4 ms·

> The Irish and Germans didn't have potatoes. True, but fwiw I wouldn't consider potato to be particularly important in German cuisine. Sure you'll see it used

by ginko 2y ago

> The Irish and Germans didn't have potatoes. True, but fwiw I wouldn't consider potato to be particularly important in German cuisine. Sure you'll see it used quite a bit, but many of the more iconic dishes don't really need them or can be replaced like with bread dumplings for instance.

jajko 2y ago
The more east you go from Germany, the more important potatoes are to general population. Especially in the past, but even now they are more popular as side dish compared to ie rice or pasta, maybe due to bigger 'filling the stomach' effect that also lasts longer.
- bleakenthusiasm 2y ago
  Also rice doesn't grow anywhere near Germany. Today that's not really s factor anymore, because it's so easy to shop, but my parents both grew up sticking very much to a local and seasonal approach to cooking, because everything else was new to them. They eat what they always knew best, so 5-6 days of the week the starchy side were potatoes. Rice is way more filling by transportation effort, but potatoes have been around their entire lives and in my dad's case also what his parents grew on their farm.
  - hnbad 2y ago
    On a related note: German beans are different. You'll find canned kidney beans everywhere because combining them with sweet corn, bell peppers and onions with a seasoning overpowered by vinegar is a popular cheap side salad (often called "Mexico salad") and you'll find Heinz beans in tomato sauce but otherwise it's white beans or green beans. I was happy to discover canned pinto beans at my local supermarket but they were only available in a hot tomato sauce (branded as "chilli beans") - I only just found out the overpriced exotic Italian Wachtelbohnen collecting dust in the shelf next to them are pinto beans too. Heck, I'm nearly 40 and I've met Germans my age who were intrigued (or put off) by couscous because it's so exotic and they've never tried it before. I've talked to people running kebab joints (Dönerbuden) who said that they stopped offering lamb meat because the Germans didn't buy it and the few Turkish and Arab people who frequented them weren't enough to justify the overhead.
    - rico_0803 2y ago
      What German did you meet, that didnt know couscous? Granted, im a fair bit younger, but all of my friends and family know couscous and eat it fairly regularly (im german too). Which is to say: couscous is very well known in germany in general
      - hnbad 2y ago
        > couscous is very well known in germany in general I take it you live in a city. When I lived in Cologne, everyone obviously knew couscous. Rural Germany is a very different place. Granted, this was like 10 years ago but there's a reason we have the saying Was der Bauer nicht kennt, frisst er nicht ("what the peasant doesn't know, he doesn't eat").
    - wheels 2y ago
      Just on a practical note, if you're looking to buy dry beans in Germany, every Turkish supermarket has a whole aisle dedicated to them. You can get a couple dozen kinds of dry beans there, including pinto. Most organic grocery stores have them too, but for 3x the price.
- littlecranky67 2y ago
  Potatoes play a major role in german cuisine, a fact that you can also observe through architecture by looking at old houses or farms in Germany: The "Kartoffelkeller" (="potato cellar") is a common storage room under a house with no windows/light, for long term storage of potatoes after the harvest. Often there would be slides under trapdoors to be accesible from outside the house, so you can fill the cellar with the potato harvest right from the tractor. People would get their basements filled to have enough potatoes to make it through the winter. Another cultural fact: "Kartoffelferien" (="potato holidays") are still used by some elderly to describe the school holidays around october, because children needed to help with the potato harvest around that time.
hnbad 2y ago
Yes, they can be substituted but they're definitely a staple in good German Hausmannskost. Maybe not so much in the South: Swabia subsists almost entirely on Spätzle noodles and Bavarians seem to prefer various kinds of Knödel. But a good Rhineland Sauerbraten for example would normally be served with potatoes and a good Bauernomelette demands some crispy fried potato slices as well. Semmelknödel (but also often offered alongside potato dumplings) are a more common sight at special occasions or buffets. Many a young family's weekly rotation features spinach, fried eggs and potato mash alongside fish sticks, fried potatos with fried eggs and onions are a popular hearty lunch or late breakfast, and cooked potatos or mash are the default addition to some meat or sausage to the point a common microwave TV dinner still consists of Nuremberg sausages, sauerkraut and mash.
- micwag 2y ago
  > Yes, they can be substituted but they're definitely a staple in good German Hausmannskost. Maybe not so much in the South: Swabia subsists almost entirely on Spätzle noodles and Bavarians seem to prefer various kinds of Knödel. While the classic northern "Salzkartoffeln" are basically non existent in Swabia, potatoes in general play a big role in traditional Swabian cuisine. Whether its "Schupfnudeln" (finger noodles), as salad, Knödel, fried potatoe slices, Hitzkuchen/Blootz/Dinnete (Pizza with potatoes instead of tomatoe/cheese), Kachelessen/Griebaschnecken/Schlanganger (various potatoe and milk dishes), Gaisburger Marsch (stew), "sour eggs" (potatoes and eggs in a vinegar sauce). But unfortunately most of those dishes are not really cooked anymore. (For "sour eggs" thats a good thing, this tasteless sour graybrown dish can die in hell for all I care.)
  - CoastalCoder 2y ago
    In 2012 I was on the Tyrol valley near the Austrian Italian border, and IIRC the small restaurant we visited had potato pizza on its menu.
  - 9dev 2y ago
    As a fellow southern German - is it really surprising? Pretty much all traditional dishes are just so heavy, there’s only about two days of fall when I’m in the mood to eat anything like that. Also, pretty much any traditional German main course is meat-based.
morsch 2y ago
I tried to find some data, and I have to say I'm surprised how low potato consumption is in Germany[1]: 59 kg per capita per year. Metaphorically unfocusing my eyes while looking at the linked map, that seems like it's about average for Europe. Another, more recent, statistic[2] bears this out, 54 kg, and also has surprising (to me) details. Of those 54 kg, fully two-thirds -- 38 kg -- are processed potatoes (the article names potato chips/crisps, ready-to-eat potato salad and, of course, fries) and just 16 kg are "real" fresh potatoes. Finally, things used to be different[3]: in 1950, the per-capita consumption was 186 kg! [1] https://landgeist.com/2021/12/21/potato-consumption-in-europe/ https://landgeist.com/2021/12/21/potato-consumption-in-europ... attributed to FAO [2] https://www.bmel-statistik.de/ernaehrung/versorgungsbilanzen/kartoffeln https://www.bmel-statistik.de/ernaehrung/versorgungsbilanzen... German dept. of agriculture [3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/539799/per-capita-consumption-of-potatoes-in-germany/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/539799/per-capita-consum... it doesn't say, but I doubt people were eating a lot of potato chips in 1950 Germany
- wheels 2y ago
  A contributing factor in that is that Germans eat less and less traditionally German food. I'm wondering if fries are counted among the processed potatoes (I suspect so), as those are seemingly – like in many places – the most commonly observed form of potatoes.
- weitendorf 2y ago
  The fact that per-capita potato consumption was so much higher in 1950 tracks with what I've observed from german-american areas in the US. I lived in wisconsin for a bit and grew up as/around a lot of German-Americans, and we consumed way more potatoes than seems typical compared to eg San Franciscans. Potato salad, potato pancakes, potato soup, potato dumplings, german fried potatoes, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes (the latter two not being exclusively german but much more consumed), potatoes au gratin/scalloped potatoes +/- ham (I guess has some French origin as well). Also notable is that a lot of dishes that seem popular in Germany when I went aren't very common in the US in german-american areas as far as I can tell. Spaetzle is basically just a novelty, and I never see schnitzel per-se, but we do have equivalents like chicken-fried steak. We also basically never use the German name for anything except sauerkraut, bratwurst, and strudels, which to my understanding is because the US heavily de-germanized in WW1.

