Final German Food Update (and why are these plums yellow?!)

The final dishes have been found! I had around 2 weeks to go and I was still finalizing recipes. This took longer than it should have, but the year long experiment seems to have worked. I was able to dig up a version of sauerbraten that I really liked and I found one more side dish, fried cabbage fritters. It may have taken 10 months to find all of the recipes for Thanksgiving 2.6, but it was worth it. I believe I have chosen dishes that will be enjoyed by many people. If no one else likes them at least I’ll enjoy the leftovers. The addition of these final 2 gives me a total of 1 German appetizer, 2 German side dishes, 4 German main dishes and 7 German desserts. All of these will go great with the 7 German beers I’ve chosen. 

     I finally found a sauerbraten recipe I like or you could say I found a version for the masses. I understand that the "sauer" part of the name comes from the mild pickling (or long marinating) step that takes place in these recipes. Instead of an overnight marinade, the rump roast is soaked in the flavorful liquid for 2 or 3 days. Not only does this soften some of the muscle fibers, but it gives a ton of flavor to the beef itself. During my testing I found that I was not quite ready for the full sauer flavor, so I found a recipe that cut half of the red wine vinegar with a dry red wine. This one simple change made all the difference for me. I can taste the sauerness, but it is mellowed by the great wine flavor. The last step of the recipe of adding gingersnaps to the gravy was genius. The gravy went from a very plain beef Au-Jus with a hint of onions to a thick, and spicy beef gravy. I think at least a few people will enjoy the thinly sliced tender beef smothered with spicy gravy.

      The final German food has been chosen. Kohl Krapfen or Fried Cabbage. The one part of the menu that has the least German influence is clearly the side dish category. This isn't due to some hatred of side dishes that the German people have. As far as I know they enjoy potatoes and vegetables as much as the next country. The lack in this area has more to do with 2 factors. The first being that Thanksgiving 2 is a traditional thanksgiving meal with a theme tacked on to the side to keep it interesting for me (the food preparer). So many of the people I know (guests included) enjoy the traditional side dishes more than they enjoy the actual turkey. Personally, I like stuffing at least 8 times more than turkey. The second reason for the Germanless-ness of the side dishes has to do with flavor. I experimented with around 10 side dishes throughout this past year. Many of those dishes had flavor profiles that were very similar to sides we will already be having. For example: the Turner onion casserole tastes similar yet better in my opinion then any of the zwiebelkuchen (onion pies) I found, and mashed potatoes have a similar flavor to any of the spaetzle recipes I tried. The kohl krapfen is one of the few recipes I found that did not have an analog already in the menu. I found the fried cabbage to have a nice crunchy texture, a simple preparation, and a very different taste then the non-fried forms of cabbage in many of the other traditional cabbage dishes. They actually come out very light due to the minimal fat used in their frying. I think they will be a hit because this is already a crowd that's prepared to devour 2 fried turkeys. 

      Why no plums? Where is the plum cake? I love plums and pie! All of these are valid questions that will probably be asked of me at TH2. Well, apparently I have had a too optimistic view of the growing capabilities of the U.S. I figured that since I can buy mangoes, and dragon-fruit and apples all year round that I could perhaps buy 2 pounds of plums when I needed them in late November. 2 weeks ago I could have bought 400 pounds of plums, this week I can barely find prunes. Unless a miracle happens by next week or I find some way to make plums magically appear I have had to replace the plum cake (zwetschgenkuchen) with a lemon cake (zitronenkuchen). I have made a similar dense pound cake-like dessert before, so I am confident that at least a few people will enjoy it. It's only the second lemon flavored dessert on the menu and this way it won't feel like a lemon overload. Hopefully, the plum fan backlash will be minor, and offset by the lemon fan hoopla.


In less than two weeks time we will have arrived at another TH2. Then it will be 3 weeks before I can start planning for the Polar Palooza and then next years Thanksgiving 2. The cycle continues.