50 Fun Facts About German Food

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

Strict rules on what may go into them date back to the 13th century.

What is Sauerbraten?

Beef, horse or venison is steeped in vinegar for several days before cooking.

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

It is a Bavarian speciality, traditionally eaten with sweet mustard.

Which 1236 market ordinance first ruled that only top-quality meat could go into sausages?

German sausage regulations have been in force since the 13th century.

What is a Rollmops?

Brathering, fried marinated herring, is its cousin.

What is the German name for fish fingers?

It literally means 'fish sticklets'.

Which variety of asparagus is especially popular in Germany?

Restaurants devote whole menus to it during Spargelzeit.

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

That is 24 June; the season opens in mid-April.

What does Abendbrot literally mean?

Supper was traditionally a cold meal of bread, cold cuts and cheese.

Kaffee und Kuchen is compared to which English custom?

It fills the gap between lunch and dinner, often on Sundays with the whole family.

What are Spätzle?

They dominate in the southwest, alongside the ravioli-like Maultaschen.

Maultaschen are most often compared to which Italian food?

They are traditional stuffed noodles from Swabia.

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

His Potato Edict helped make the tuber almost ubiquitous by the 19th century.

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

The colours stand for the two sauces.

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 has been documented in Germany since the 16th century, when it was used as medicine.

What fruit fills Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte?

The Black Forest cake is Germany's best-known cream torte.

German cheesecake is typically made with which dairy product?

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

What distinguishes a German Berliner doughnut from an American ring doughnut?

Depending on the region it is called Berliner, Pfannkuchen, Kreppel or Krapfen.

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

Currants and raspberries are cooked in juice and thickened with corn starch.

Spaghettieis is an ice-cream dessert made to look like what?

Italian ice-cream parlours were Germany's first big wave of foreign-run eateries.

Which bird is the traditional German Christmas Day roast?

In the south it is sometimes replaced by breaded carp.

Which fish is traditionally eaten on Saint Sylvester's Day, New Year's Eve?

Carp also stands in for goose at some southern Christmas tables.

Roughly how many types of bread does Germany produce?

Plus 1,200 kinds of pastries and rolls from some 13,000 bakeries.

How is Pumpernickel traditionally cooked?

The method gives the rye bread its sweet taste.

What is a bread roll called in Berlin?

Semmel is the southern word, Rundstück the Hamburg one.

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

The name means 'little French roll'.

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

Wheat beer and other lagers are common especially in Bavaria.

Kölsch is the light ale of which city?

Düsseldorf's equivalent is the dark Altbier.

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

It is a low-alcohol sour beer.

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

In the north the same mix is Alsterwasser, after Hamburg's river.

From what traditional pitcher do Hessians drink their cider?

Apfelwein, or Äppelwoi, is the drink of Frankfurt's Sachsenhausen taverns.

Which of these is a well-known German white grape?

Spätburgunder and Dornfelder are the important reds.

Korn is a German spirit distilled from what?

It is drunk mainly in the middle and north; the south prefers fruit brandies.

Spezi mixes cola with what?

Apfelschorle, juice with sparkling mineral water, is the other national favourite.

Which German-Swiss watchmaker developed bottled carbonated water and a namesake drinks company?

Germans still prefer bottled sparkling water to still.

East Frisians traditionally take their tea with cream and what?

The candy is called Kluntje.

The 'Weisswurst equator' separates which region from the rest of Bavaria?

Franconians north of the line generally do not eat white sausage.

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

The cold herb sauce uses borage, chervil, cress, parsley, pimpinelle, sorrel and chives.

The Frankfurter Kranz cake is shaped to recall what?

Frankfurt was the coronation city of the German emperors.

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?

It comes in a marinade of onions, vinegar and spices.

Which Russian soup entered East German kitchens during the Communist era?

Soldiers and holidaymakers from the Eastern bloc brought their dishes with them.

Who invented Currywurst at a West Berlin stand in 1949?

She is said to have got ketchup and curry powder from British soldiers.

Roughly how many currywursts are eaten in Germany each year, per the former museum?

About 70 million of them in Berlin alone; Volkswagen's Wolfsburg plant makes 7 million.

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

Yeast went unmentioned because brewers saw it as part of the process rather than an ingredient.

Whose 1972 stand at West Berlin's Zoo Station is credited with the doner sandwich?

Berlin had an estimated 1,500 doner shops by 2017.

Dresden Stollen is marked with a seal depicting which ruler?

Only 110 Dresden bakeries may produce the 'official' stollen.

Which confectioner claimed to have created Black Forest gateau at a Bad Godesberg cafe?

The name first appeared in print in February 1915 in Brandenburg an der Havel.

Which city calls itself the 'pretzel town' and throws 22,000 pretzels at its July Brezelfest?

A fountain on its market square shows a boy selling pretzels.