Hesse

Bethmännchen is a pastry made from marzipan with almond, powdered sugar, rosewater, flour and egg. It is a traditional cookie usually baked for Christmas Day and is widely available in chocolate shops around Frankfurt. It is a special commodity sold in Frankfurt's Christmas market, one of the oldest Christmas markets in Germany which dates back as far as 1393. The name comes from the family of Bethmann. Legend has it that Parisian pastry chef Jean Jacques Gautenier developed the recipe for banker and city councilor Simon Moritz von Bethmann in 1838. Originally the Bethmännchen were decorated with four almonds, one for each son of Simon Moritz. After the death of his son Heinrich in 1845, the fourth almond was removed. However, this story is unlikely, since Simon Moritz had died already in 1826.

Haddekuche is a traditional pastry made in Frankfurt, Hesse; Rhenish Hesse; and other parts of South Hessen, Germany. It closesly resembles a diamond-shaped gingerbread with a diamond-themed pattern imprinted on the pastry itself. The word "Haddekuche" is Hessian dialect for Standard German harter Kuchen meaning "hard cake". This is most likely because it tends to dry relatively quickly and then become very hard. Haddekuche has often been made and produced in Frankfurt by pretzel vendors that roam the Apfelwein bars in the city and other parts of the region, but availability of the pastry has diminished considerably over the years and some claim the pastry has almost gone extinct. One of the few bakeries left selling the pastry claims they only sell 30 of them a month across two branches, mostly to tourists. The diamond pattern on the pastry closely resembles the pattern of another item strongly associated with Hessen—the Geripptes drinking glass for Apfelwein. Owing to the baking process and the need to protect the pastry from damage during transport, the edges of the pastry are rounded. The pastry is also featured in the popular 1980s song Die Hesse komme! ("the Hessians are coming!") by the Rodgau Monotones, in which they jokingly compare many Hessian delicacies such as Handkäse with more typical German cuisine.

Kirschenmichel is a traditional dessert of German cuisine, especially popular in the regions Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, South Bavaria, Franconia and the southern part of Hesse. It is kind of a pudding and similar to bread pudding and bread and butter pudding. The dessert consists of bread that is a few days old which is kneaded into a dough with butter, milk, egg and sugar. Sour cherries or sweet cherries are folded into the dough and the mixture is baked in a casserole dish. Prior to serving the dessert is topped with vanilla, cinnamon, almonds and clove and is then served hot with vanilla sauce custard. Although traditionally a dessert, it can also be found as main dish after an appetizer soup.

Apfelwein , or Viez ( German: [fiːts], Moselfranken, Saarland, Trier; lit. 'vice') or Most ( German: [mɔst], Austria, Switzerland, South Germany; lit. 'must') are German words for cider. It is made from various kinds of sour tasting apples (such as "Bohnapfel"). It has an alcohol content of 4.8–7.0% and a tart, sour taste. Apfelwein is also regionally known as Ebbelwoi, Stöffsche, Apfelmost (apple must), Viez (from Latin vice, the second or substitute wine), and saurer Most (sour must, Süßmost or sweet must is essentially apple juice). Instead of the name Apfelwein, restaurants and smaller manufacturers may instead call the beverage Schoppen or Schoppe, which actually refers to the measure of the glass.

Apple cider is the name used in the United States and Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples. Though typically referred to simply as "cider" in North America, it is not to be confused with the alcoholic beverage known as cider in other places, which is called "hard cider" in the US. Outside of the United States and Canada, it is commonly referred to as cloudy apple juice to distinguish it from clearer, filtered apple juice and hard cider. Fresh liquid cider is extracted from the whole apple itself, including the apple core, trimmings from apples, and oddly sized or shaped “imperfect” apples, or apple culls. Fresh cider is opaque due to fine apple particles in suspension and generally tangier than commercially cooked and filtered apple juice, but this depends somewhat on the variety of apples used. Cider is sometimes pasteurized or exposed to UV light to kill bacteria and extend its shelf life, but traditional raw untreated cider is still common. Some companies have begun adding preservatives and boiling cider, so that it can be shelf stable and stored without refrigeration. In either form, apple cider is seasonally produced in autumn. It is traditionally served on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve, sometimes heated and mulled. Although the term "cider" is used for the fermented alcoholic drink in much of the world, it often refers to fresh "apple cider" in North America; hard cider is used there instead when referring to the alcoholic drink. In much of the U.S. and Canada, the fresh variety is often referred to as "apple cider" with "cider" alone referring to the alcoholic variety.

Apple juice is a fruit juice made by the maceration and pressing of an apple. The resulting expelled juice may be further treated by enzymatic and centrifugal clarification to remove the starch and pectin, which holds fine particulate in suspension, and then pasteurized for packaging in glass, metal, or aseptic processing system containers, or further treated by dehydration processes to a concentrate. Due to the complex and costly equipment required to extract and clarify juice from apples in large volume, apple juice is normally produced commercially. In the United States, unfiltered fresh apple juice is made by smaller operations in areas of high apple production, in the form of unclarified apple cider. Apple juice is one of the most common fruit juices globally, with world production led by China, Poland, the United States, and Germany. Apples used for apple juice are usually harvested between September and mid-November in the Northern Hemisphere and between February and mid-April in the Southern Hemisphere. A common cultivar used for apple juice is the McIntosh. Approximately two medium McIntosh apples produce around 200 millilitres of juice. After the apples are picked, they are washed and transported to the processing facility. The apples are then pressed and juiced right away to avoid spoilage. Depending on the company and end-product, the apples can be processed in different ways before pressing. Apple juice is then filtered, with the number of solid particles remaining partly defining the difference between apple juice and apple cider. In cases where the apple juice is treated enzymatically, the typical class of enzymes used are pectinases.

