Food Culture in Germany

Food Culture in Germany i Courtesy of Golden Section Graphics/Katharina Erfurth. ii Food Culture in Germany URSULA HEINZELMANN Food Culture around the World Ken Albala, Series Editor GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London iii Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Heinzelmann, Ursula. Food culture in Germany / Ursula Heinzelmann. p. cm. — (Food culture around the world, ISSN 1545–2638) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978–0–313–34494–7 (alk. paper) 1. Cookery, German. 2. Food habits—Germany. I. Title. TX721.H453 2008 641.30943—dc22 2008007892 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2008 by Ursula Heinzelmann All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008007892 ISBN: 978–0–313–34494–7 ISSN: 1545–2638 First published in 2008 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 Illustrations by Gottfried Müller The publisher has done its best to make sure the instructions and/or recipes in this book are correct. However, users should apply judgment and experience when preparing recipes, especially parents and teachers working with young people. The publisher accepts no responsibility for the outcome of any recipe included in this volume. iv Contents Series Foreword by Ken Albala vii Preface ix Introduction xi Timeline xv 1. Historical Overview 1 2. Major Foods and Ingredients 37 3. Cooking 88 4. Typical Meals 101 5. Eating Out 116 6. Special Occasions 131 7. Diet and Health 156 Glossary 167 Resource Guide 179 Selected Bibliography 183 Index 187 v This page intentionally left blank Series Foreword The appearance of the Food Culture around the World series marks a de- finitive stage in the maturation of Food Studies as a discipline to reach a wider audience of students, general readers, and foodies alike. In compre- hensive interdisciplinary reference volumes, each on the food culture of a country or region for which information is most in demand, a remarkable team of experts from around the world offers a deeper understanding and appreciation of the role of food in shaping human culture for a whole new generation. I am honored to have been associated with this project as series editor. Each volume follows a series format, with a chronology of food-related dates and narrative chapters entitled Introduction, Historical Overview, Major Foods and Ingredients, Cooking, Typical Meals, Eating Out, Spe- cial Occasions, and Diet and Health. (In special cases, these topics are covered by region.) Each also includes a glossary, bibliography, resource guide, and illustrations. Finding or growing food has of course been the major preoccupation of our species throughout history, but how various peoples around the world learn to exploit their natural resources, come to esteem or shun specific foods and develop unique cuisines reveals much more about what it is to be human. There is perhaps no better way to understand a culture, its values, preoccupations and fears, than by examining its attitudes toward food. Food provides the daily sustenance around which families and com- munities bond. It provides the material basis for rituals through which vii viii Series Foreword people celebrate the passage of life stages and their connection to divin- ity. Food preferences also serve to separate individuals and groups from each other, and as one of the most powerful factors in the construction of identity, we physically, emotionally and spiritually become what we eat. By studying the foodways of people different from ourselves we also grow to understand and tolerate the rich diversity of practices around the world. What seems strange or frightening among other people becomes perfectly rational when set in context. It is my hope that readers will gain from these volumes not only an aesthetic appreciation for the glories of the many culinary traditions described, but also ultimately a more pro- found respect for the peoples who devised them. Whether it is eating New Year’s dumplings in China, folding tamales with friends in Mexico, or going out to a famous Michelin-starred restaurant in France, understanding these food traditions helps us to understand the people themselves. As globalization proceeds apace in the twenty-first century it is also more important than ever to preserve unique local and regional traditions. In many cases these books describe ways of eating that have already begun to disappear or have been seriously transformed by modernity. To know how and why these losses occur today also enables us to decide what traditions, whether from our own heritage or that of others, we wish to keep alive. These books are thus not only about the food and culture of peoples around the world, but also about ourselves and who we hope to be. Ken Albala University of the Pacific Preface I have been cooking and baking since before I could read and write. I was born in Berlin in 1963 and absorbed a wide array of food influences from family and friends. Apprenticing as a chef, later taking on a restaurant on Lake Constance, then training as a sommelier in Heidelberg and establishing a French cheese shop back in Berlin all helped me develop a deep understanding of the foodways of Germany and finally resulted in my switch to food journalism, writing, and history. The familiar ways at home were put into perspective by trips abroad, first with my parents and brothers to France and Scandinavia, then on my own to the North American East Coast. More recently, I have continued my culinary ex- plorations with trips to England as well as the North American West Coast, India, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. In every corner of the world, food has always been my link to people, to understand their ways and their lives. During that time, German food has changed mark- edly, and its perception abroad gradually followed suit. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am very grateful to Ken Albala, editor for the Greenwood Press Food Culture around the World Series, as well as Wendi Schnaufer, senior editor at Greenwood Press, for offering me this opportunity to paint a picture of contemporary German food culture. This book would not have been written without the background of the Oxford Symposium on Food and ix x Preface Cookery, to which I was first introduced by Harlan Walker in 2003 and which I have been attending ever since. It has developed into my intellec- tual home of gastronomy. Here I met Barbara Ketcham Wheaton (“never confuse what is mentioned in cookbooks with what people cook and eat in reality!”), Darra Goldstein (who at our first meeting trusted me enough to commission articles for Gastronomica magazine), William Rubel (who has been the most inspiring food-friend ever since), Susan Rossi-Wilcox (a soulmate who sadly seems to have disappeared from my life), and many others whom I would like to thank for their friendship and assistance. My friend Ebba Drolshagen has proved to be the perfect Internet scout, often coming up with exactly the right bit of information at the right time. Richard Hosking not only made me aware of the exceptional quality of Königsberg marzipan but also very patiently corrected my English text. In the last stage of writing, Sabrina Small came along like a foodwriter’s deus ex machina and provided invaluable information. She helped to make the final manuscript more friendly to English speakers. I am deeply indebted to all of them, but all errors in the finished book are entirely mine. Gottfried Müller obligingly rose to the challenge to illustrate, in his usual precise way, some less well-known aspects of German food culture. Jan Schwochow and Katharina Erfurth from Golden Section Graphics in Berlin expertly managed to put a seemingly impossible wealth of information onto the small map of Germany. I very much appreciate their help. However, without three people in particular, I would have never been able to write this book: Birgit Biessmann not only taught me English and logical thinking at school but has become a dear friend and most inspiring critic. Stuart Pigott, my London-born husband, continues to open new doors I did not even know existed inside and around me. And finally my mother, first provider of food, love, and unwavering loyalty—danke. Introduction Food culture in Germany—where should one start? With the herrings, sausages, sauerkraut, and Black Forest cherry gâteau clichés? Or, at the other extreme, with the widely consumed fast food from countless chains, as ubiquitous in Germany as in the rest of the Western world? For this country east of France, west of Poland, north of Switzerland, and south of Denmark, the question of national culinary identity seems particularly difficult to answer. Food culture has been described as the link between agriculture and nutrition. Once primarily defined by geography and climate, over the ages it has been shaped by language, religion, culture, and economics, thus revealing cultural and social differences. Since the onset of industrializa- tion, with the introduction of modern food technology and transportation (often described by the somewhat vague term “globalization”), food can seem utterly detached from any particular country or region. However, the notion of home strongly links it to particular places, and this is particularly clear in the case of Germany. After World War II, several generations of Germans (and others) were trying to look in only one direction: the future.

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