Sounds and Smells of Deutschland

I had a hard time adjusting to a lot of things when I came back from Germany - one of them being the local potato salad. Although Vancouver had a fairly good-size German population, and delis to go with it, the katoffeln salat was never the same. Over the years I've strived to copy it. However, thinking back, there were probably a thousand variations in a thousand gasthofs. As Len (Ciphers) mentions above, we get those yellow potatoes out in western Canada. (They call them 'Yukon Golds, probably dreamed up by some imaginative marketing wallah.) Probably not as good as the ones we raided out of Weser Valley gardens during NATO excerscises. None the less, here's my valiant effort.

1 spud per person (not too big. Yellow new potatoes if you can get them).
lots of green onions or scallions.
5 or 6 radishes, thinly sliced. (ok, that's my own idea).
chopped chives.
3 medium-sized sticks chopped celery.
3 hard cooked eggs, minced.
dijon and yellow mustard to taste.
mayonnase.
sour cream.
salt and pepper.

Boil potatoes until done but not too soft. When cool enough to handle, cut into fairly small pieces. Add chopped onions, celery, radishes and set aside.

Mash the eggs and mix in whatever you consider to be appropriate dollops of mustard, mayo, and sour cream. I find a tablespoon or two of each is good. Salt and pepper to taste and mix well. (Don't overdo the condiments. You don't want sloppy salad.)

Pour into bowl with veggies and mix gently but thooroughly. Chill in the refrigerator and serve with copious amounts of wurst and beer.

By the way, I tried adding red peppers a few weeks ago. The pepper juice bled into the salad, and while it tasted OK, it had a pinkish look about it that wasn't all that appetizing.

Guten apetit!
Rod

Anyone ever try "schmaltz"? It's bacon fat rendered down with fried bacon bits and onions. When it cools, the bacony bits and onions settle on the bottom with the layer of white bacon fat above.

You spread it on bread, like some people used to do with beef dripping. The Poles have an identical version, which they call smalec. There is a Jewish version made with chicken fat.

Instant death, but totally delicious.

Claymore wrote:

Lende is German for haunch or loin. the "schen" is the diminutive plural so we have three small young pork loins.

Reibekuchen (slightly different spelling) are fried potato pancakes.

Speckmantel would be a sprinkling of fried bacon lardons.

Sounds lovely, but of the typical German "heart-attack-on-a-plate" variety.

CHEMIST WROTE

The menu has "Reibekuchlein" with the umlaut in the right place,but that sounds good to me. Described as "Westfalishes-Deftiges". Thanks Claymore

I'm not too fond of Lidl potato salad. The potatoes have a slightly raw feel to them. Best to make your own.

Boiled floury potatoes. Mashed dry and allowed to cool.
Fried speck (bacon lardons) and fried onions allowed to cool.
Mayonnaise (light is fine), chopped hard-boiled eggs and finely-chopped pickled gherkins, a couple of raw finely-chopped spring onions, a teaspoon of mustard, salt and pepper.

Basically. all mixed together in a bowl and allowed to chill in the fridge

The quantities and proportions are entirely to one's own liking. It is not a precise science. I generally put in a little of the pickle vinegar that the gherkins come in, just to sharpen it up a bit and to add a bit of the dill flavour.

Claymore

Schmaltz-Try it? .We lived on it! Don't like the sound of the Jewish version, I think that would be too rich.

Never seen Schmaltz outside Germany.

My wife has just reminded me that when we first saw Schmaltz on the table we had to be shown how to eat it.

Chemist,

If you are still hankering for schmaltz. it's easy enough to make providing you get hold of the necessary fatty bacon.

If you can't be bothered, you can get wee pots of the stuff in nearly all Polish delis for about £1. Like all mass-produced gear, it doesn't really stand up to the homemade.

Don't let on to your doctor I told you!

Can't say I ever tried schmaltz...but I was struck by the word which is also a Yiddish term we are all familiar with meaning overly sweet or corny or overly-sentimental which doesn't seem to jive with a bacon-fat based concoction at all. Interesting....

Yiddish for rendered fat.

Yiddish is largely based on old German with a bit of Hebrew and Aramaic thrown in and written, I believe, using Hebrew script.

Schmaltz would be a Germanic word adopted into Yiddish. The Jewish culinary version (chicken/goose fat) was adapted to conform with their kosher dietary laws.

I dare say that if you look at Schmaltz as being oily/greasy or even comforting, it might explain the over-sentimental meaning.

How boring is this?

I have looked up the German word "schmaltz" and I have discovered that the English word "smelt" derives from the same etymological (saxon?) root.

In metallurgy, smelting is the process whereby base metal is extracted (by heat) from the ore.

In schmaltz, the dripping is rendered down by heat.

Do not confuse the two and start spreading pig iron onto your rye bread. Although, it would probably be more healthy to do so, but far less delicious.

Time to get around to ones favourite beer.

I know evryone has their favourite all depending on where one is currently is drinking or was drunk!

When I visit Germany nowa days my prefered beer is 'Konigs Pilsener,' pronounced 'Koepi' by some drinkers.

Favourite beer? Too many to name but probably Hannen Alt.
The wife drank Alt Schuss

It's amazing the direction these threads go in.

My sister used to live in Brentford Dock by the Thames. She still has the place, but has it rented out.

Can you guess who used to live across the road from her?

