11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Information and Recipes, April 1, 2000
This review is from: The Cuisines of Germany: Regional Specialties and Traditional Home Cooking (Hardcover)
I have twice checked out this book from the library, now I'm buying it! This is not just a book of recipes, the author puts every recipe in the context of regional and historical provenence--very important when you are dealing with German anything. There are recipes from all of the more commonly recognized regions (Bavaria, Prussia, Hesse,etc), as well as the historically less well known regions such as Pomerania, Silesia and Friesland. The recipes are doable and good (if you like Central European food, as I do). Plenty of herring and cabbage, yum! Whole chapters on dumplings and potatoes. This is a great book.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
When "authentic" matters, November 4, 2006
This review is from: The Cuisines of Germany: Regional Specialties and Traditional Home Cooking (Hardcover)
I'm sorry to see that this cookbook has gone out of print, because it's a really excellent book... that is, it does an excellent job of fulfilling its promise. I have had this cookbook for upwards of ten years, and when I prepare a German meal, this book rarely stays on the shelf. If you're at all serious about cooking German food, you should own this book.
Unlike a lot of other cookbooks, this isn't just a collection of recipes with a few perky paragraphs introducing each one. It's as much a course in "food history in Germany" as it is a cookbook. You don't just learn how to make dumplings; you get a detailed study of regional versions in a whole chapter on the subject (I lost count after 14 dumpling recipes). The emphasis is on the traditional dishes -- some of which date from the 1700s -- and the author prints the original "mix some this with some that" version as well as a modern detailed recipe. It's wonderful reading, at least assuming that you're a foodie of any merit.
This sometimes means that you get a very long essay on technique. But, gosh-durnit, at the end of reading the essay, you'll know exactly how to make the food come out the right way. Scharfenberg's spaetzle recipe is 2.5 closely written pages of instructions, but you'll feel like he's standing at your elbow, helping you to get the dough to the exact right consistency and to set the water to the right simmer (it shouldn't boil).
After 75 pages about regional foods and food history, the chapters cover soups; salads and appetizers; cheese, eggs, and breakfast cakes; fish; poultry; beef, veal, and pork (50 pages, right there!); game; sauces; dumplings, spaetzle, and other side dishes; pickles, relishes, and preserves; desserts; pastries and other baked goods; drinks.
And, fortunately, it's a *great* cookbook, particularly for those who want to make food the way Grandma did. The first way I check out a German cookbook is to examine its recipe for saurbraten; does it use wine, or just vinegar? What's the ratio of meat to vegetables? For how long do you marinate? This is the saurbraten recipe that sets the standard for us. The marinade has 1.5 cups of red wine and 1/4 cup of vinegar; it also has juniper berries, which make quite a difference; and you soak the roast for 3-5 days in the fridge. It makes even the cheapest cut of meat taste wonderful, and incidentally it goes well with the aforementioned spaetzle.
What this book is *not* is modern. You won't find recipes for light meals, you won't find a lot of vegetables (other than potatoes and cabbage), and you will almost certainly want a good long nap after eating one of these meals. Instead, you'll find recipes that are hard to locate elsewhere, from "handkase mit musik," a cheese appetizer found around Frankfurt, to several stollen recipes, to dandelion salad.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The definitive English-language cookbook of German cuisine., September 27, 2003
This review is from: The Cuisines of Germany: Regional Specialties and Traditional Home Cooking (Hardcover)
This book deserves a reprint. The author and his translator have done a superb job of capturing both the haute cuisine and the more humble home cooking of Germany. The book is exceptionally well organized and accessible. Originally published in 1980 by Hallwag in German, it appeared in a limited print run in English in the late 1980's. The accuracy, clarity of style and common-sense approach to preparing German food will be of great help to the home preparer. Marked contrast to the more sophisticated and less well organized tomes on German cooking by the current doyen of English language German cookery, Mimi Sheraton. This is a 5-STAR work.
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