Home Regions Europe Germany Bremen

Bremen

Bremen, one of Germany's 16 federal states, is a city-state with a rich Hanseatic history. It's known for its distinctive town hall and the statue of Roland, both UNESCO World Heritage sites. The city's maritime tradition is reflected in its port, one of Germany's most important. Bremen hosts the headquarters of several major companies, including Airbus, making it a significant industrial center. Culturally, it's famous for the tale of the "Town Musicians of Bremen," which has become a symbol of the city.

Bremen

Featured Dishes from Bremen

Butterkuchen

Butterkuchen

Butterkuchen or Zuckerkuchen is a simple German butter cake baked on a tray. Flakes of butter are distributed on the dough which, after baking, form the characteristic holes. The whole cake is sprinkled with sugar or streusel. After further kneading the Butterkuchen is baked. As a variation the dough can be sprinkled with roasted almond flakes. Butterkuchen is a favourite element of Westphalian and North German coffee tables. It is also served at weddings and funerals and, as a result, is sometimes called Freud-und-Leid-Kuchen or Beerdigungskuchen ("funeral cake"). A regional variation is to sprinkle the Butterkuchen with a sugar-cinnamon mixture rather than with sugar alone. This is very similar to Moravian Sugar Cake.

Klaben

Klaben

Bremer Klaben, or just Klaben, is a type of Stollen from Bremen, Germany. This celebrated bread, famous in Northern Germany, is traditionally eaten during the Christmas season. It is said that Bremer Klaben tastes especially good when it is baked two weeks before serving. It has a shelf life of several months. This pastry has more raisins than an ordinary fruit cake. It is a bread of sorts made with dried fruit , flour, butter, sugar, orange and lemon peel, rum, almonds, yeast and salt, though many variations exist. A feature that distinguishes it from Stollen is that it is not dusted with powdered sugar after baking. The recipe is closely associated to the traditional Stecker cake shop which was founded in 1742. The earliest known document mentioning Klaben is from 1593.

Schokoküsse

Schokoküsse

Chocolate-covered marshmallow and wafer treat

Beck's

Beck's

Beck's Brewery, also known as Brauerei Beck & Co., is a brewery in the northern German city of Bremen. In 2001, Interbrew bought Brauerei Beck for 1.8 billion euros; at that time it was the fourth-largest brewer in Germany. US manufacture of Beck's has been based in St. Louis, Missouri, since early 2012. Since 2008, it has been owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV subsidiary Interbrew.

Bremer Bier

Bremer Bier

Beer brewed in Bremen, many different types, from Bremen, Germany

Grünkohlessen

Grünkohlessen

Grünkohlessen is an old wintertime custom in North Germany, and parts of Scandinavia (Denmark and Scania), involving drinking, games, and a feast of regional dishes, typically featuring kale, potatoes, and sausages. It is practised in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and its surrounding districts of Osterholz, Diepholz, Verden and Rotenburg, in Oldenburg Land, the County of Bentheim, Emsland, Osnabrück Land and East Frisia, in the Middle Weser Region, and also in Hamburg, Cuxhaven, in the Hanover Region, Hildesheim region, Brunswick Land, in the Magdeburg region, in Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein. Grünkohl (similar to Braunkohl and the Dutch boerenkool but with curly cale instead of cabbage, and creamed) is curly-leafed kale, a type of cabbage, traditionally harvested after the first autumn frost. The late harvest of kale ensures that its bitter-tasting constituents have disappeared, although modern kale varieties are generally low on bitter components and are harvested as early as in September.

Hochzeitssuppe

Hochzeitssuppe

Hochzeitssuppe is a clear German soup based on chicken broth, fortified with chicken meat, small meatballs (Fleischklößchen), asparagus heads, noodles and savoury egg custard garnish (Eierstich). Sometimes raisins are added as well. Hochzeitssuppe is eaten in Northern Germany and Southern Germany by the bride and groom and guests, traditionally after the wedding ceremony, and it is usually served as the starter on the menu at the wedding reception. It is also eaten in other regions of Germany, because the Brautsuppe ("bride's soup") served to all the guests used to be an element of every wedding. A variation is the Westfälische Hochzeitssuppe ("Westphalian Wedding Soup"), a broth which is traditionally prepared from beef. This also forms the entree on wedding menus, followed by the cold meat from which the broth had been prepared, served with remoulade, silverskin onions and pickled gherkins as a second course.

