Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–I’m so glad you’re here!
This week, I’m sharing recipes for German foods–many of them, traditional favorites that I grew up with. My grandmother (my Memaw) was German and served us lots of German food when we visited her.
On Monday, I shared a couple of recipes for German side dishes that Memaw served regularly–creamed spinach and sweet and sour red cabbage.
Today, I’m sharing recipes for a couple of main dishes: Brats and sauerkraut and Koenigsberger Klops, the latter of which was a particular speciality of my Memaw.
First, a story about my Memaw’s Klops.
More than thirty years ago, my mother put together a family cookbook and she asked her mother, my Memaw, to submit her recipe for her famous Koenigsberger Klops–basically German meatballs in a creamy caper sauce. It is the one I link to below (above the picture) and uses only hamburger meat. Many years ago, when I got a hankering for them, I made them exactly to Memaw’s recipe’s specifications, and they came out just as I remember them tasting when she served them at her house when I was a child.
Traditionally, Koesnigsberger Klops include pork, veal and other ingredients that my Memaw perhaps couldn’t easily find, or more likely, didn’t have on hand. Memaw was a product of some pretty lean times, not only in the United States, having lived through this country’s Great Depression, but also in Germany, where she was from. As a result, where cooking was concerned, she substituted ingredients freely. Mostly, the substitutions didn’t derail the food too much, but occasionally, Memaw would present a dish that was unrecognizable from the original recipe. When we tried to point it out, Memaw would always say “no one will know the difference!”
Sometimes we didn’t…and sometimes we did 😉
As a quick side note, I just made this recipe last night using 1/3 veal, 1/3 pork and 1/3 hamburger. I have to say that I actually prefer the 100% hamburger version. Â However–I grew up in Texas, so I do like me some beef and also, this recipe is very easy, and it absolutely tastes the way I remember my Memaw’s Klops tasting. Â Try it both ways and see which one you like best–and remember! no one will know the difference!
The second main dish recipe I’m sharing today is one for the ubiquitous brats and sauerkraut:
Tune in later in the week when I’ll be sharing some traditional German desserts. Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
