German beer is not only part of the German culture but thanks to the Reinheitsgebot (purity order) one of the best beers in the world.

According to the Reinheitsgebot German beers only contain of water, hops and malt and beers such as Weissbier, not using only barley-malt must be top-fermented.

Pils © leah.jones/flickr.com

Beer was first mentioned in Germany in the Bavarian town of Geisenfeld in 736 and a document from 766 says that beer was delivered to the abbey of St Gallen in Gaisingen on the banks of the Danube River.

In Germany you can get about 5000 different beers many of them produced in small regional breweries. So if you wanted to try a different beer every day, it would take more than 13 years to try them all.

The most popular certainly is Pils or Pilsener, a pale lager with a light body and a prominent hop character. Export is maltier and less hoppy than Pils. Weissbier (wheat-beer) is very popular in the south. In Cologne the most popular beer is the Kölsch a pale beer with a light body too, whereas in Düsseldorf people drink Altbier, dark amber, hoppy beer.

Typical for Berlin is the Berliner Weisse, a pale and sour wheat beer. In Bamberg you can get the so called Rauchbier with a dark colour and a smoky taste as it is made of smoked malt.  But as you can imagine these are only a few German beers. Wherever you are, you will for sure find the right beer to suite your taste.

Weissbier (white beer), also called Weizenbier (wheat beer) or even Hefeweizen, is a top fermented, unfiltered, bottle conditioned wheat beer with yeast sediment and a cloudy appearance.

Weissbier © Moe_/flickr.com

The typical Weissbier or Weizenbeer is a Bavarian specialty beer with a significant amount of malted barley being replaced with malted wheat. According to German law it must be made with at least 50% malted wheat, but most Bavarian Weissbiers contain 60 to 70% of it.

It is not quite clear whether it is called Weissbeer due to its paler colour or due to its content of wheat as both words are of the same origin. It is quite sweet and fruity with a full body.

You get special glasses for Weissbier and it should be poured smoothly not to produce too much head. When there is about a quarter of it left in the bottle, swirl it to lift the sediment and pour it into the glass. This will give the beer its cloudy appearance. Serve it chilled at about 6-8 °C.

Some people add a slice of lemon to a Weissbier but you will hardly see any Bavarians do this, as it ruins the taste of the beer and kills the head. It is more common to add lemon slices to Kristallweizen, the filtered version of Weissbier.

Great, not only when it’s hot…

4.4 oz cane sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ t cardamom, ½ tsp coriander, ½ tsp ginger,1pinch allspice, 8 egg yolks, 1 oz chocolate,  1 oz hazelnuts, 4 Aachener Printen (a special form of ginger bread from Aachen), 7 oz cream, 1tsp rose water

Mix the sugar with 3 tbs of water and the spices in a double boiler and stir it until it becomes pasty syrup.  Take it off the cooker and add the egg yolks, whisk well until it is light and fluffy and let it cool down on ice while stirring it. Chop the chocolate, the hazelnuts and the Aachener Printen and add to it together with the whipped cream and the rose water.

If you don’t have an ice-machine put it into the freezer for about 4 to 5 hours. Take it out every 30 minutes to stir so that no solid ice crystals build up.

It is great with chocolate sauce made of 5 oz cream, 1 tbs honey and 1.6 oz chocolate. Boil up 3 oz of cream with the honey, add the melted chocolate and let it cool down. Whip the rest of the cream before you add it.

Aachener Printen © flickr/diekatrin

Black Forest Gateau is one of the most popular German cakes.

Shortpastry:

1 ¼ cups flour, ½ cup sugar, salt, 7 oz cold butter, 1 egg, butter for the form

Sponge:

3.5 oz butter, 3.5 oz sugar, 1 tbsp vanilla-flavoured sugar, 4 eggs, 3.5 oz ground almonds, 3.5 oz cocoa powder, ¼ cup flour, ¼ cup starch flour, 2 tsp baking powder

Filling and topping:

3 cups (drained weight) jar cherries, drained, juice reserved, 1 tbsp starch flour, 2 pt cream, whipped, 2 tbsp cherry jam, 8 tbsp Kirschwasser (schnaps), 12 cherries, 1oz chocolate shavings

Shortpastry:

Put the flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl and add cubes of the cold butter, use your fingertips to mix the ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Try to work fast before it gets greasy. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out with a rolling pin. Put it into a 10 ½ inch springform cake tin, pierce with a fork and bake at 390 ° F (200 °C) for about 15 minutes until it is light brown. Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

Sponge:

Mix soft butter, sugar, vanilla-flavoured sugar and whisk well until it is light and fluffy. Add eggs, ground almonds and the cocoa powder, stir it well and add flour, baking powder and starch flour and stir carefully. Pour the mixture into the prepared springform cake tin and bake it at 390 ° F. Take it out and leave it in the baking form until it is cold.

Filling:

Heat the cherry juice and add the starce flour, mix it with the cherries and leave it to cool.

