Whenever the words German cuisine comes out the first thing in mind is meat. The Germans love to eat meats especially roasted ones. The annual average of meat consumption per person is around 57kg. Pork, poultry, and beef are among the most common beef that the German consumed. By this fact, you could see their infinite love towards meat.
There’s a lot of good food in German, but majority of the food in German tastes bland and plain. The German has adapted with the simple flavours of salt, sausage or breadcrumbs from a young age. They avoid anything that tastes too sweet, too savoury, too spicy or too complex.
There are a thousand varieties of sausages (wurst) in German. Composed by a different animal, as long as they have legs, they are entitled to be the sausage. Even the cakes are served with boiled sausages that are topped with breadcrumbs or mustard.
German couldn’t stand spiciness and they said ‘German Scharf ain’t Scharf for others’. Scharf is German words that represent spicy and hot which simply means what tastes spicy to them, may not spicy at all to other people.
Evolution of German cuisine
German cuisine was labelled as buttery and fatty and the bland taste because used to only use salt to season their food. They can’t even stand the smell and taste of garlic. That is not long enough until German adopted spices from Italy and France.
They started using spices in every food. Well-seasoned but still not that much as they cannot stand spiciness. The most popular herbs that they use are parsley, thyme, chives and black pepper (only in a small amount). In the early 1980s, the Germans started using basil, hot chilli pepper, and oregano in their dishes.
In the traditional German cuisine, garlic never played a big role but start rising its popularity a few decades after being influenced by the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek and Turkish cuisine. German cuisine starts rising its popularity even though it is not that spicy.
Popular German Food and Pastry
- Spätzle
Spatzle has different names depends on the region or country. It is another type of pasta that is made with eggs, flour, and salt or you can put cheese or minced beef in the dough. Boil the dough and toss it with melted butter can make the spätzle taste more buttery and delicious. It tastes like egg noodles that a little bit sweet and savoury.
- Bratwurst
It is the Germans favourite food, which are normally a pork-based sausage. They have 40 kinds of bratwurst which have different ways of serving. For the halal consumer, they can request for a halal bratwurst that does not contain pork. Bratwursts are served with mustard or with a sandwich.
- Sauerbraten
The traditional German cuisine that is marinated heavily with spices, wine, herbs, vinegar and seasoning around 3 to 10 days to ensure the meat tenderizes. The meat will be braised with the covered dish on the stovetop. The simmering process takes around 4 hours and surely the meat will turn out flavourful.
- Schnitzel
It is a slice of chicken meat that coated with the multi-purposed flour that been seasoned well with herbs. It is the same as a breaded chicken that often serves at the restaurant. Schnitzel tastes like a breaded fried cutlet that is served with mash potato, squeeze of lemon and salad.
- Rouladen
It is a traditional dish of Poland that consists of pickles, bacon onion and salad that rolled with thin slices of beef and ties the ingredients together using kitchen twine before cook. It is best served with mash potatoes or potato dumplings.
- Goulash
It is originated from medieval Hungary. A meat soup or stew that is mixed with vegetables and seasoned with herbs to have the spicy taste. This delish food is commonly known as Albanian traditional food.
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