The Southwest of Germany has two really regional dishes that are worth a try. The one is Käsespätzle which is a special Swabian type of egg-noodles with cheese. The other is Maultaschen which are Swabian Ravioli.
My favorite thing when I visited SW Germany was Fleishkase (I’ve also heard it referred to as Leberkase), and I’ve been unable to find it anywhere here in the states. I ate it at least once a week, grilled on a crusty bread with mustard from a Barbarossa bakery, and anywhere I traveled that had it on the menu I tried it (shoutout to Trier for having my favorit!)
I’ve been meaning to look into how difficult it is to make. I’ve been dreaming about it for like 2 years now 😭
Edit: Also, yes, kasespaetzle is next level fantastic. That I can kind of get at the Commissary on most military bases though, because us Americans want access to all the neat shit we get used to while serving overseas. However, while it’s yummy, it’s also prepackaged noodles just-add-water type shit at the Commissary, and not half as good as what I had over in Germany. Does scratch the itch when I’m craving it though!
Leberkäse is kinda hard to make yourself and is basically made from what’s left after slaughtering a pig and using all the good stuff for something else. Käsespätzle however is super easy to make from fresh dough yourself. For one pan the Spätzle are just made from 250 grams of very fine flour finely mixed with 5 fresh eggs. You just need to get some water cooking and then can either do a technique called “Spätzle schaben” where you just need a small kitchen board and a knife to get them into the water or use a Spätzlepress which is a specialised tool just to make them (safes you a lot of work).
The recipe my dad uses (was the owner/chef of a local kitchen):
500g Flour type 405
500g Flour for Spätzle (can supposedly substituted for 80:20 wheat and semolina flour according to a random search)
500g eggs (about 10x middle eggs)
30g Salt
400g Carbonated water (airy texture for dough. If not available just use regular water)
Give that a good beating a good beating (mixing) and press it through a noodle press right into hot water and cook until done.
The slower the thicker they will become
Didn’t try it yet but I believe it should be about accurate.
Also I dunno about the amount it will result all done. Probably needs to be downscaled significantly since this is aimed for restaurant type of mass ;)
I was never a big Leberkäse fan, but I go to Trier on a regular basis now. Do you maybe remember where you got your favorite Leberkäse from, because I always found the food in Trier to be either mid at best or hella expensive.
The Southwest of Germany has two really regional dishes that are worth a try. The one is Käsespätzle which is a special Swabian type of egg-noodles with cheese. The other is Maultaschen which are Swabian Ravioli.
My favorite thing when I visited SW Germany was Fleishkase (I’ve also heard it referred to as Leberkase), and I’ve been unable to find it anywhere here in the states. I ate it at least once a week, grilled on a crusty bread with mustard from a Barbarossa bakery, and anywhere I traveled that had it on the menu I tried it (shoutout to Trier for having my favorit!)
I’ve been meaning to look into how difficult it is to make. I’ve been dreaming about it for like 2 years now 😭
Edit: Also, yes, kasespaetzle is next level fantastic. That I can kind of get at the Commissary on most military bases though, because us Americans want access to all the neat shit we get used to while serving overseas. However, while it’s yummy, it’s also prepackaged noodles just-add-water type shit at the Commissary, and not half as good as what I had over in Germany. Does scratch the itch when I’m craving it though!
Leberkäse is kinda hard to make yourself and is basically made from what’s left after slaughtering a pig and using all the good stuff for something else. Käsespätzle however is super easy to make from fresh dough yourself. For one pan the Spätzle are just made from 250 grams of very fine flour finely mixed with 5 fresh eggs. You just need to get some water cooking and then can either do a technique called “Spätzle schaben” where you just need a small kitchen board and a knife to get them into the water or use a Spätzlepress which is a specialised tool just to make them (safes you a lot of work).
The recipe my dad uses (was the owner/chef of a local kitchen):
500g Flour type 405
500g Flour for Spätzle (can supposedly substituted for 80:20 wheat and semolina flour according to a random search)
500g eggs (about 10x middle eggs)
30g Salt
400g Carbonated water (airy texture for dough. If not available just use regular water)
Give that a good beating a good beating (mixing) and press it through a noodle press right into hot water and cook until done.
The slower the thicker they will become
Didn’t try it yet but I believe it should be about accurate.
Also I dunno about the amount it will result all done. Probably needs to be downscaled significantly since this is aimed for restaurant type of mass ;)
Thank you for taking the time to write this out for me! We’ll put your Kasespaetzle instructions to good use in our home! You’re awesome!
Here is a video of the technique i mentioned using a wooden board. And a link to the firm that bilds the specialised press that makes this a lot easier.
I was never a big Leberkäse fan, but I go to Trier on a regular basis now. Do you maybe remember where you got your favorite Leberkäse from, because I always found the food in Trier to be either mid at best or hella expensive.
Can confirm both of those are fantastic!