German Recipes
Your German potato salad is a hit at your neighborhood barbecue! Your German strudel is the
first one to sell out at any bake sale! We think the whole world needs to know about it, and this
is the place to tell them. Show it off. Send us the list of ingredients, tell us what to do with them,
and if you can sprinkle a little history about the recipe on top of it, we’ll eat that up too!
I was born in Frankfurt am Main and lived there with my Oma and Opa till I was almost six years old. My mother married a fine American who brought us to Columbus, Ohio in 1958. My brother and sister were born here and neither one speaks German nor is very knowledgeable about German culture. Growing up, my mother always made traditional German dishes, especially for holidays, but she also worked hard to make her children as American as possible. She made sure we learned about Santa Claus, not Christkindl, and that our celebrations were as American as possible. Only the food and the Christmas eve timing remained true to what she had known at home in Frankfurt.
Now that she is living in Florida,and no longer cooks, it is up to me, as the oldest daughter, and the most “German,” to prepare the dishes for my family here in Columbus. Each Christmas, my niece Meghan requests that I make Rindsrouladen. My sister and her family bundle into the car and drive from about an hour away to spend Christmas eve with my husband and I. When they arrive, they ooh and ahh over my very German Weinachtsbaum and enjoy all the German treats that I have prepared. As soon as dinner is ready, we all dig in to the Rouladen, Salzkartoffeln, Spargl, Gebaekene Apfeln,Broetchen, und Rotkohl. It is a red, green and golden holiday extravaganza for the palette.
When we are stuffed and contented, we sip sparkling cider, Bier, or Wein as we sit round the candlelit tree and open our gifts. When we finally have room for dessert, we feast on the many German cookies that I spent a week mixing, rolling, forming, and baking. As much work as it is for me, I enjoy every moment, and I especially love telling my nieces about all the German traditions, including Christkindl.
This year, I promised to finally type up all the recipes so my nieces will have them and be able to pass them on as they begin families of their own. I look forward to the time when I won’t be the only one sharing these family treasures, and I can savor the moment I know they will not die with me.
Here is my (and my Oma’s and Mutti’s) very simple Rouladen recipe.
7-10 thinly sliced top round steaks
1/2 cup flour
1 large onion, thinly sliced
7-10 slices uncooked bacon (turkey bacon will work, too)
salt
pepper
red wine (1 Cup)
6 cups beef stock
2 cups quartered mushrooms
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Dredge the steaks to coat both sides with flour. Pound each steak thoroughly on both sides with a meat mallet till tender. Place one steak on a flat surface. Season lightly on one side with salt and pepper. Separate one onion slice into rings and spread rings over surface of steak. Place one bacon slice lengthwise down center of steak. Beginning at one end, roll steak up tightly with bacon and onion on the inside. Fasten with a toothpick and place in a large flat bottomed saucepan or skillet coated with oil. Repeat process with all steaks. When all are in the skillet, heat to medium and brown rolls on all sides. Turn off heat and pour wine in to scrape and deglaze bottom of the pan. Transfer steak rolls and liquid to slow cooker or deep saucepan (dutch oven). Add beef broth and mushrooms to pan. Set slow cooker on low or cover and turn heat to low under pan. Cook 6 hours in slow cooker or 90 minutes in pan. Remove steak rolls from liquid. Combine cornstarch with 1/2 cup water and stir slowly into liquid. Simmer and stir till thickened. Remove toothpicks from Rouladen and serve with gravy. Guten Apetit!
Has anyone ever heard of Knibbel - a pork recipe similar to Goetta or scrapple? I may not be spelling it right, but am desperate to find someone that knows of it or has a recipe.
Please email me!
Thanks!
Dear Emily,
I think the recipe that you are looking for might be “Knipp”. Enjoy cooking!
Knipp
1 kilo pearl barley
2 ½ lt. broth
750 gr. beef liver
250 gr. pork neck
500 gr. of fresh bacon rind
salt
pepper
cloves
1 ½ lt. meat broth
lard for broiling
You have to simmer the barley in the meat broth. Bring it to boil and let the liver cook in it. Put the liver with the bacon rind and the pork neck in a meat grinder. Then season it with salt, pepper and the cloves. Mix it with the barley, put everything into a cloth and let it simmer for another 2 hours in the broth.
Put the cloth away and roast the Knipp in lard until there is a crust. Serve it with potatoes and cucumber.
Knipp is a specialty of Bremen. Today, Knipp is mainly served in restaurants and tastes best after a winter walk.
I mke that rouladen . did know that’s what you call it.. my mom use to make it but without the wein and mushrooms…or beef stock… you can roll the meat as you do , brown and place in a caserole dish in oven for about a half hr, 45 min and make the gravy from pan residue as indicated but without the wein….it’s great with mashed potatoes or potatoe pancakes…
My name is Alex. I am from Sachsen Anhalt in Germany where i was born and raised. I move to the USA at the age of 19 about 11 years ago. One of our all time summer favorites is a recipe from my grandmother for cucumber salad….
