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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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Posted: 06 February 2012 at 13:53 |
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This is a very old dish in Germany, at least from the Middle Ages. From Time/Life's Foods of the World - The Cooking of Germany, 1969:
Here's one recipe, from Time/Life:
Another source, Culinaria Germany, agrees that this is a very old dish, but gives a slightly different perspective:
Culinaria has a recipe for beer soup is from Munich; it has the same base (light beer, sugar, salt, pepper, egg yolks and cream), but is spiced with lemon, nutmeg and caraway:
Culinaria Also has a recipe for Sorbian beer soup, which reflects Germany's Slavic population near Spree Forest and Lausitz Bergland:
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Karl
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 23 January 2012 Location: Juneau Status: Offline Points: 251 |
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I am fond of beer and cheese soup so I need to try this recipe.
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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karl - i've got all the stuff on hand to make the first one (Heisse Biersuppe) - , probably this weekend.
if you want to make the second one (Münchner Biersuppe), we'll get kind of a two-for-one deal!
one thing - i am guessing that german "light beer" is much different than american "light beer." in the german context, i am sure they are referring more to colour, possibly a specific class (such as say, pilsener or something along those lines). i am not an expert on foreign beers, so i don't know. any suggestions? one thing i am sure of, i am sure they don't mean any of the darker, more full-bodied beers.
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Karl
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 23 January 2012 Location: Juneau Status: Offline Points: 251 |
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Other than the beer I think that I have everything else on hand for the second recipe. I have some
Old German Spice Cake: http://www.recipe4living.com/recipes/old_german_spice_cake.htm |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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hey, karl - i agree with your assessment ono the beer. i was thinking of a light-coloured wheat beer also. and i think i have just the thing for it - will check and see.
assuming that mrs. karl goes for it, your german wedding feast sounds like it will be great! hope it works out, and looking forward to hearing about it!
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Daikon
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 20 October 2011 Location: San Francisco Status: Offline Points: 381 |
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I just tried the Münchner Biersuppe. It was okay, but soups are all about balance, and this one tasted unbalanced to me. I made it with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which is a little more hoppy and bitter than the light beers and weiss biers that you guys are thinking of using. Even so, it was on the acid side. If I were to try it again, I'd use no more than half a lemon....
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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>>>I made it with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which is a little more hoppy and bitter than the light beers and weiss biers...<<<
one that i was considering was trout slayer ale for the heisse biersuppe:
but i if your pale ale experience was unsatisfactory, it might not be the best choice.
i'd like to stick with a montana-brewed beer, if possible - perhaps bayern's pilsener would be the one:
or, based on it's description, bayern's st. wilbur weizen might be the way to go:
there might be a couple of choices in the "light, non-bitter" category - which is what i am looking for with this. i will take a look tomorrow or friday.
finding out should be fun, though! |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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For those interested, I added one more biersuppe recipe to the original post. This one reflects the Slavic population of Germany.
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Karl
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 23 January 2012 Location: Juneau Status: Offline Points: 251 |
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I tried this recipe Saturday night:
Münchner Biersuppe
Munich Beer Soup
2 tablespoons butter
4 cups (1 litre) light beer
Salt, pepper and sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground caraway
A pinch of ground nutmeg
The juice of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup (100 millilitres) cream
4 tablespoons croutons
Melt the butter in a pan. Add the beer, season with salt and
pepper, a pinch of sugar, caraway, nutmeg and lemon juice. Bring to a
boil, and remove from the heat at once. Whisk the egg yolks with the
cream, and stir into the soup. Serve with croutons. It did not go over well. It was too thin (even after adding a little flour to thicken it), very beery, and a bit too lemony. It needs something else. I think that I'll stick to beer and cheese soup for now. On the other hand, none of us who tried it are beer drinkers. On a better note, I guesstimated the millet gruel recipe which was much better received. Chop a package of bratwurst into about 1" pieces and remove skin. Make marble sized balls out of ground lamb, then brown them together. Meanwhile put 2 cups millet and 6 cups cold water in a dutch oven with a tsp salt, a little pepper, a pinch of saffron threads, and a bunch of shredded kale. Bring to boil then reduce to simmer and cover for 45 minutes. Stir in drained meat balls and serve. None of us were particularly familiar with cooking or eating whole millet before but it is a pleasantly starchy and slightly sweet grain with no after taste (like quinoa). There was none left and I might keep experimenting with this recipe like adding tomatoes an spices to make a sort of renaissance German jambalaya. |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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say, karl - sorry that you did not find the biersuppe to your liking. i made the heisse biersuppe: and found it to be pretty good, although it could have been a little better. after trying it, i am thinking that a lager might have been a better choice (a little less hoppy or bitter or something) - also, as you noted, it was quite thin, and this made it a little awkward to eat, but basically, i found it to be good.
when you get the chance, i think i speak for everyone when i say it would be great if we could see some pictures of these medieval re-creations - the next time you have one, please feel free to post about it!
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AK1
Master Chef Joined: 10 April 2012 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 1081 |
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I did try this a while ago, and found it "slightly off". I think that the selection of beer will have a lot to do with the flavour. My impression is that this is one of those recipe's that are very simple to make, but difficult to get "just right".