by ginko 2y ago

jajko 2y ago

The more east you go from Germany, the more important potatoes are to general population. Especially in the past, but even now they are more popular as side dish compared to ie rice or pasta, maybe due to bigger 'filling the stomach' effect that also lasts longer.

bleakenthusiasm 2y ago
Also rice doesn't grow anywhere near Germany. Today that's not really s factor anymore, because it's so easy to shop, but my parents both grew up sticking very much to a local and seasonal approach to cooking, because everything else was new to them. They eat what they always knew best, so 5-6 days of the week the starchy side were potatoes. Rice is way more filling by transportation effort, but potatoes have been around their entire lives and in my dad's case also what his parents grew on their farm.
- hnbad 2y ago
  On a related note: German beans are different. You'll find canned kidney beans everywhere because combining them with sweet corn, bell peppers and onions with a seasoning overpowered by vinegar is a popular cheap side salad (often called "Mexico salad") and you'll find Heinz beans in tomato sauce but otherwise it's white beans or green beans. I was happy to discover canned pinto beans at my local supermarket but they were only available in a hot tomato sauce (branded as "chilli beans") - I only just found out the overpriced exotic Italian Wachtelbohnen collecting dust in the shelf next to them are pinto beans too. Heck, I'm nearly 40 and I've met Germans my age who were intrigued (or put off) by couscous because it's so exotic and they've never tried it before. I've talked to people running kebab joints (Dönerbuden) who said that they stopped offering lamb meat because the Germans didn't buy it and the few Turkish and Arab people who frequented them weren't enough to justify the overhead.
  - rico_0803 2y ago
    What German did you meet, that didnt know couscous? Granted, im a fair bit younger, but all of my friends and family know couscous and eat it fairly regularly (im german too). Which is to say: couscous is very well known in germany in general
    - hnbad 2y ago
      > couscous is very well known in germany in general I take it you live in a city. When I lived in Cologne, everyone obviously knew couscous. Rural Germany is a very different place. Granted, this was like 10 years ago but there's a reason we have the saying Was der Bauer nicht kennt, frisst er nicht ("what the peasant doesn't know, he doesn't eat").
  - wheels 2y ago
    Just on a practical note, if you're looking to buy dry beans in Germany, every Turkish supermarket has a whole aisle dedicated to them. You can get a couple dozen kinds of dry beans there, including pinto. Most organic grocery stores have them too, but for 3x the price.
littlecranky67 2y ago
Potatoes play a major role in german cuisine, a fact that you can also observe through architecture by looking at old houses or farms in Germany: The "Kartoffelkeller" (="potato cellar") is a common storage room under a house with no windows/light, for long term storage of potatoes after the harvest. Often there would be slides under trapdoors to be accesible from outside the house, so you can fill the cellar with the potato harvest right from the tractor. People would get their basements filled to have enough potatoes to make it through the winter. Another cultural fact: "Kartoffelferien" (="potato holidays") are still used by some elderly to describe the school holidays around october, because children needed to help with the potato harvest around that time.

