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Abendessen, wurst, fleischkäse, kartoffeln...

9/20/2008 11:51:00 AM

1/2 Cheese Kransky, 1 Debrecziner mit gurken und kartoffeln salad


Fresh from my smoked-meat shopping spree, and enthused about my awesome stash, I got busy in the kitchen this week making some homestyle German dinners.


Samstag Abendessen (Saturday dinner)

I started off by making a huge vat of gurken und kartoffeln salad - boiling whole potatoes, then peeling and slicing them, then mixing them with chopped onions, thinly sliced cucumbers and the dressing. The dressing consists of oil, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and a small cup of meat stock. (I actually used Massel's beef-style stock cubes, which are 100% vegetarian, and taste great!) You're supposed to let the salad sit for "a good hour", but we were hungry and didn't want to wait.

We also had some Noisette white sourdough, picked up at Hausfrau earlier that day..

And fleischkäse, quickly fried in a pan.

Interestingly enough, what I knew as fleischkäse back in Lampertheim, seems to be more widely known as "leberkäse". Indeed, if you're at Andrew's Choice Butcher and want to purchase this loaf of meaty deliciousness, you will have to ask for leberkäse. Andrew's do sell something that they call fleischkäse, but it seems to be a chunky meatloaf rather than the uniformly pink loaf that I know and love. Whatever you call it, Andrew's German-style-meatloaf was frikkin awesome!!!

We also had some cheese kransky with the meal, mainly because I wanted to try cold smoked sausage. I didn't realise that all smoked sausages can be eaten cold. D'oh!

That little beauty atop the two sausages is my Wüsthof Gourmet Salamimesser. How cool is that? A knife just for salami! (Although actually, being a small serrated knife, it's great for sausages, bagels, tomatoes, bread rolls, cakes...) I'd wanted one for ages, but only actually bought it when I was in Germany earlier this year. You see, in Australia, the only Wüsthof knives I could find were the expensive, fully forged ones, and I just couldn't justify spending over $100 for a small salami knife. When I went to Germany, I realised that Wüsthof actually have some cheaper ranges of knives - the Gourmet and Silverpoint ranges - which are stamp-pressed, rather than fully-forged, and sooo much cheaper. I ordered myself the salamimesser, a brotmesser (bread knife) and a small utility knife from Amazon.de. I can't remember the exact price, but it was about 50 euro for all 3. BARGAIN!

And whilst I do know that fully forged, perfectly balanced knives are a joy to hold and easier on the wrists (quite important if you're a chef and slicing, say, hundreds of salamis all day!), I don't find that it makes a huge difference in my day-to-day kitchen life. These 3 "lower end budget knives" are incredibly sharp, and I have the battle scars on my hands to prove it.




Sonntag Mittagessen (Sunday Lunch)
Leftover fleischkäse and potato salad. I found the potato salad to be nicer the next day, when the potatoes had been able to absorb the dressing.


Dienstag Abendessen
(Tuesday dinner)

For a solo, post-work dinner, I quickly fried a debrecziner and the half-cheese-kransky that was left over from Saturday night, and the remaining potato salad. (Picture at the top of the post). The potato salad was ok, but becoming alarmingly oniony by this stage.


The sausages tasted great, but I was surprised to find the debrecziner gave off a helluva lot of liquid when I cut into it. Look at that plate! And that was only half the liquid. I had to get up and swap plates halfway through, lest I spill meat juice all over myself as I watched The Simpsons on the couch. Is that much liquid in a debrecziner normal? Oh well, I guess I'll just eat the next debrecziner hot-dog style, to avoid that problem.

You'll be pleased to know that after dinner, I went straight to the gym. As much as I adore German smallgoods and sausages, we all know they're not that great for you - all that salt and saturated fat! Like they say on the family blocks of KitKat, "Life's all about balance".

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4 comments

  1. Hmm - debreciner shouldn't have all that liquid coming out. How strange. Did it still taste okay?

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  2. Loving all this German food. The potato salad looks awesome :) and I love that there is a market for salami-only knifes.

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  3. Anonymous3:10 PM

    A knife just slicing salami sounds great! Someone told me there was a person called a Fleischmeister who is apparently a guru of salami. Have you heard of this?

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  4. Anonymous4:55 PM

    Great photos Sarah! Love an old-fashioned German feast!
    And in answer to the question posted above, a Fleischmeister is a highly trained craftsman who specialises in meat. I believe "Fleischmeister" is German term for "meat master" and the title can only be earned after lengthy training in Europe.

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