MAIN INGREDIENTS
Brathering is a traditional fish dish originating from Germany, consisting of marinated fried herring. Fresh herrings are rolled in flour or breaded, pan-fried, and marinated in a mixture of white wine vinegar, onions, sugar, salt, pepper, mustard seeds, and bay leaves.
The dish is traditionally served cold, and it’s typically accompanied by fried potatoes, rösti, or potato salad. The herrings can also be used in sandwiches, and nowadays canned brathering can be bought in most stores. The dish is usually enjoyed for lunch or as a snack at street food stands.
Gefilte fish, or stuffed fish (from gefilte, which means filled or stuffed in Yiddish), is a ubiquitous Jewish appetizer that is based on chopped or ground fish. This dish is typically prepared with ground carp, pike, or whitefish that is combined with a variety of other ingredients before it is shaped into balls or oval patties, which are then usually simmered in fish stock.
Typical ingredients that go into gefilte fish include matzo meal, eggs, onions, carrots, leeks, parsley, goose fat or oil, and various seasonings and spices such as salt, pepper, allspice, sugar, cinnamon, or bay leaves. Gefilte fish may be more on the savory side, with a distinctive peppery flavor, as it is usually prepared in countries such as Lithuania and Russia, or sweet, a version that is typical of Polish cuisine.
A specialty item from Holstein, kieler sprotte is a type of German smoked sprat that belongs to the herring family and inhabits the Baltic Sea. The whole fish is smoked in a unique way that makes use of a combination of beech, alder, and oak firewood that imparts an exquisite flavor, and a characteristic yellow-golden hue to the otherwise silvery fish.
Once smoked, the fish are typically kept in wooden boxes. Even though their name suggests that they come from Kiel, the home of these small fish is actually the nearby village of Eckernförde. They came to be known as kieler sprotten, or sprats from Kiel, because Kiel was the main trading center of this fish delicacy.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Muscheln rheinische art is a traditional dish originating from the Rhine region. The dish is made with mussels from the North Sea and white wine from the middle and upper Rhine region as key ingredients. The mussels are cooked in vegetable stock and white wine, then served in their shells with a bit of stock.
The dish is traditionally accompanied by brown bread and butter on the side. It’s usually served as an appetizer, but it can also be served as the main course. There are a few variations on the dish, so beer is sometimes added to the stock instead of wine.
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