Eurotalia - 2019 Obatzter – Obatzda – Obazda Bavarian cheesy speciality BAVARIA Ingredients (4 people) : 10 oz / 300 g soft mature cheese* 3 oz / 80 g butter 1 onion 3 tblsp beer/milk/cream (up to you) 1 tsp paprika Salt, pepper, caraway * : Camembert and Brie, but also Limburger, Romadur or fresh cheese. Preparation : o Peel and chop the onion finely o Cut the cheese into small dices and mash it with a fork. Incorporate the butter the same way. o Add the spices and the onion then the liquid and stir. o Let cool at least an hour in the fridge in a small bowl or as quenelles on a plate. o Sprinkle with chives or onion rings and serve. Obazda served with mini-pretzels, chives and red onions Credit : www.sat1.de Eurotalia - 2019 Obazda – obatzter or obatzda according to the dialect – is a cheesy typically Bavarian recipe. It is prepared for instance for Brotzeit, a Bavarian snack popular in the Biergarten of the capital. At the beginning a second breakfast it has nowadays become a gourmet break taken anytime in the day where people gather together to eat cooked meats, pretzels and of course obazda. It is said to be eaten for more than a hundred and fifty years ! In the XIXth century the Biergarten of Munich were becomoing more and more popular while the cheese production in the Allgäu (south-west of Bavaria, where 11 000 tons of cheese were produced every week at the beginning of the XXIth century, a third of the German production) started to develop. Belgian and Swiss experts came to help the Bavarian cheese- makers to create their own Emmental, Herve cheese and Remoudou (here known as Limburger and Romadur) and the milk industry even left the mountains to settle in the valleys. The word obazda comes from the Bavarian “obatzn” that means mash, stir in English. It is also called “Gerupfter” in Franconia. Bayerisches Kochbuch (1931), a reference book about Bavarian cuisine advises to eat it with brown bread but you can of course choose everything you like even a pretzel. The more the cheese got ripe, the better it is for your obazda ! It has to give out a strong scent and an intense flavour. And as they say in Bavaria : “Leben und leben lassen. Das heißt in Bayern: Jeder pflegt die guten alten Rezepte … auf seine Weise !” (1) (Milchland-bayern.de). Obazda has received in 2015 the Protected Geographical Indication* (PGI), a label that protects in the European realm this preparation which is, according to the purists, composed only with cheese, butter, paprika and salt. The PGI specification states that the obazda has to contain at least 40 % of camembert or brie and at least 50 % of cheese. The proportion of onion and beer cannot exceed 15 %. The production geographical limits match with the borders of the Free State of Bavaria. *: in German geschützte geographische Angabe (g.g.A.) (1): Live and let live. It means in Bavaria: everyone keeps the good old recipes going… in their own way ! Recipe from PAXMANN, C., (2018) 100 bayerische Gerichte, die jeder kennen muss. Munich : BLV Buchverlag GmbH & Co. KG. Eurotalia - 2019 Go further : AGRA (2015) Appellation : nouvelle IGP allemande. Colombelles : AGRA SAS [online]. Available from : http://www.agra.fr/appellations-nouvelle-igp- allemande-art401776-2522-345.html [Accessed 24th July 2019] (French) Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (no date) Fachinformation zur Herstellung von « Obazda/Obatzter » g.g.A. in der Gastronomie. Frisingue : lfl.bayern.de [online]. Available from : https://www.lfl.bayern.de/iem/herkunftsbezeichnungen/175617/index.php [Accessed 24th July 2019] (German) Deutschland.de (2013) Sur la Route des fromages. Francfort-sur-le-Main : FAZIT Communication GmbH [online]. Available from : https://www.deutschland.de/fr/topic/vie-moderne/life-style-arts- culinaires/sur-la-route-des-fromages [Accessed 24th July 2019] (French) HOFMANN, M., LYDTIN, H., (2007) Bayerisches Kochbuch. Tutzing : Birken-Verlag GmbH (56th edition, original in 1931) (German) KRATZER, H., (2017) Was das Wort « Obazda » wirklich bedeutet. Munich : Sueddeutsche Zeitung GmbH [online]. Available from : https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/debatte-was-das-wort-obazda- wirklich-bedeutet-1.3664711 [Accessed 24th July 2019] (German) Landesvereinigung der Bayerischen Milchwirtschaft i.L (no date) Geschützte Spezialitäten. Munich : milchland-bayern.de [online]. Available from : http://www.milchland-bayern.de/genusswelt/geschuetzte- spezialitaeten/ [Accessed 24th July 2019] (German) METZGER, C. (2000) L’Allemagne se met à table (original German version: Culinaria. Deutsche Spezialitäten, 1999). Cologne : Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (French) NEHER, J., (no date) Obazda / Obatzter. Lindau : Alles über Käse [online]. Available from: https://www.kaesewelten.info/kasesorten/kuhmilch/obazda- obatzter/ [Accessed 24th July 2019] (German) .