Steckrübeneintopf

Steckrübeneintopf

Steckrübeneintopf is a German dish that, today, is especially common in North Germany. It generally consists of a stew made from swede, carrots and potatoes in varying proportions and diverse, usually smoked or pickled, types of meat or sausage. Occasionally special cooking pears used as well. The stew may be seasoned and refined with salt, pepper, mustard, horseradish, celery, leeks or parsley, etc., according to taste. On many farms this dish was prepared almost daily, alongside roast potatoes. Often it alternated with a second, daily-changing meal. For this reason, especially in the region of Stade, it is still called Tokokers (= Zugekochtes). If the meat is smoked, the dish is also called Rökert (= Geräuchertes or "smoked"). In Schleswig-Holstein, the stew is made with pre-cooked sausage (Kochwurst) and Kassler and is known as Rübenmalheur. For the variant known as Lübecker National, pork (blade, belly) is preferred and flour or cream are used as binding agents. This recipe can also contain onions. In Hamburg, the corresponding dish is called Hamburger National und can contain beef or chicken in addition to bacon and belly pork.

Braunschweiger

Side, Snack, Appetizer

Braunschweiger

Braunschweiger is a type of sausage. The type of sausage the term refers to varies by region. In the German language, Braunschweiger is the demonym for people from Brunswick (German name Braunschweig), but under German food law refers to a variety of mettwurst. In Austria, Braunschweiger is known as a type of parboiled sausage (Brühwurst), while American Braunschweiger is often confused with liverwurst. Braunschweiger Mettwurst is a smoked, soft and spreadable sausage usually made from raw minced pork and spiced with garlic, salt and pepper. Produced by Brunswick butchers as a regional speciality since the early 19th century, it became widespread with the advent of food preservation by canning. Several different recipes exist, some also including beef and fat. In Austria, Braunschweiger is a Brühwurst variant which is similar to Jagdwurst ("hunting sausage"), made with a mixture of pork and beef, bacon and nitrite curing salt. This type of sausage is usually eaten between meals.

Bremer Klaben

Side, Snack, Appetizer

Bremer Klaben

Bremer Klaben, or just Klaben, is a type of Stollen from Bremen, Germany. This celebrated bread, famous in Northern Germany, is traditionally eaten during the Christmas season. It is said that Bremer Klaben tastes especially good when it is baked two weeks before serving. It has a shelf life of several months. This pastry has more raisins than an ordinary fruit cake. It is a bread of sorts made with dried fruit , flour, butter, sugar, orange and lemon peel, rum, almonds, yeast and salt, though many variations exist. A feature that distinguishes it from Stollen is that it is not dusted with powdered sugar after baking. The recipe is closely associated to the traditional Stecker cake shop which was founded in 1742. The earliest known document mentioning Klaben is from 1593.

Knipp

Side, Snack, Appetizer

Knipp

Knipp is a type of sausage made by mixing meat with grains (Grützwurst) related to Pinkel which comes from the Bremen and Lower Saxony regions of Germany. Knipp is made from oat groats, pork head, pork belly, pork rind, liver and broth and seasoned with salt, allspice and pepper. Knipp is usually sold in roughly 30 cm (12 in) long and 10–15 cm (4–6 in) thick sausages as a Stange ("stick") or Rolle ("roll"). The smoked sausage is sold and consumed having been roasted, either just with bread, or with roast or boiled potatoes and gherkins, sweet and sour pumpkin, apple sauce (Apfelmus) and beetroot or even cold or hot on wholemeal bread. Sometimes crispy, fried slices of Beutelwurst are served with Knipp – this dish is known in Low Saxon as Knipp un Büddelwust.[citation needed] In the Lüneburg Heath, Knipp is made with Heidschnucke meat and is known as Heidjer Knipp.[citation needed]

