49 Fun Facts About German Food

Roughly how many different types of sausage are made in Germany?

About 1,500; for scalded kinds such as frankfurters, butchers mince the meat with crushed ice so the paste stays cold and doesn't set too soon.

What is Sauerbraten?

A marinated sour roast: tough cuts soak for days in vinegar or wine, which tenderizes the meat before cooking.

In which city is the Weisswurst, or white sausage, especially popular?

Munich's Weisswurst is traditionally eaten before noon, and a local saying holds that the sausages should never hear the midday church bells.

Lübeck's famous marzipan is made mainly from which nut?

Almonds, ground with sugar; marzipan was long sold as a medicine before it became a luxury sweet.

What is a Rollmops?

A rolled pickled herring fillet; Germans traditionally eat rollmops as part of a Katerfrühstück, the hangover breakfast.

What is the German name for fish fingers?

Fischstäbchen; in early British taste tests, herring fish fingers lost out to the bland cod version.

Which variety of asparagus is especially popular in Germany?

White asparagus is grown under mounds of soil, so without sunlight it makes no chlorophyll and never turns green.

On which saint's day does the German asparagus season traditionally end?

St John's Day falls on 24 June, and growers stop cutting then so the plants can recover and build strength for next year's crop.

What does Abendbrot literally mean?

Evening bread: because Germans traditionally ate their hot main meal at midday, supper was a light cold spread of bread, cold cuts and cheese.

Kaffee und Kuchen is compared to which English custom?

Five o'clock tea is its British twin; since coffeehouses were long reserved for men, German women drank coffee together at home in Kaffeekränzchen.

What are Spätzle?

Egg noodles: cooks traditionally scrape thin strips of the soft dough off a wooden board straight into boiling salted water.

Maultaschen are most often compared to which Italian food?

Ravioli is the usual comparison, and Swabians nickname Maultaschen 'little God-cheaters' after a legend that monks hid meat inside them during Lent.

Which Prussian king promoted the potato in 18th-century Germany?

Frederick the Great; the tale that he posted soldiers around potato fields to make the crop look valuable is a legend.

What does ordering 'Pommes rot/weiss' get you?

Fries with ketchup and mayonnaise; in the Ruhr the same order is also called 'Pommes Schranke', after the red-and-white stripes of railway barriers.

Which city is known for a particularly spicy mustard used in Senfrostbraten?

The sweet mustard of the south is reserved almost exclusively for Weisswurst.

What is Sahnemeerrettich?

Horseradish with cream; the same root is behind most 'wasabi' served outside Japan, because the real wasabi plant is scarce.

What fruit fills Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte?

Cherries; the cake's name may come from the Black Forest's cherry brandy, Kirschwasser, or from the red pom-poms on the region's traditional Bollenhut hats.

German cheesecake is typically made with which dairy product?

Apples, plums, strawberries and cherries fill most of the country's cakes.

What do Berliners themselves call the jam doughnut known elsewhere as a Berliner?

Pfannkuchen; and the tale that JFK's 'Ich bin ein Berliner' called him a jelly doughnut is a myth, since his German was correct.

Rote Grütze, a northern German dish, is made from what?

Red fruits such as redcurrants and raspberries; the name means 'red groats' because older recipes thickened the juice with semolina or grain.

On a German Spaghettieis, what plays the part of the grated parmesan?

White chocolate, grated over strawberry sauce; Mannheim ice-cream maker Dario Fontanella says he created the dish in 1969, inspired by the dessert Mont Blanc.

Which bird is the traditional German Christmas roast?

Goose; Germans also roast one on St Martin's Day, when legend says cackling geese gave Martin away as he hid to avoid becoming a bishop.

Which fish is a traditional New Year's Eve dish in Germany?

Carp; an old custom says that keeping one of its coin-like scales in your wallet brings money in the new year.

Roughly how many types of bread does Germany produce?

About 3,000; that variety earned German bread culture a place on Germany's national register of intangible cultural heritage in 2014.

How is Pumpernickel traditionally cooked?

Steamed for a long time: loaves bake for at least 16 hours in steam, and that slow heat, not added colouring, turns the rye dark and sweet.

Bavaria's Semmelknödel dumplings are made mainly from what?

