Evening star., 1898-06-11
GASTRONOMIC GERMANY
A Land Where the Cooking Possesses In
finite Potentialitiea
II a Man is What He Eats, Then the
Teutons Must BE
Queer Lot.
From Lipp,ncott's Magazine.

When you have examined the constitution
of the German cuisine you are tempted to
grow loquacfous. You are conscious of
having discovered that the psychology of
a nation cannot be constructed upon a mere
analysis of its made dishes. Your estimate
of Brillat-Sayarin sinks; he could not tell
you what you are, even from all the menus
of your lifetime. Freilgrath's philosophic
conclusion that man is what he eats you
straightway qualify as true only when re-
ferring to cannibalsm. And you will aver
that only in the case of paiaeoifthic man
can you construct a man from the crumbs
that fall from his dinner table. And this
you will want TO prove, and consequently
will grow talkative with presenting of much
evidence.
have a sneaking affection for the statement
that German is a German because he eats
what he eats. As a general rule he may be
said to eat five times day. But his hun
ger is constantly being stilled. He starts
early in the day with a cup of cafe au lait
and a small buttered roll. This keeps him
going till IL o'clock, when he demolshes a
slice of buttered rye bread spread with
slices of hard-boiled egg, raw chopped beef
or cheese This he washes down with
glass of ale, thus stlling his inner man till
dinner time. Dinner takes place toward !
O'Clock, and consists of soup generally
and fruit (cranberries, prunes or apricots).
occasionally cheese; seldom sweets, rarely
4 green vegetable Three hours later cof-
fee Is taken, served with d piece of cake or
thick bread and butter. This is the hour
precious to the gossip and the busybody,
the time for spreading scandal. Toward
o'clock the appetite again asserts itself;
the hour of the ubiquitous sausages has
arrived; their name is legion, and they
share the honors with slices of ham,
smoked ROOSehrGaSt nieceS
herring. and, in summer, hard-bOiled eggs
and potato salad. Such is the German
method of spreading the meals over the
day. OF course, there are exceptions. Many
families have two ample meals a day, but
the bulk of the population eats mostly but
tered bread and snacks. In justice to Ger
many one must say that the fare in many
home will compare favorably with that
of many an American family. In the Ger
man restaurant the cuisine is, on the
whole, monotonous and the food singularly
insipid: all meats seem to have the same
flavor, all are served with the same heavy,
viscous sauces, and invariably escorted
with the same Soaplike potatoes Stodgi
ness and heavihess are the great blots on
the German fare. The element of variety,
too, seems considered superf1uous.
In the concrete the subject is almost too
painful to face, the difficulty being to steer
clear of exclamatio denoting positive Of
fensiveness. Some of the kickshaws which
figure regularly upon the German table are
reputed to be most sustaining; they certain
ly are intensely and oStentatiouSly wonder
inspiring. One preparation is everywhere
met with under the name (more or less pho
netically spelled) of beefSteak a la tartare.
Its basis Is raw chopped beef; this spread
out into a pat of elliptical shape, is crown
ed with the raw yolk of an egg; raw finely
chopped onion is sprinkled over it, a garni-
ture of gherkins Is added, and the whole
is eaten with much guSto and no worse
consequences Than a durable thirst. III many
Of the dishes you discover all the humor.
feeling and Imagination of a Wagnerian
composition; you find the reSolute desire to
build up harmony upon discord. OF this
nature may be considered the traditional
menu of New Year eve, carp, pancake and
punch. These three, brought into immedi-
ate juxtaposition and consumed in plethoric
quantities, generally have the desired effect
that of inducing a hysterical good hu-
NOR.
For stodginess nothing beats the favorite
dish. panache; 1t consists of picked pork,
sour cabbage and a puree of split peas
boiled down to the consistency of stiff
dough. Experiments on this mass produce
deplorable capers and cause one to grunt
mournfuly. A variety of this diet is found
in Berlin; you substitute boiled balls of
dough and Indifferent prunes for the peas
and cabbage and you have the dish popu-
larly termed the Silesian Kingdom of
Heaven" Cold eels, iInbedded in a trans
lucid, glutinous substance, figure in all
workmen's taverns, while roast goose is de
rigueur for all solemnities. dainty which
we have recently met with in Berlin
called Darwin's remark that hardly any
experiment Is so absurd not to be worth
trying" it consisted of finely powdered
horse radish served up with frozen whip
ped cream
One may sum up ones Judgment by say
ing of German cooking what the art critic
said of nature: 1t has infinite potentiali-
ties" Not the least of these is its ambi-
ton to discover victims that survive it's
charms only in the form that the walls of
Jericho survived the trumpet blast Of
Joshua.