In the first part of my candy-making series, I have talked about the importance of the water content in candy-making. There I have discussed that most candy is an amorphous material instead of an ordered crystalline solid. We can distinguish two amorphous states: the rubbery state and the glassy state. Rubber is chewy whereas glass is hard and brittle. Whether you have a glass or a rubber depends on the water content of your candy. […]
What do Germans traditionally eat for Christmas? Roast goose, of course. My family is no different from that. However, there’s another dish that is also very popular during the holiday season in Southern Germany: Schäufele. The Schäufele (literally: shovel) is a cut of meat from the pork shoulder. It is called shovel because it looks like one. The Schäufele we have in Baden and Swabia is different from the Schäufele that you find in Franconia. […]
In my post about the history and production of sugar, I have already hinted that I will one day write about candy production because it is another one of these fascinating topics. The basis of all sugar confectionary is a mixture of sugar and water. And just like bread, which is basically just flour and water, countless different candies exist with a great variety of flavors and textures. It might seem that all these candies […]
Kaiserschmarrn can be as simple or sophisticated as you want it to be. In its simplest form, it’s just a torn apart German pancake. However, in most cases, it’s not prepared by accident but with intention. The recipe that I’m presenting to you here is one of the more sophisticated versions. It includes separating the egg yolks from the egg whites to get the Kaiserschmarrn extra fluffy. Opinions and tastes differ. Some people like Kaiserschmarrn […]
Before bread became affordable for anyone in Germany, a thick soup made from grains was commonly served as breakfast. This rice soup is a very noble version because rice is no indigenous German crop. Peasant versions of this soup have most likely been made from barley, oats, farro, or millet. However, rice really gives you the best texture and taste for this kind of soup. In Germany, thick soups like this one are classified as […]
I’ve talked about baking enzymes and sourdough technology before, but today I want to cover a very fundamental topic: How to bake bread. A lot of people online claim that you have to follow baking recipes exactly to get a good result. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. The best bread is baked by relying on intuition and not by strictly following a recipe. It’s very hard to write down a baking recipe […]
Beets are one of the tastiest vegetables because of their unique sweetness and flavor complexity. Some people find their earthy taste repelling but that is why I love them so much. There’s something addicting about beets that sets them far apart from other root vegetables like carrots or celeriac. The big downside of preparing beets is their long cooking time. They take forever to bake or boil. And while I like a lot of vegetables […]
Ok, ok… I know the pastry in the recipe picture doesn’t look like a cinnamon roll. It looks like a… croissant!? And yes, it is a kind of croissant. A very special kind that is popular in Northern Germany and known there as “Franzbrötchen”. It’s made from a flaky pastry called Danish pastry or “Plunderteig” in German. I refuse to call it puff pastry as many American recipe writers do because it is no puff […]
In German cuisine there are a ton of different soup dumplings. A clear beef consommé is traditionally the first course of a multicourse German meal. And because only sipping beef broth is a little boring there’s always some kind of dumpling floating inside. I’ve already shown you how to prepare semolina dumplings, pancake strips, and bacon dumplings. Today, I want to introduce you to egg custard. It’s also known as royale and is basically a […]
One of the most fascinating aspects of staple foods like bread, rice, or potatoes is that they are prepared so differently across the world. There are countless methods to prepare white rice. You can steam it, boil it, fry it, make it clumpy or loose, crispy or tender, salt it or not. The same is true for bread. Germans look for different qualities in bread than Americans, Africans, or Asians. If you speak a second […]
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