The Frankenland or Franconia, which are 3 regions in Bavaria’s northern part and, yes, the pioneers who settled in Frankenmuth, Michigan came from there, has many regional specialties not so common in the regions south of the River Danube. As this region, in the span of European history, just recently (a couple hundred years ago) became part of Bavaria the food specialties developed a little on a different plane.
Many dishes I grew up with were even specific to the towns and local regions, like our Bratwurst is the thickness of a breakfast link sausage just about twice as long and served a pair on a bun, I already wrote about this in my “Bratwurst Mecca Franken” post, our Rouladen must have mustard in them and often our Sauerbraten is not marinated, but has the sourness in the gravy and has to be made with a “Sossenkuchen” a common Lebkuchen/Gingerbread with a lower sugar content, which is used to bind the sauce.
Bamberg’s Rauchbier (smoked beer), the short Nuremberg Bratwurst, “Blaue Zipf” (Bratwurst cooked in a vinegar base stock), Carp or Trout cooked also in a vinegar stock and the Fränkische Schäufele, the, in my opinion, close to ultimate pork roast are just a few of the things you should try during your visit there.
For the Lunch Meat and Sausage lovers among you, on the menu, the usually offered Brotzeit will be the treat not to pass up (Note: On Wurst Platters – Head Cheese, Liver Sausage and Blood Sausage are often included).
Picture courtesy Geiers Sausage Kitchen, Sarasota Florida
South of the Danube: Included here are specialties either originating here or which are widely spread. the most famous besides the beer is probably the original Weisswurst from Munich, the exceptional Prince Regent Torte, which I already introduced and the Oktoberfest specialty the Steckerlfisch, a trout or white fish, strongly seasoned, stuck onto a stick and cooked over a charcoal fire and often served just on the paper, used to take the fish off the stick.
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Let me list some of the dishes available in most parts of Bavaria:
Some recipes can be found on our Inge’s Kitchen
- Bavarian Potato Soup
- Bierwurst
- Gelbwurst
- Leberkaese
- Limburger
- Radish
- Wurstsalat
- Bavarian Sauerkraut
- Böfflamot
- Potato Dumplings
- Bread Dumplings
- Dampfnudeln
- Zwiebelkuchen
- Griebenschmalz
- Liver Dumplings
- Liver Dumpling Soup
- Kronfleisch
- Obazdta
- Pichelsteiner
- Schupfnudeln
- Spätzle
- Wollwurst
Many of these dishes are already covered on our ingeskitchen.com site and most of the others will either be included there or written about here in the future.