What are some food preparation techniques and mealtime things in Germany?

Question

Food prep techniques in Germany and "Norms associated w/ mealtime - time of day, table setting, manners, utensils." For a Home Ec. project. Google is horrible.

Answer 1

You should get a german cookbook. my personal favorite is "Das bayerische Kochbuch"Supermarkets are not open for 24 hours and are closed on sundays.

Answer 2

Shop at market daily. Buy, cook and eat fresh fruits and vegatables. Buy fresh meats. Use little stored foods. Often serve dark beers with meals.

Answer 3

the so call trational ''fish'' on friday doesnt exist... The friday fish thing is for cathlic familys. My Mother is full germany and i live here too. and fish isnt that big for germans unless your cathlic

Answer 4

The two previous answers are correct, one thing is also that a traditional thing would be fish on fridays, a good meat dish on sundays (Sonntagsbraten) e.g. Sauerbraten, and yup, Sauerkraut, Potatoes, Bratwurst etc..

And goooood bread.. tons of different kinds of bread! There´s no comparison!

Then again, tonight I´ll be cooking something from Switzerland which is called Raclette, it´s a special kind of cheese that gets melted (preferrably over a fireplace but an oven or broiler will do :-) until it has bubbles and often gets served with potatoes, sour pickles, small silver pickled onions or baguette bread. At our house, we also serve it with fresh blue mussles.. smile.. yummy!

Oh, and don´t forget about all the different gravies.. hmm.. germans love their gravy and I know tons of people who could live on potatoes or rice with gravy for years! There´s a great cooking book out in english that´s called "German Cooking" from Dr. Oetker. You might even find it at your local library!

Answer 5

A lot of the general answers of the other poster are correct, but of course not all germans are the same and they do vary in their mealtime habbits as well.

For example, many do eat whole grain bread for breakfast too and not the rolls. Many don't eat at home either, and pick up a pastry or sandwich at one of the many bakeries (chain and non-chain - I miss them so much!!)

Also many public transport stations have sale stands with wonderful soft pretzel with different toppings - yummy.

Lunch is still often a large meal, but of course with people who work in offices also trying to control weight, often it is actually smaller than it used to be. Salads are very popular. And then of course the wonderful turkish Döner Kebab being the most popular fast food ahead of McDs or german "fast foods".

When germans go out, for the most part they prefer foreign food. Italian, Chinese, Greek, Turkish would be the most popular the number of restaurants varying by areas.

Answer 6

holy smokes it would take hours...Okay breakfast would be Brotchen, closest thing in states would be kaiser rolls at a deli.You would eat those with butter and jelly (no grape jelly!!1 strawberry jam or preserves. Coffee, maybe some cheese and a soft boiled egg in a eggcup.Lunch is usually a big meal. Famous is Schnitzel. Take a pork steak and beat the heck out of it with a meat hammer, bread it in eggs and crums and fry it. You can make Jaegersnitzel by serving it with mushroom gravy. You can serve it with bread or potato dumplings, but keep it simple and make some fries. If you want to get fancy make som Spaezle (egg noodles0 i found recpt. in Betty Crocker book. Lot of germans eat mayo on fries and not catsup but thats like at fast food places. Ok dinner would be usually like what we would have for lunch...get a bunch of different cold cuts salami cheese...serve on a slice of butterd bread, (again hit a deli and get somekind of whole wheat bread, stay away from pumpernikle nobdy eats that stuff but old ladies)serve with pikles and maybe a salad...oh salad  also at lunch..uhh use garden salad not eisberg. Shredded carrots and radishes and tomatos are ok..and just oil and viniger and some spices......oh I forgot about 2 or 3 in afternoon some coffee with some blackforest cake is good...Germans eat with knife in right hand and fork in left. hope this helps..