German Cooking

I've yet to find a good german cookbook either. It's also surprising how regional german cuisine can be as you're discovering with your Stollen search.

But Swabia (the region that includes the Black Forest) and Prussia are at opposite ends of the country so that's an interesting combination of regions.

Good luck.

Here are two:  Luchow's German Cookbook, and Mimi Sheraton's The German Cookbook.

Luchow's was a New York City restaurant that opened in the early 1880s and closed  in the mid 1980s.  The cookbook, consisting of scaled down recipes from the restaurant, was compiled in the early fifties, if I'm not mistaken, but new reprints are available at a good price.  Not too many recipes, and it helps if you're a good enough cook to adjust on the fly because some of the scaling doesn't work, and you may want to change some of the seasoning as well; but the ideas are solid.  Lots of nostalgia for me, as this book reminds me of eating at Luchow's during trips to NY; and I cook more from ideas than I do from strictly following recipes. 

You may want something more practical and encyclopediac though. 

The German Cookbook has a ton of "old school" German recipes.  They're each and all seem thoroughly perfected, as you'd expect from Sheraton. 

Both books are in print and available from Amazon.

Hope this helps,

BDL

Sheraton's The German Cookbook is my go-to resource for German cuisine.  When hubbydearest and I owned and ran our own restaurant from 1976 to 1979,  the menu featured a great number of German dishes  (sauerbraten, vienerschnitzel, kassler ripchen, rouladen, etc,  and many side dishes and desserts).  Many of our clientelle were German immigrants who came often and entertained friends at our place because of the authentic recipes.  I recommend this book highly.  It is available in hardcopy and also digital format.  Because I am anticipating a move to a smaller place at some point,  and will probably not have space for a lot of books,  I am thinking of putting it into my e-reader.  It is available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. 

BDL  Jan Mitchel sold it. It later resurfaced for a while then closed . It was awful. The last chef  for Mitchel was  Peter Van Erp (Dutch) who went on to teach at the CIA. In the Escoffier Restaurant and later purchased the  famous Scotch Mist Inn In  Southhampton L.I.  Pete new his onions, when I was a young guy I had the pleasure of working along side him. He was also the Ex. Chef for KLM Airlines in it's day.

Luchows was one of THEE places for Christmas time)  all wild game  and man was it decorated Old German style for Christmas.

from my time on the west end of the Bodensee - "authentic" is a two parter: (a) in a similar style and (b) what Oma made

here's some starters

http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/1765401286429902/Christstollen-Schwarzwald.html
http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/1538641259911882/Schwarzwaelder-Stollen.html
http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/646501165907543/Schwarzwaelder-Stollen.html

yup... that's three recipes for "genuine" on the same site . . .

http://www.trachten-winkler.com/rezept/Christstollen_traditionel_620x711.htm
http://www.schwarzwald-tage.de/christstollenkonfekt/index.html

I learned "German" in high school and then in college, here in the USA. I was aware it was "Hochdeutsch", but didn't realize until many years later that nobody but bland tv announcers talk Hochdeutsch. There is no standard German language. Same with German cuisine it seems, maybe more so than with USA cuisine :)

How I learned this truth about Deutsch: on an airplane I met a German woman who was also a professional translator. She told me my German was correct, but stuffy, and that nobody talks that way. Way to deflate me . Other than that, she was really fun to chat with on the long flight. Her American English was perfect.

For people who understand german, like you OregonYeti, I may have a good link, if... it works outside Europe. Every friday, the German channel ZDF has a foodshow where several german cooks prepare different items, live! Afterward they post the entire show on the internet, so you could watch it too. Here's the link;

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/kanaluebersicht/aktuellste/509444#/kanaluebersicht/509444

If it doesn't work, maybe try to start from the general page www.zdf.de

On the bookfront, there's always the book on Germany's cooking from the series "Culinaria".

Thank you, Chris. That's great. I don't know all the ingredients and other details they are talking about, but then the video is nicely done and so I can figure most of them out. Good show, thanks!

I have to try some of those combinations. Yum.

Hey Yeti... when is the next time your going to be in Beaverton??

Matt

Hey Chef_Matt, I don't go way north very often but I want to take my kids to OMSI kind of soon, within a month or so. I also hope to make a trip to BC Canada in the spring or summer. Why do you ask? Do you have a German restaurant?

Hey My Dad is Chef Peter van Erp...just wanted to say thanx for the kind,and very true words

He remembers you and says "Hello and Good Luck"