Kochwurst

Side, Snack, Appetizer

Kochwurst

Kochwurst is the name given to the German pre-cooked sausage, a class of sausage whose ingredients are largely cooked before the preparation of the sausage meat. The individual ingredients are held together by solidified fat , gelatine (as in Sulz - cured meat in gelatine) or blood proteins coagulated by heating (as in Blutwurst or blood sausage). In contrast with cooked sausages (Brühwurst), Kochwurst does not remain solid on heating, but more or less liquefies. After being filled into intestines, jars or tins, the whole sausage is cooked through again in hot water or steam. In addition to meat, Kochwurst often contains also offal like liver or tongue, blood and, in the case of Grützwurst, cereal. Since the ingredients are easily perishable and Kochwurst does not usually last long, it was traditionally made on slaughtering days and is thus a usual ingredient of Schlachtplatte. Also counted as Kochwurst are pies, known as Pasteten, which are cooked in square shapes. One speciality are Kochmettwürste such as the Palatine Saumagen, which are referred to as a type of Kochwurst.

Pinkel

Side, Snack, Appetizer

Pinkel

Pinkel is a smoked Kaszanka , which is a type of sausage. It is eaten mainly in northwest Germany, especially the region around Oldenburg, Bremen and Osnabrück as well as in East Frisia and Friesland. The word pinkel is East Frisian. The sausage name is thought to derive from pinkelt, meaning "little finger". Alternatively, the name could refer to the homonymous verb which means "to drip", referring to the manner in which fat drips from the sausage during smoking. Pinkel consists mainly of bacon, groats of oats or barley, beef suet, pig lard, onions, salt, pepper and other spices. The exact composition of the recipe is guarded by butchers as a trade secret and therefore varies from village to village. Pinkel with a high meat content is also described as Fleisch-Pinkel ("meat pinkel") or Oldenburger Pinkel. Pinkel is traditionally filled into the edible small intestines of pigs, although today edible artificial casings are also used.

Pinkel

Side, Snack, Appetizer

Pinkel

Pinkel is a smoked Kaszanka , which is a type of sausage. It is eaten mainly in northwest Germany, especially the region around Oldenburg, Bremen and Osnabrück as well as in East Frisia and Friesland. The word pinkel is East Frisian. The sausage name is thought to derive from pinkelt, meaning "little finger". Alternatively, the name could refer to the homonymous verb which means "to drip", referring to the manner in which fat drips from the sausage during smoking. Pinkel consists mainly of bacon, groats of oats or barley, beef suet, pig lard, onions, salt, pepper and other spices. The exact composition of the recipe is guarded by butchers as a trade secret and therefore varies from village to village. Pinkel with a high meat content is also described as Fleisch-Pinkel ("meat pinkel") or Oldenburger Pinkel. Pinkel is traditionally filled into the edible small intestines of pigs, although today edible artificial casings are also used.

Tilsit

Side, Snack, Appetizer

Tilsit

Tilsit cheese or Tilsiter cheese is a pale yellow semihard smear-ripened cheese, created in the mid-19th century by Prussian-Swiss settlers, the Westphal family, from the Emmental valley. The original buildings from the cheese plant still exist in Sovetsk, Russia, formerly Tilsit, on the Neman River , in the former German province of East Prussia. The same ingredients to make the cheese were not available as in their home country, and the cheese became colonized by different moulds, yeasts, and bacteria in the humid climate. The result was a cheese that was more intense and full-flavoured. The settlers named the cheese after Tilsit, the Prussian town where they had settled. Tilsiter has a medium-firm texture with irregular holes or cracks. Commercially produced Tilsiter is made from pasteurized cow's milk, ranges from 30 to 60% milk fat, and has a dark yellow rind. After the main part of its production, the cheese needs to rest for an additional 2 months. Often flavoured with caraway seed and peppercorns, Tilsiter is a complement to hearty brown/rye breads and dark beers. It is a common table cheese, yet versatile. Tilsit can be eaten cubed in salads, melted in sauces, on potatoes, in flans, or on burgers.