ONLY LONNIE BLOODY DONEGAN!

I think he died about 6 or 7 years ago.

He died on stage long before that

No wonder that deviation is boring

OK I've edited it out , I apologise for being boring.

BUT you cannot deny that IN HIS TIME ie with Chris Barber, Lonnie was one of the best.

NOW let's kill that one

Re pit stop picture from Ciphers
Bit before my time in BAOR but I certainly recognise the railway line. Still trying to think what the building on the right is.

Thanks for the memory mate

Claymore wrote:

Yiddish is largely based on old German with a bit of Hebrew and Aramaic thrown in and written, I believe, using Hebrew script.

Schmaltz would be a Germanic word adopted into Yiddish. The Jewish culinary version (chicken/goose fat) was adapted to conform with their kosher dietary laws.

I dare say that if you look at Schmaltz as being oily/greasy or even comforting, it might explain the over-sentimental meaning.

All true and, in the round-about way common within Yiddish, quite logical.

Favourite beer....there were a few (apart from whatever happened to be available at the time, of course).

In no particular order:

-- Warsteiner
-- Iserlohner Pilsner
-- Isenbeck's (although not, believe it or not, a German beer but an import from Argentina, I believe).
-- Beck's
-- Dortmunder Union
-- Amstel (Dutch)
-- NOT Carlsberg -- ugh!!! But I drank it anyway LOL
-- Veltins

In the 70's - Charley Mit in the NAAFI - Bottle of Carlsberg with a shot of lime cordial! Cheep as chips.

Plan was to get drunk, not hold a beer tasting contest

Becks, but the green label not the red.
Hannen Alt
Pinkus Muellers pils, only I think in Munster.

BUT when you could find it and afford it- Erste Kulmbacher with the big EKU on the bottle. Definitely not for getting ratted on but sip preferably outdoors

i was no expert when it came to beer but i was quite fond of DAB[or as a german friend once described it deutshier arbiter beer] dave.[not sure about spelling.

Funny how tastes change! Or is it the beer?

In the sixies, all that one could get from unit clubs in BAOR, apart from India Pale Ale, was Amstel or Heineken and I hated it!

Now, alot older!! When I am hols on Cyprus I just love Amstel and Heineken beer.

PS. Amstel crates came in for alot of uses!

following this topic,[sounds and smells]reading everybodys comments about likes and dislikes,all the different reciepies for re creating the taste we remember and like,it some times makes me wonder if it is not just a longing to go back to the good old days,just like most of us remember the summers of our chilhood were somehow hotter,all comments wellcome,dave.

I'm sure you're right to a certain extent, but that's what experiencing things is all about. You sample tastes here and there and very often acquire a fondness that lasts.

Teewurst, a pink smoked pork spreading pate... and available from Waitrose, folks.

Loathings also last. Beetroot.... Satan's own vegetable!

dandc wrote:

following this topic,[sounds and smells]reading everybodys comments about likes and dislikes,all the different reciepies for re creating the taste we remember and like,it some times makes me wonder if it is not just a longing to go back to the good old days,just like most of us remember the summers of our chilhood were somehow hotter,all comments wellcome,dave.

Well...yes, in memory our time -- or at least my time -- in Germany was uniformly fantastic. I forget the drab dreary rainy days when it was so gloomy I could have easily slit my wrists, or the feeling of loneliness when I was over there working in 73 (thank god for the Ivory family, who adopted me!!), and yes sometimes the sheer boredom of the 17 year old...but I wouldn't trade my time over there for the world and I still yearn for it.

The best decision, bar none, I ever made in my life was to go back for that year. Yes, the reason I went back didn't quite work out the way I thought it would and, yes, I loathed my job (10 hours a day off by myself, pulling nails out of boards and scraping the dried concrete off them only to see the crane drop 50,000 more of the damn things on my 'to do' pile!!) and there were days I was homesick and lonely and frustrated, even depressed, but I often think if I HADN'T gone back, I'd have lived with a lifetime of regret and god/dess knows, I have enough of those in my life already!

When I returned to work there in 73, the plan was I was going to stay. Of course, I didn't tell my parents that!

A variety of circumstances kyboshed that plan, not the least of which I recall running into a former Canadian soldier, a French-Canadian, who had married a German girl and stayed behind. He would have been in his 40's I suppose, consigned to working a low-level manual labour job, lonely, the hot little German fraulein had morphed into a fat nagging frau, and he struck me as...well...a rather sad little man and I remember thinking 'Christ, that could be me in 20 years!!"

I realized I would never 'fit in' if I stayed in Germany and I'd be in limbo; not fully accepted as German, that's for sure,and not really Canadian anymore either. After 14 months I pretty much had to return to Canada, yet in many ways Germany, and Soest in particular, remain "home." That is always where my heart will be.

Well Stephen there were soldiers from the Canadian who have fit into the German way of life quite well. For some reason the Queens Own Rifles had many former Germans who enlisted. Some got out in Germany ( kind of easy for them). Many of the military bands had Dutch personnel. They got out in Germany and stayed. But best of all is a former military comrade of mine who was posted to Fort P of W's in 66 and has remained. He has done exceptionally well. And as you said if you hadn't attempted going back, you would regret it in later life. My self it was two tours (7 years) in Germany. I have mainly fond memories, some regrets and enjoy nothing more than going back for holidays. Of course my wife is even more enthusiastic going back to her old village.