CAN'T DO WITHOUT THESE

ESSENTIALS FOR THE KITCHEN

BROTZEIT IS THE BEST TIME

Since there's nothing Bavarians love more than eating in the open air, we've got your Brotzeit picnic baskets covered - from sausage and radish salads to brawn. So it's off to the beer garden, where a fresh Bavarian beer awaits!

BROTZEIT BASKET

ALL THIS IS INSIDE

LIQUIDS DO NOT BREAK THE FAST

Such was the pious and strictly followed rule. So it's no wonder then that the art of beer brewing in the early Middle Ages was particularly cultivated at the Bavarian monasteries, where praying and working (Latin: orare and laborare), as well as the fasting times in between, were often exceptionally hard. The monks therefore applied their Christian diligence and zeal to refining their fasting beverages. The strongly brewed beer they produced was in fact greatly beneficial, and nourished the impoverished friars enough for them to continue working and praying. It also unquestionably brightened their mood. Each of the brothers would ultimately receive five helpings (or measures) a day. And the quantity which later became the Mass (meaning measure) was the equivalent of one to two litres of the delicious brew. So the Bavarians' ongoing love of beer today clearly has spiritual origins, and can be seen as having a Bavarian Catholic heritage.

OANS, ZWOA, GSUFFA!

Bavaria's brewing culture was officially born in 1040, when the city of Freising granted the Benedictine abbey brewery in Weihenstephan the right to brew and serve alcoholic beverages. In Munich, too, it was mainly the monasteries which brewed beer professionally some one hundred years after the city's founding in 1158. The monks' beer gained a prominent reputation, for nowhere else was beer produced with such fervour.

To ensure others could also profit from the amber-nectar business, Duke Stephen II established the "brewing constitution" in 1372, and from then on, anyone could purchase "the right to brew" for a fee. But, as one might imagine, this did not always benefit the beer quality; all kinds of preservatives were often added to the brew, making it not only taste terrible, but also at times causing strange psychedelic or other side effects not felt from the monks' cleanly brewed liquid. There was talk of juniper, henbane and bay laurel, of vermouth and poppy juice, and even of ash and ox gall being added. To protect the quality and reputation of his Bavarian beer, Duke William IV of Bavaria finally enacted the "Reinheitsgebot", or the Bavarian Purity Law, in 1516. From then on, Bavarian beer worthy of the name would only consist of barley, hops and water.

To this day, Bavarians still treat their beer as a staple, and are uncompromising in their choice. Once "the one" has been found - and sometimes this is even inherited - they will only frequent establishments which serve "their" beer. The Bavarians' ongoing pride in the spiritual roots of beer is on display every year in Munich at the world's largest beer festival, the Oktoberfest (although it actually starts in September), when the entire city goes wild for 16 whole days. Then it's a question of everyone from all corners of the globe, whether Japan, New Zealand or Australia, donning traditional dirndl and lederhosen costumes and toasting each other "One, two, bottoms up!".

SAUSAGE SALAD

EASY AND GOOD

SERVES 4:

150 g gherkins (from a jar, with 300 ml gherkin liquid)

1 red onion

2 tbsp white vinegar

100 ml vegetable stock

1 tsp medium-hot mustard

1 tsp sugar

salt | freshly ground black pepper

8 tbsp vegetable oil

500 g Regensburger or Lyoner boiled sausage

1 bunch chives

HOW LONG IT TAKES: c. 20 min

MARINATING: c. 1 hour

PER PORTION: c. 595 kcal | 16 g p | 58 g f | 4 g ch

1 Thinly slice the gherkins. Peel and halve the onion, then cut it into thin strips. In a bowl, combine the gherkin liquid, vinegar, stock, mustard and sugar, using a whisk. Season with salt and pepper. Place the gherkins and the onion into the marinade and stir to combine well, then stir in the oil. Stir everything again, check the seasoning to taste.

2 Pull the skin off the Regensburger or Lyoner sausage, then cut the meat into thin slices or strips. Stir the sausage into the marinade and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour.

3 Rinse the chives, shake dry, then snip into thin rings. Serve the sausage salad in deep plates with a little of the marinade drizzled over the top, then sprinkle with the chives. Serve the salad with pretzels or rye bread with butter.

With the first rays of the sun, the Bavarians go outside to a beer garden. Most of them bring their own food - and pickled sausages or sour brawn are always in the basket. You can of course buy both of these as well as various other Brotzeit treats at the snack bars, but they taste so much better if they're made at home.

SOUR "RED-WHITE" PRESSSACK

RUSTIC AND SPICY

SERVES 4:

4 slices each of red and white Presssack (= brawn, weighing 100 g each and c. 1 cm thick)

200 ml beef broth (>, or ready-made beef stock)

4 tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp sugar

salt | freshly ground black pepper

4 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large red and 1 large white onion

HOW LONG IT TAKES: c. 10 min

MARINATING: c. 30 min

PER SERVING: c. 310 kcal | 16 g p | 24 g f | 5 g ch

1 If necessary, remove skins or strings from the Presssack slices. Place 1 red and 1 white slice into each deep plate.

2 Warm the beef broth until lukewarm, transfer to a bowl and combine with the vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Leave the marinade to stand for 5 minutes until all the spices are dissolved, whisk in the oil.

3 Peel the onions, cut or shave into very thin rings and arrange on the Presssack - white onions on the red Presssack, red onions on the white Presssack. Pour about 7 tablespoons of marinade into each plate and leave to marinate for about 30 minutes. Serve the Presssack with farmhouse bread, pretzels or Brotzeit sticks (>).

SOUR CHEESE

SOUR AND AROMATIC

SERVES 4:

150 g gherkins (from a jar, with 200 ml gherkin liquid)

1 large red onion

4 tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp sugar

salt | freshly ground black pepper

400 g Limburger cheese (or Maroilles cheese)

200 g Handkäse (sour milk cheese, plain or blue)

3 tbsp sunflower oil

HOW LONG IT TAKES: c. 15 min

MARINATING: c. 1 hour

PER PORTION: c. 420 kcal | 38 g p | 28 g f | 4 g ch

1 Cut the gherkins into ½ cm cubes. Peel and finely dice the onion. Combine the gherkin liquid with the vinegar and sugar, season with salt and pepper to taste and stir well. Leave the marinade to stand for about 5 minutes until all the spices are dissolved.

2 Cut both types of cheese into 1 cm slices. Stir the oil into the marinade, add the gherkin and onion cubes and stir everything again to combine well. Check and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

3 Put 2-3 tablespoons marinade into a shallow dish (c. 18 x 30 cm). Place the cheese slices into the dish side by side, alternating. Pour over the remaining marinade, cover with clingfilm and leave to draw flavour for at least 1 hour at room temperature.

USEFUL TIPS

The longer you leave the cheese in the liquid, the better will it take on the aroma of the marinade. You can even marinate the cheese a day in advance; in that case omit the onions and add them only just before serving (finely cut them into very thin rings instead of dicing them if you like).

Really delicious: Add 1-2 pinches of caraway seeds to the cheese salad. If you don't like to bite on the seeds, use ground caraway instead.

OBAZDA

Obazda, pronounced "o-buts-dah", cannot simply be translated. A beer garden classic, this well-spiced, mashed-up cheese, butter and cream...