Cut the cooled sponge into three layers using a sharp bread knife.

Spread the jam on the shortpastry and put the first layer of sponge on top spread one third of the Kirschwasser , cherries and a quarter of the cream, put the next layer on top and do the same, the same again with the third layer. Spread the sides of the cake with the rest of the whipped cream and decorate the cake with 12 whirls of cream and a cherry on top of each.

Chill it before you serve it.

Black Forest Gateau/Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte©flickr/Mikelo

A recipe from Lake Constance

1.3 lb fillets of different fish, celery, 1/2 leek, 1/2 carrot, 1 small spring onion, 6 fl oz cream, 8 fl oz of dry Riesling wine, salt, olive oil, vermouth, dill, 18 fl oz fish stock

Heat the fish stock, add the wine and let it boil till the amount of liquid is reduced, then add the cream.
Sweat the diced carrots, onions, celery and leek in olive oil and deglaze with fish stock. Puree it with a hand blender, heat it again and season it with vermouth.
Cut the fillets of fish into bite-size pieces and cook it for about 10 minutes in the soup. Decorate with dill when you serve it.
Riesling wine is good with it.

A recipe from the Spessart:

Spessart Robber Dish

1 lb of pork fillet, 7 fl oz of sour cream, 7 fl oz of cream, 11 oz of chanterelles, salt, pepper, oil, paprika powder of for those who like it hot chili powder

Cut the fillet of pork in slices and fry them with the oil in a pan. Take them out and stir the sour cream and cream in. Let it boil and add the chanterelles and add salt, pepper and paprika powder. Add the meat.
Tastes good with pasta or the typical regional bread flavoured with caraway, coriander, fennel and aniseed.

Chanterelles©flickr/stefan.eissing

A recipe from Bavaria.

2 cups flour, 0.6 oz baking powder, salt, 5 slices of brown bread, 5 rolls, 5 eggs, ¼ cup  bouillon or vegetable stock, 1 fl oz of milk

Take a large dish and mix flour and baking powder. Add two eggs to the bouillon add the milk and stir. Put in the 5 rolls without crust and turn hem over from time to time. Dice the brown bread. Mix the 3 eggs well with the flour and add the brown bread and a little salt. Take the rolls one by one and cover them with the mixture. Cook in boiling water for about 25 minutes.

Good with sour or smoked meat.

Well known, fattening but very tasty!

Dough: 4 eggs, 1 egg yolk, 6 oz sugar, 2.6 oz starch flour, ½ tsp baking powder, 5.6 oz flour, 1.8 oz butter, salt, lemon zests, butter for the baking form.
Buttercream: 2 cups of milk, 4.4 oz sugar, 1.5 oz custard powder, 1 egg yolk, 13 oz butter, a little rum
Filling: 10.5 oz morello cherries out of the glass, 1.5 oz starch flour, 8.8 oz hazelnut brittle, 16 red cherries for decoration

Dough: Mix eggs with sugar, add starch and flour and baking powder, stir well and add liquid butter and the lemon zests. Bake at 374 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 to 50 minutes in a Bundt pan (Bundform Pan). When it is cold cut it into three rings.

Buttercream: Boil the milk add sugar stir it well and then add the custard powder and the egg yolk. Stir it till it is cold. Then slowly add the liquid butter stir well and flavour with rum.
Filling: Boil the juice of the morello cherries add the starch add the cherries and let it cool down. Mix 1/3 of the buttercream with the morello cherries and spread it on the bottom layer of the cake. Spread 1/3 of the buttercream on the second layer of the cake and put it on. Add the third layer and spread the rest of the buttercream all over the cake. Spread the hazelnut brittle all over and divide the cake in 19 pieces. Decorate each piece with a cherry.

A recipe from the North:
HERRING SALAD

4-6 fillets of Matjes herring, 1 onion, 2-3 gherkins, 2 apples, 3.5-5.3 oz of pork sausage, capers, walnuts, 2 hard-boiled eggs, 1 cup of cream, mustard, salt, pepper, sugar

• Dice all ingredients
  
• chop the walnuts
• mix everything
• season the cream with mustard, salt (be careful not to use too much), pepper and sugar
• mix it with the rest

This used to be my grandma’s recipe.

A recipe from the Black Forest:

POTATO SOUP WITH “KRACHERLE for 4

1.102 lb potatoes, 2 onions, 2 leeks, 1.76 oz  bacon, white pepper, 1 bunch of marjoram, 1/2 cup dry white wine, 3 1/2 cups  stock, 2 1/4 cups cream, 3.5 oz double cream, 2 bread rolls, 1 bunch of chives, nutmeg, salt

• Peel potatoes and onions and dice them and  slice the leek
• fry the potatoes, the leeks, onions and diced bacon in some butter
• add salt, pepper, nutmeg, and marjoram
• deglaze with the wine and stock
• add cream and double cream and stir well