusks.
Forgot to add: This thread contributed to a choice of cooking yesterday, Grilled Salisbury Steaks Belmont, from the US classic Gourmet Cook Book (1950).
Sort of dish that used to be popular in US, other relatives are in plenty of mid-century cookbooks.
Fresh ground beef mixed with chopped sweet pepper, onion, crushed garlic, chives, lots of parsley, dried paprika, salt, pepper, and a little thyme. Shaped into individual steaks, left to diffuse flavors for a while and come up in temp. for easier broiling (the raw "steaks" had an appealing herb-vegetable aroma), broiled fast until done to taste.
Served with a rice-vegetable pilaf and an old-fashioned steak sauce prepared separately (also in the original recipe) by cooking butter, lemon juice, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, mustard, pepper, a little mace (important ingredient), and sherry.
---
unquote!
which isn't really found in Switzerland
So i found the Wine Lovers Page
[definately a fun thread!]
quote
So I had to go do some digging. It was no surprise to find out, firstly, that you can't order this dish in Zurich. Giving something a foreign name back in the day was a linguistic way of identifying something as different from the normal way of doing things, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and swissing , according to John Mariani's Dictionary of American Food & Drink , was an English term for rolling and pounding cloth flat which was then adopted as a food term for the process of pounding flour into meat as a preparation for braising.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines swiss steak thusly: "A round steak pounded with flour and braised in stock with vegetables." Webster's agrees, and mentions "smothered steak" as another name for the same dish. James Beard's 1949 The Fireside Cookbook mentions simply a braised beef "sometimes called Swiss Steak."
Cooking in America 1840-1945 by Alice McLean agrees. The base recipe cited by every one of these sources involves tougher cuts (round, chuck or shoulder) treated to a long, slow braise with acidic canned tomatoes as the base of the braising liquid. The recipe differs mildly in quantities, but basically they are conceptually the same recipe as appears in Bob's grandmother's 1943 edition of the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook (and amusingly, very unlike my mother's.) It is approximately 2 lbs of beef and 1/2 cup or more of flour, wherein the flour is "pounded into the meat until the meat will accept no more", browned in drippings, and then braised with a can of tomatoes, chopped onion and whatever stock or water is needed to create enough braising liquid. Salt and pepper are the only two seasonings.
According to Silvia Lovegren's Seven Decades of Fashionable Food , though the recipe first appeared in print in 1924, it didn't appear in cookbooks until the 40's "the method points to Pennsylvania Dutch origins" but that's conjecture and there's no evidence of who first made the dish. Regional cookbooks of the time describe it as a Wyoming specialty, and it was also spotted by one Clementine Paddleford in Indiana. What does seem undisputed is that it's popularity surged during the post-WWII years when the better, tenderer cuts of beef became too expensive for the average pocketbook.
---
Interesting subject, Jenise. The OED found a couple of very interesting uses of the name:
1932 E. CRAIG Cooking with Elizabeth Craig 175 Swiss Steak... Take a..2 pound slice of steak. Sprinkle thickly with flour. Pound... Brown steak on both sides.
1947 L. P. DE GOUY Gold Cookery Bk. vi. 345 Swiss Steak. The original name of this recipe was ‘Schmor Braten.’ It is three centuries old.
1973 Black Panther 12 May 10/1 Safeway was charged with..mislabeling swiss steaks as round steak for an extra profit of ten cents per pound.
---
Interesting topic. My father used inexpensive roast cuts, or rump roast etc. (cuts that make good stews, in other words), braised slowly in tomato sauce with herbs and (I think) garlic. I remember them being not bad, once cooked long enough to be tender. (With patties shaped from ground beef instead, he called them Salisbury steaks.)
Whatever the name or its US history, this is a type of braise with many variations around Italy. There they make "drunken pork" where the liquid is mixed wines plus tomato puree. Or a type of pot roast where you lard a big piece of meat with garlic, then braise it long with tomato puree, chopped mixed vegetables, and herbs. Basically these dishes are versions of stews with the meat in a different shape. Though I agree a good tender piece of meat is best when just cooked, braising moves beyond "well done" to gradually tenderize the meat, and dishes with flavorful ingredients in the braise put something into the meat as they leach out its juices -- which then are retained in the sauce.
Meat braises like this with their bold savory sauce serve up very well -- very well indeed, Clive Coates would add -- with noodles, spaetzle, etc.
---
Origin of Swiss Steak: tough meat.
---
Yes, I was checking this in some standard cookbooks. Louis De Gouy begins "The original name for this recipe was 'Schmor Braten.' It is three centuries old." [In 1947.] De Gouy browns a 3-pound piece of round steak, then braises with water, onion, and a big bouquet garni for an hour, then adds tomato puree and a little mustard; "continue simmering for another hour, or until done, and the meat may be cut with a fork."
Scharfenberg in his modern German cookbook gives, as "Swiss Steak," an updated version of a 1790 Germanic recipe for braised Sirloin. In this case the meat is larded, then braised in its own drippings, without added water. Today, "In Germany, this dish would be prepared with a less formidable cut called the Blume," approximately a rump steak. Scharfenberg's German name for this particular dish is Mürbraten auf Teutsch.
That entry (to speak as a practical cook) follows after Scharfenberg's very useful Westphalian stew recipe "Beef Hot Pot with Pepper," Pfeffer-Potthast, a glorious and emphatically recommended meat-onion stew cooked in beer but flavored unusually with lemon slices, allspice, and lots of black pepper, and thickened with crushed rusks.
Forgot to add: This thread contributed to a choice of cooking yesterday, Grilled Salisbury Steaks Belmont, from the US classic Gourmet Cook Book (1950).
Sort of dish that used to be popular in US, other relatives are in plenty of mid-century cookbooks.
Fresh ground beef mixed with chopped sweet pepper, onion, crushed garlic, chives, lots of parsley, dried paprika, salt, pepper, and a little thyme. Shaped into individual steaks, left to diffuse flavors for a while and come up in temp. for easier broiling (the raw "steaks" had an appealing herb-vegetable aroma), broiled fast until done to taste.
Served with a rice-vegetable pilaf and an old-fashioned steak sauce prepared separately (also in the original recipe) by cooking butter, lemon juice, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, mustard, pepper, a little mace (important ingredient), and sherry.
---
unquote!
April 27, 2022
great source guide for pre and post WWI German cooking by region
May 23, 2012
If you are looking for the traditional recipes that your German ancestors used, this is the source. This book is both a standard cookbook as well as the history of regional food in Germany. A rarity today in books, this cookbook even includes a map of Germany. The first part of the book discusses food in each section of Germany with the recipes following later in the book. Because of the historical borders of Germany, even some Polish cuisine is included. Each recipe includes its place of origin and a brief description of its use and history there. This book would be an excellent resource for someone attempting to learn about German food prior to an extended stay in Germany as it even includes German words for many of the foods described. I also highly recommend this book for genealogists who are trying to learn about their ancestry. While there are no photos of the food, the book has reproduced numerous historical black and white prints associated with the German history, places, food or cooking methods utilized.
August 24, 2015
An interesting look at not just the recipes from Germany, but also the history and contexts behind each recipe. Many of them are easy enough for modern readers to make in their kitchens although there are quite a few that have too many meaty odds and ends for me to consider.
May 14, 2016
wonderful history of each region and its foods
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews