While you read the newsletter here is some fun German Music
When I started this newsletter I knew a handful of recipes, or so it seems of my German grandma (Oma) and her Swabian style of German cooking, that I grew up with.
Since then I have learned so many more really fun recipes, and their background, it really broadens your understanding and feeling of German Cuisine.
I dare you to delve into it as I have and not only become a bit more obsessed with the German art of cooking, but broaden your horizon of the German ways of life, or.....
HECK, open up to a WHOLE big wonderful German world!
The most popular of all the German dishes from my statistics is the Schweinshaxe or Eisbein
So let's explore them......
This time I take on the giant pork knuckle that is used for either a Schweinshaxe or Eisbein. I remember seeing them for the first time at King Ludwig's restaurant in the German theme town Leavenworth, Washington. They were roasting on a rotisere in the window as you walk by. Not having this growing up I wondered what the heck it was?
A Short Background of Pork and Haxe in Germany
Pork (Schweine) has a long history in Germany,
The Clever Man Reveres the Hog
In this he's not mistaken;
His outer husk is rather odd
But therin lies the bacon
Ein Kluger Mann verehrt das Schweine
Er denkt an dessen Zweck
Von Außen ist es ja nicht fein
Doch drinnen sitzt der Speck
in fact has long been considered a figure of luck.
If you had a pig on the farm you had meat for the winter. The pig of course had every inch accounted for when harvest time came along.
The Haxe (pork hock) was a boney sinewy piece that would be time consuming for sausage and you couldn't make a schnitzel from it, but it was festive and heartwarming either roasted or braised. The marrow and collagen gives the meat a succulent taste when released through long slow cooking.
In many regions like Bavaria it is popular to roast the Schweinshaxe and serve it on a platter of sauerkraut or red cabbage. its sawed-off protruding leg bone gives it a look of Teutonic barbarity, appropriate for consumption in a restaurant lit by torches and staffed by waiters smeared with woad. The kraut along with a nice fruity beer is perfect to cut the richness of the meat.
In the cooler Northern regions this cut is called Eisbein which literally means ice bone.
Why is it called an" Ice Bone" The Hock is white and looks a bit like snow and Ice.
It also is prepared during the cold months.
This is one reason some historians think it is called Eisbein.
Ice bone skate
However one of the bones in this cut is perfect to make ice skates, which
before cars and public transportation was a good way to get around
in winter in Northern Germany. Especially during the Nomadic times.
The ancient tribes had pigs as far back as 7000 BC some historians believe.
The bone was hollow making it easy to make a hole and then sinews from
the pig were used to make nice straps for the feet.
The Haxe (hocks) come from either the front or the back legs of
the pig.
The Shoulder hock is used for the Eisbein which is more often braised in stock,
and served with a puree of peas called Erbsenpuree.
Our German Cookbook
and
Biography
A recipe book and short biography of my Grandmother Emma Block. Her recipes, culture and cooking styles that were brought over from Germany. How they evolved when she came to America in the early 1900s and settled in Portland, Oregon on the west coast of the United States. Over 100 recipes
Plus CD with Bonus
Step by Step colored picture
Recipes
From Germany with Love tells the story of my grandma, Emma Block, growing up in a little town in Baden/ Würtemberg, Germany near Heidelberg named Steinsfurt. Then at the age of 15 immigrating to the United States, taking a train with one of her sisters and brothers to Hamburg and sailing the Atlantic with other hope filled Germans wanting to make a life in the "New World". It was not easy but with good values learned in her German upbringing made a full life, had a wonderful family with lots of fun and celebration including the great German meals.
The Schweinshaxe is roasted till the skin is crispy and the meat is tender as butter on the inside.
the joint has a great deal of bone marrow and collagen that flavor the meat. The skin is left on the outside
and roasted crispy with an unforgetable flavor. Roy Denman calls it "Bacon in the Round".
It is a favorite of Hofbraus in Bavaria
The Schweinshaxe also is great done on a rotiserre.
This is from Bob Hilderbrand. He put a glaze on it.
Schweinshaxe Tyrol
From a Tyrolian recipe
The Tyrol area is on the border of Austria, Italy and Germany
Like this newsletter kind of thing so far? We have more free ones.
German Goodies is my heritage cooking passion, but as a chef of 35 years and a new farmer,
I love all kinds of foods and their histories. Also techniques,
tools that I think can make your cooking experience in the kitchen and your garden inspirational.
This is traditional dish of Berlin. You start with a pork knuckle that is usually called Schweineshaxe, although unlike Schweinshaxe the Eisbein is cured so it will resemble more like a ham when cooked and not the mini roasted pork look of a Schweinshaxe. Instead of being roasted with a crispy skin it is usually simmered in a stock with seasonings.
I have heard that a famous restaurant in Berlin Zur Letzten Instanz adds blueberries to the stock. Also some vegetables like a Suppengrun can be added to enhance the Eisbein.
First though it is cured in a brine with curing salt. When cooked it has a nice pinkish color like ham.
This simmered cured hock is then accompanied by their long time side dish companions Erbspuree ( puree of yellow and green peas and Sauerkraut. I love the fried onions on the puree, some folks put a caramelized onion or fried bacon or speck crumbles.
But seems to be a sad song about a boy that met a girl
at this Mill in a valley in the Black Forest.
It seems that they wished each other good luck but
said goodbye and never met again
He remembers her though when he stands on the hill looking at the mill in the valley.
~~~ ♪♪♪~~~
Elena
by one of my favorite bands
Klostertaler
A - Lay- Na A-Lay Na
has a beautiful sound to it
A song about how much he loves Elena
and how much a part of him is Elena.
~~~ ♪♪♪~~~
Freut euch des Lebens
(Rejoice in Life)
This is a beautiful 19th century classic (1831)
sung by Edith Prock
Enjoy life while the light is shining , give to life and it will give back....
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