hnbad 2y ago

Yes, they can be substituted but they're definitely a staple in good German Hausmannskost. Maybe not so much in the South: Swabia subsists almost entirely on Spätzle noodles and Bavarians seem to prefer various kinds of Knödel. But a good Rhineland Sauerbraten for example would normally be served with potatoes and a good Bauernomelette demands some crispy fried potato slices as well. Semmelknödel (but also often offered alongside potato dumplings) are a more common sight at special occasions or buffets. Many a young family's weekly rotation features spinach, fried eggs and potato mash alongside fish sticks, fried potatos with fried eggs and onions are a popular hearty lunch or late breakfast, and cooked potatos or mash are the default addition to some meat or sausage to the point a common microwave TV dinner still consists of Nuremberg sausages, sauerkraut and mash.

micwag 2y ago
> Yes, they can be substituted but they're definitely a staple in good German Hausmannskost. Maybe not so much in the South: Swabia subsists almost entirely on Spätzle noodles and Bavarians seem to prefer various kinds of Knödel. While the classic northern "Salzkartoffeln" are basically non existent in Swabia, potatoes in general play a big role in traditional Swabian cuisine. Whether its "Schupfnudeln" (finger noodles), as salad, Knödel, fried potatoe slices, Hitzkuchen/Blootz/Dinnete (Pizza with potatoes instead of tomatoe/cheese), Kachelessen/Griebaschnecken/Schlanganger (various potatoe and milk dishes), Gaisburger Marsch (stew), "sour eggs" (potatoes and eggs in a vinegar sauce). But unfortunately most of those dishes are not really cooked anymore. (For "sour eggs" thats a good thing, this tasteless sour graybrown dish can die in hell for all I care.)
- CoastalCoder 2y ago
  In 2012 I was on the Tyrol valley near the Austrian Italian border, and IIRC the small restaurant we visited had potato pizza on its menu.
- 9dev 2y ago
  As a fellow southern German - is it really surprising? Pretty much all traditional dishes are just so heavy, there’s only about two days of fall when I’m in the mood to eat anything like that. Also, pretty much any traditional German main course is meat-based.

morsch 2y ago

I tried to find some data, and I have to say I'm surprised how low potato consumption is in Germany[1]: 59 kg per capita per year. Metaphorically unfocusing my eyes while looking at the linked map, that seems like it's about average for Europe. Another, more recent, statistic[2] bears this out, 54 kg, and also has surprising (to me) details. Of those 54 kg, fully two-thirds -- 38 kg -- are processed potatoes (the article names potato chips/crisps, ready-to-eat potato salad and, of course, fries) and just 16 kg are "real" fresh potatoes. Finally, things used to be different[3]: in 1950, the per-capita consumption was 186 kg! [1] https://landgeist.com/2021/12/21/potato-consumption-in-europe/ https://landgeist.com/2021/12/21/potato-consumption-in-europ... attributed to FAO [2] https://www.bmel-statistik.de/ernaehrung/versorgungsbilanzen/kartoffeln https://www.bmel-statistik.de/ernaehrung/versorgungsbilanzen... German dept. of agriculture [3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/539799/per-capita-consumption-of-potatoes-in-germany/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/539799/per-capita-consum... it doesn't say, but I doubt people were eating a lot of potato chips in 1950 Germany

wheels 2y ago
A contributing factor in that is that Germans eat less and less traditionally German food. I'm wondering if fries are counted among the processed potatoes (I suspect so), as those are seemingly – like in many places – the most commonly observed form of potatoes.
weitendorf 2y ago
The fact that per-capita potato consumption was so much higher in 1950 tracks with what I've observed from german-american areas in the US. I lived in wisconsin for a bit and grew up as/around a lot of German-Americans, and we consumed way more potatoes than seems typical compared to eg San Franciscans. Potato salad, potato pancakes, potato soup, potato dumplings, german fried potatoes, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes (the latter two not being exclusively german but much more consumed), potatoes au gratin/scalloped potatoes +/- ham (I guess has some French origin as well). Also notable is that a lot of dishes that seem popular in Germany when I went aren't very common in the US in german-american areas as far as I can tell. Spaetzle is basically just a novelty, and I never see schnitzel per-se, but we do have equivalents like chicken-fried steak. We also basically never use the German name for anything except sauerkraut, bratwurst, and strudels, which to my understanding is because the US heavily de-germanized in WW1.