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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hi, darko - very glad that you were able to try this, and i agree with your impression.
i am thinking next time, i will try a lighter (in the german context) lager, and will perhaps also try to thicken it just a bit, maybe with a roux.
it certainly has potential, because i loved the flavours - the beer was just a little off and it was awfully thin, something i am not used to with soups....
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AK1
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I think Karl hit the nail on the head, when he said it was "too beery" . What I found was that it tasted like warm, flat beer with spices added.
perhaps, this is what it is supposed to taste like, maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure if the medieval palate was the same as ours, or whether they ate stuff just for the sake of eating it, and showing off.
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Karl
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 23 January 2012 Location: Juneau Status: Offline Points: 251 |
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One of my original guinea pigs just e-mailed me looking for an(other) over-the-top medieval feast to prepare for an event and I recalled this thread.
I am wondering what they meant by "spice cakes" in the first course? Gingerbread maybe since there was such a following for this as a digestive and treat at that time? https://germanfoods.org/german-food-facts/guide-to-german-cookies-and-cakes/ "Germany’s world-famous Lebkuchen is a richly-spiced gingerbread made with honey, flour, sugar, eggs, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, candied orange and lemon peel, marzipan and spices like cinnamon, ginger, aniseed, cloves, pimento, coriander and cardamom. Please see recipe here. Although gingerbread has been baked in Europe for centuries, of all the European countries, Germany is the one with the longest and strongest gingerbread tradition, especially in regards to the flat shaped gingerbreads known as Lebkuchen. Lebkuchen were first baked in the city of Nuremberg in 1395. In 1643, Nuremberg created a Lebkuchen Baker’s Guild, which began with 14 master gingerbread bakers who were required to make the gingerbread following strict guidelines." Townsend has several excellent gingerbread baking videos in YouTube cooking series like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaGnBm_o02k Apparently medieval gingerbread was very secretive and enjoyed a unique claim to being a chemically leavened bread as opposed to yeast. This along with the ginger may have made it almost medicinal or at least a palate cleanser. I was lucky enough to stumble on an old wooden gingerbread mold of a (Polish?) king so I had to try a batch. To my pleasant surprise, my lovely but picky wife liked it. She even bagged some up to hide at work. She doesn't like much so this is noteworthy. She just bought me a stoneware sheep gingerbread mold as a hint to make more. I have a couple cast iron molds too so maybe a big batch is called for. Maybe I'll try pearlash or hartshorn. This is another possible spice cake recipe might similar to Springerle: http://www.thespringerlebaker.com/ken_recipes.html Since the recipe calls for hartshorn it suggests that it is very old. |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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Hi, Karl -
Great post! I will read the rest of it when I have more time, but I got to thinking about the soup itself. I can't speak for everyone else who has tried it, but I know that when I made mine, I used an American beer. These seem (to me, at least) to be more aggressively hopped than most of the German beers I have tried. In fact, the German hefeweizens (which generally have spicy and fruity notes, as well), usually have very, very low bitterness, especially compared to American beers. I am wondering if this is the difference - I have brewed a couple of German-style hefeweizens, and have tried several others; thinking about it now, I could see where they would be much "better" with the profile of this soup. I will probably test this hypothesis, the next chance I get. I think you are spot-on with your ideas on the spice cakes, as well. It makes good sense, and goes along pretty well with what I know. I was also looking at the recipe for Andy's grandmother's Streuselkuchen: http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/my-grandmothers-streuselkuchen_topic1271.html It seems to fit right in, as well. The idea of these gingerbread molds is pretty cool - I've heard of them but can't recall seeing them, except perhaps simple hearts. Worthy of further discussion, for sure! |
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Karl
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 23 January 2012 Location: Juneau Status: Offline Points: 251 |
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Thank you for the additional spice cake recipe. The more the better.
Not being a big beer drinker I had not thought about the modern hoppy beers vs medieval brews. http://www.beerscenemag.com/2010/04/the-short-and-bitter-history-of-hops/ It looks like hops was just beginning to become fashionable about the time this wedding feast was being described and there were still other options around. The hops sort of compliments beer&cheese soups more than spiced soup. |
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Karl
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 23 January 2012 Location: Juneau Status: Offline Points: 251 |
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Sorry, I missed the gingerbread mold part. It has been a long week today.
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gracoman
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Karl
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 23 January 2012 Location: Juneau Status: Offline Points: 251 |
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I used this cast iron mold last Christmas to make several kits (both designs) for a DAR bake sale. I made several extra little people from the mold for the DAR ladies to give out a samples since so many people are underwhelmed by gingerbread. Due to this apparently none of the houses were actually assembled since the buyers just opened the bags and started eating them there. If I had guessed this it would have been easier to have just made gingerbread cookies.
I would not mind finding more of these old style wooden molds. They are a little tedious to use even if you grease them well it is tricky to peel the molded gingerbread out and keep it intact. |
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Karl
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 23 January 2012 Location: Juneau Status: Offline Points: 251 |
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Once you hang something up as a kitchen decoration it becomes invisible so I almost forgot that I picked up one of these cast iron molds too:
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