All In Butter

So, you probably cook a lot of German dishes - that is one of the questions I get a lot when people find out that I am from Germany. Do I? Well, in a way it's true, most of the meals I cook for my family are variations of what my grandmother or mother used to cook for me. My grandmother was from Pomerania which is Poland today, so she cooked a lot of cabbage, potatoes, and meat. She also went through two world wars and knew hunger, therefore she also learned how to make the most out of cheap ingredients. I remember having a lot of stews and soups, most of them I liked, some I didn't but I ate them anyway. Because it was still the time when you just ate what was on the table.

My mother on the other hand loved spicy foods and experimented with all kinds of international cuisines. Exotic foods and restaurants have been available in Germany for as long as I remember. Germany has been an immigration country since after the Second World War when Germany hired guest workers from Portugal, Italy, Greece and Turkey to rebuild the country. And these workers stayed, they brought their flavors to Germany, their street foods and spices, restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores. We didn't go to restaurants much but when we did we would go to a Greek or "Yugoslavian" place where you could order lots of deliciously seasoned meat for very little money. And then all these other international eating places popped up. I love this about Germany, its intercultural flavors.

So, yeah, I cook a lot of German dishes, I scoop up whatever I find in the German melting pot. And then I add parsley. I add parsley to nearly everything savory. It goes with all kinds of dishes, has lots of vitamin C and makes everything look pretty. Garnishing with parsley is probably very German.
Garnishing per se is very German.

Whatever you bring to the table has to look pretty because "the eye eats, too" as we say. Don't forget to carve a pattern into the butter before you bring it to the table, if you want to make a good impression and love your company. 

Which brings me to something I never really thought about before: I actually use a lot of butter in my cooking, and that is probably the most authentic German ingredient in my cooking. We always buy butter in six-pound packages, we need butter, even though butter officially doesn't have a good nutritional reputation, especially not in the States. But coconut or olive oil just won't do it in most recipes, in my opinion. Anyways, in Germany butter is holy. I would even say butter is the essence of German culture.

Just as the US-American culture seems to be based on sugar, the German culture appears to be built on butter. German children grow up on butter cookies and butter pretzels. The finest and most festive fine cakes contain extra butter. If you want to be especially nice to your dinner guests (or family) you will spread an especially thick layer of butter on the petite sandwiches you are going to offer. Food and sharing meals are expressions of love and hospitality in many cultures, and in Germany it seems to be especially manifested in the use of butter.

The butter belief is reflected by many German sayings, but this one sums it up like no other: "All in butter" ("Alles in Butter") which means "Everything is okay."