2 cucumbers
1/2 onion
Sour Cream
Salt
Pepper
Vinegar
How to prepare: Cut cucumber in half and peel from the tip to the center. Either slice them in very thin slices or use a peeler. Add salt and let the cucumbers sit for an hour. Drain excess water from bowl. Cut up onions into small sqaures and add. Add Pepper. Add 1-2 cups of sour cream and vinegar (this should be done depending on your taste - we like more vinegar since it gives it the traditional taste). Mix together and let sit in frigde for at least 2 hours before serving.
Where can I find Schweinenacken (kamm)Pork Neck. I tried by Castco, Walmart, Meat market, nobody knows what this is.
oder Schweinehals
Go to your local butcher and ask for pork neck. If they don’t carry it on a regular basis, I’m confident they’ll be able to order it for you.
Depending on your location, most “regular” stores won’t have enough customers asking for it…
Good luck!
My grandparents came from the Bavarian forest area. Growing up every meal was based around the Potato Dumpling. My father would make them as big as giant snowballs,they were not fancy,just potatoes and flour. On Sundays my parents would make Grophens (Kraphens) a fried doughnut sprinkled with sugar. (very good warm).
Other dishes I remember, Flakels,( potato- flour squares fried in lard),Hoppel Doppel, eggs and leftover dumplings mixed together with bacon or sausage and fried
in a pan. Sulz and Souse, made with leftover pork scraps and lots of vinegar.
Does any one know a German recipe called Beltzanegel or something like that. It’s made with meat, water, barley, cream and vinegar.
Emily & Sarah,
We are looking for what may be the same recipe. In our family it was called “kanop”, sounds very similar your word “knipp”. I remember that it was in part made from a hog head, some beef, oatmeal, sage, etc. After cooking the meat, it was all ground together with a meat grinder and put in a crock jar. It is not hog head cheese, it looks more like breakfast pork sausage, there is no gelatin in it. You pan fry it for breakfast and serve with eggs. We still can not find the complete recipe. We have the basic ingredients, but are missing the key spices. If anyone knows, please let us know. We have been searching for years.
For those looking for meat as one would find it in Germany, like pork neck, pigs feet, souse, etc., go to Reading, Pennsylvania to the Fairgrounds Farmers market on route 222 north of Reading. They are open Thurs, Fri and Sat. Most of the people selling meat and produce are Pennsylvania Dutch. There are 3 or 4 meat stalls. If you cannot find what you want, they will get it for you.
Liebe Linda,
it was delightful to read your story, I’m so glad that you remember das Christkind which is really in the form of an angel we were always told as children (that’s why there was angel hair on our christmas trees). Also, remember the significance of the Adventskalendar and the Adventskranz(wreath), the anticipation of opening all those little doors and the 4 candles on the wreath?! Great, great memories!!!!!!!
Wanted to pass on to you that the secret to that special taste in Rouladen is mustard, pref. german style (Guldens is o.k.). You smear that on both sides of your meat prior to putting all the other goodies on there, also salt and pepper. If you don’t know it that way, try just a little bit at first; you can also season the gravy with it. Spaetzle are a great match. I always make mine in a Roemertopf (clay pot) for 60 to 90 minutes (depending on the meat) and they are just wunderbar! Guten Appetit!!
Ron, Emily, and Sarah:
Knipp. Thanks for validating my recipe search (also for years). I googled the history of Linn-Palmer Kansas web information and by chance fell on the Knipp recipe. My Kansas grandmother used to serve Knipp for breakfast when we visited in the sixties. This recipe is as follows:
Cook 2 beef hearts and 2 beef tongues in separate pans (I assume boiling because it uses 2 quarts reserved from the water from cooking the beef hearts). After cooling, skin the tongues. Grind the meat and mix together, set aside.
Next:
Mix together 4 lbs of ground beef (some might be ground pork if desired),
2 teaspoons allspice
4 teaspoons salt
2 quarts water from cooking hearts.
Cook this mixture in a large skillet using oatmeal to thicken. If too thick, add more heart water. No measure listed for oatmeal, just add until it thickens well.
Next:
Pour this mixture over the ground hearts and tongues mixture. Combine well.
Store in freezer containers in the freezer.
My grandmother spooned this onto a hot griddle. I think she may have breaded it, but maybe not. She flattened it out as she fried it, then she flipped it to finish. These small sausage cakes were then served along side eggs, toast, or other breakfast fare. The flavor is outstanding, and “heart warming” to me.
Being in the meat market business like they were, they had access to hearts and tongues. Today, we’d have to order that special. Thanks for sharing your search too.
All the recipes sound wonderful. I noticed in the general comments on the website that the most important drink of the Frankfurt area was not mentioned, Abelwoi (Apfelwein). This must be drunk when having Ripchen und Kraut. I learned it when we went to the “Blaue Engel” in Sachsenhausen.
I’m not from Germany. I was one of the Ami who stole a Deutsche Mädchen for my wife.
My Grandmother Schmiedbauer used to make a dish that she called “mide-ocean.” I never saw the name in print (the recipe was in her head), so I’m sure I haven’t spelled the name correctly, but that’s the way it sounds.
It was a casserole made from mashed potatoes, sour cream and lots of green onions. The top was a bit crispy. Does anyone know what this recipe might be?
I would really appreciate your help.