Archive for February, 2009
German food 101: Wiener
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
There are many kinds of sausage-like items in this part of the world. They are inevitable, ubiquitous. Unavoidable. But until now, I have avoided those that come in a jar.
Something about the clear, yellowish liquid in which the wiener are suspended made me look at the jars with distain. But why shouldn’t meat products be jarred? Or tinned? Plastic shrink-wrap is just as odd, if you think about it.
Perhaps this is not so much a German food as an Austrian one, considering the name “Wiener” literally means Viennese. But how do they taste?
The texture, as you can see, is relatively similar to the American hot-dog, if it were boiled rather than grilled. This sort of texture always makes me wonder what these things are made of. To be honest, I’d rather not know. They are really not bad, perhaps a bit on the bland side. Timur summed it up in two words: “needs mustard.”
Berlin, dressed in white
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
It has been a very snowy week here. We went to the park with the dog to play around and throw snowballs. On one side of the park is a smaller garden-like area surrounded by dense evergreen hedges. I think in summer roses will bloom there, but for now everything is covered with white.
German food 101: Schweinskopf Sülze
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Now it’s time to begin exploring the oddities of German cuisine. May I present to you our first item, which was found by Tim on the shelf at the grocery store yesterday: Schweinskopf Sülze.
First, let’s examine the label. “Schweinskopf Sülze” means “Pig’s head aspic.” Not knowing what aspic meant, I looked it up in the dictionary and it was defined thusly:
as⋅pic
1. A savory jelly usually made with meat or fish stock and gelatin, chilled and used as a garnish and coating for meats, seafoods, eggs, etc.
Yum!
Ingredients: 65% Pig’s head meat, drinking water, “Schwarten” (this translates as “crusts,” “rinds” or “slabs” but I’m almost afraid to think of what that would mean as an ingredient), edible gelatin, onions, iodized curing salts (iodine, common salt, preservative: sodium nitrite), acidifier: acetic acid, “Speisewürze” (this seems to be something made of hydrolized whey and soy protein), sugar, spices.
This is sounding better and better. And the label excitedly points out (in the yellow oval), “How homemade!” (Because nothing says “homemade” like hydrolized whey and soy protein.) Time to pop the lid…
I am greeted by a strong ham-like smell. I’ll admit I don’t want to touch this substance, let alone eat it.
Fortunately, below the surface it is more like a meat Jell-o like and less coated with the slimy white stuff I was greeted with upon opening the lid. Maybe I can stomach a small taste after all…
It tastes like a combination of sour, unsweetened Jell-O and ham. I guess it’s not very surprising, considering the ingredients. Maybe I’m just unable to fully appreciate it, but I don’t see why a person would desire a “savory jelly spread” made of the heads of pigs, especially when there are so many other things a person could eat. But no offense intended to any Schweinskopf fans who might be out there in the internets.
Hoka seemed really excited about the scoop I put in his bowl, though. So there’s one Schweinskopf Sülze fan in the house.