Stale bread rolls: yesterday's hard rolls are sliced, soaked in hot milk and bound with egg before the dumplings are simmered.

Franzbrötchen, a butter-and-cinnamon pastry roll, comes from which city?

Hamburg; the name, meaning 'French roll', may recall the city's occupation by Napoleon's troops in the early 1800s.

Which beer style, developed in the mid-19th century, came to dominate most of Germany?

Pilsner; the style was born when Pilsen's townspeople built a new brewery and hired a Bavarian brewer, Josef Groll.

Kölsch is the light ale of which city?

Cologne; its waiters, called Köbes, keep replacing each empty glass with a full one until the drinker lays a beer mat on top.

Berliner Weisse is often mixed with red raspberry syrup or green syrup of which herb?

Woodruff; the sweet syrups soften a beer made tart by fermenting it with lactic acid bacteria.

What does Radler, the beer-and-lemonade mix, literally mean?

Cyclist; a popular story says innkeeper Franz Kugler stretched his beer with lemonade for the crowds of cyclists at his country inn, though the drink appears in print by 1912.

Which traditional jug do Hessian cider taverns pour their Apfelwein from?

A Bembel; the Hessian TV show Zum Blauen Bock handed one to every guest as a keepsake.

Which well-known German grape variety makes white wine?

Riesling; Germany's sweetest versions come from grapes left on the vine long after the usual harvest, even picked frozen in December for ice wine.

Korn is a German spirit distilled from what?

Malted grain: Korn is mostly rye or wheat, with malt turning the starch into sugar, and despite its name it is never made from maize.

Spezi mixes cola with what?

Orange soda; Augsburg's Riegele brewery first used the name Spezi for a beer, then sold the cola-and-orange mix ready-made after seeing pubs mix it by hand.

East Frisians traditionally take their tea with cream and what?

Rock candy, or Kluntje; the tea is drunk unstirred, so you taste cream, then tea, then sweetness, and the costly candy lasts for several cups.

What is Bavaria's 'Weisswurst equator'?

A joking cultural border; some draw it along the Danube and others along the Main, which would put much of Franconia on the Weisswurst side.

Frankfurt's Grüne Sosse season traditionally starts on which day?

Maundy Thursday, Gründonnerstag in German; the story that Goethe's mother invented the seven-herb sauce is only a legend.

The Frankfurter Kranz cake is shaped to recall what?

A crown: Frankfurt was where Holy Roman Emperors were crowned, and the cake's round shape and golden brittle coat are meant to suggest their crown.

Which chancellor made Pfälzer Saumagen famous by serving it at state receptions?

It is a pig's stomach stuffed with sausage meat, bacon and potatoes.

Handkäs mit Musik, served in cider taverns, is made from what?

Sour milk: Handkäs is a sour-milk cheese, and the 'music' of its onion marinade is often said to come later, once the onions are digested.

Which sour Russian soup became a staple of East German restaurant menus?

Soljanka; it spread in East Germany after the war, when Soviet troops were stationed there and Soviet dishes caught on.

Who is credited with inventing Currywurst at a West Berlin stand in 1949?

Herta Heuwer; she later registered the name Chillup for her curry sauce.

Which carmaker runs its own butchery, turning out millions of currywursts a year?

Volkswagen; when it moved to take currywurst off a canteen menu in 2021, ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder called it the skilled factory worker's power bar.

The 1516 Bavarian beer law allowed only water, hops and which third ingredient?

Barley; limiting brewers to barley was meant to keep wheat and rye for bakers.

Mett, eaten on bread with onion rings in Germany, is what?

Raw minced pork; because it is eaten raw, German hygiene rules let loose Mett be sold only on the day it is made.

Which ruler had Dresden's bakers make a giant stollen for his lavish 1730 military pageant?

Augustus the Strong; long before, a papal 'Butter Letter' of the late 1400s had let Saxon bakers use butter instead of oil in their stollen.

Which sweet did Bonn confectioner Hans Riegel invent in 1922?

Gummy bears; when Riegel died in 1945, his wife Gertrud kept the firm going until their sons returned from captivity in 1946.

Speyer's big July folk festival on the Upper Rhine is named after which baked snack?

Pretzels; the Brezelfest was launched in 1910 to bring extra trade to Speyer's brewers, pretzel bakers and tobacco makers.