Tart fermented apple cider made in Hesse, Germany

Wheat beer is a top-fermented beer which is brewed with a large proportion of wheat relative to the amount of malted barley. The two main varieties are German Weizenbier and Belgian witbier; other types include Lambic , Berliner Weisse (a cloudy, sour beer), and Gose (a sour, salty beer). Weißbier (German – "white beer") uses at least 52% wheat to barley malt to make a light-coloured top-fermenting beer. Witbier (Dutch – "white beer") uses flavorings such as coriander and orange peel. Belgian white beers are often made with raw unmalted wheat.[citation needed]

Mispelchen is a traditional alcoholic drink from Hesse, Germany, particularly popular in Frankfurt's apple wine pubs. It consists of Calvados (apple brandy) with a marinated loquat fruit, known locally as "mispel", which imparts a sweet and slightly tart flavor reminiscent of apples or peaches.

Creamy garlic soup

Beef brisket, may be boiled, braised, smoked, serve with green sauce (grüne soße) or horseradish sauce

Smoked pork chops with sauerkraut

Rumford's Soup was an early effort in scientific nutrition. It was invented by Benjamin Thompson, Reichsgraf von Rumford, circa 1800 and consumed in Munich and greater Bavaria, where he was employed as an advisor to Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria. It was used as a ration for the poor, for Bavarian workhouses and military workhouses, and prisoners. Count Rumford has been credited in many instances for "establishing the first real soup kitchen." As a reformatory measure, the Bavarian government intended to institute workhouses for those on welfare. Rumford's charge was to provide the cheapest possible ration that was still a high-calorie, nutritious food. The soup came to be well known among philanthropic-minded people throughout Germany at the time, and Rumford set up his soup kitchens in many German cities. Rumford's soup was a common base for inexpensive military rations in Central Europe for much of the nineteenth and twentieth century.

Pork stewed with vegetables, wine, vinegar, pepper, herbs, spices, some classic recipes include pig's blood

The Ahle Wurst is a hard pork sausage made in northern Hesse, Germany. Its name is a dialectal form of alte Wurst – "old sausage". Ahle Wurst has protected geographical Status (g.g.A.) in Germany, the indication is only allowed to be used for sausages that are produced in the area of northern Hesse around its local capital Kassel. Depending on the shape it is also called "Stracke" if elongated or "Runde" if round. Ahle Wurst is a sausage made of pork meat and bacon. Seasoned only with salt and pepper, there are regional differences and some butchers add nutmeg, cloves, pepper, sugar, garlic, cumin and rum or brandy.

An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree . Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus Malus. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Eurasia and were introduced to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse, Greek, and European Christian tradition. Apples grown from seed tend to be very different from those of their parents, and the resultant fruit frequently lacks desired characteristics. For commercial purposes, including botanical evaluation, apple cultivars are propagated by clonal grafting onto rootstocks. Apple trees grown without rootstocks tend to be larger and much slower to fruit after planting. Rootstocks are used to control the speed of growth and the size of the resulting tree, allowing for easier harvesting.

Cancoillotte or cancoyotte is a runny French cheese made from metton cheese, and produced principally in Franche-Comté, but also Lorraine and Luxembourg, where it is also called Kachkéis or Kochkäse in German (cooked cheese). It is a typical cheese in Franc-Comtois gastronomy. It is eaten all year around, served cold or hot. The cheese was first made in the village of Oyrières, near Champlitte, in Haute-Saône. It appeared no later than the 16th century. The name dates from the 19th century, from "coille," derived from cailler (to curdle), referring to milk left after cream extraction (resulting in a lower fat content). Traditionally, cancoillote is produced when metton cheese is melted over a small flame, with a little water or milk, and salt or butter added before serving. Sometimes garlic is added as well. Recently there are commercial versions with wine, cumin or other additions. Cancoillotte is typically sold in quantities averaging 200 grams.

Sour cream mixed with bacon and onions, may also contain condensed milk, serve with potato dumplings, baked potatoes

Sour cream mixed with bacon and onions, may also contain condensed milk, serve with potato dumplings, baked potatoes

Peas and carrots

Green sauce or greensauce is a family of cold, uncooked sauces based on chopped herbs, including the Spanish and Italian salsa verde, the French sauce verte, the German grüne Soße or Frankfurter grie Soß , the British mint sauce and greensauce, and the Argentinian chimichurri.: 354  The Mexican salsa verde, though also called a "green sauce", is instead based on tomatillos and is commonly cooked; the New Mexico version uses a green chile base. Green sauce has a long history in many parts of Europe. It was certainly present in the Middle Ages, and may date to the Classical period.: 354 

A Frankfurter Würstchen is a thin parboiled sausage in a casing of sheep's intestine. The flavour is acquired by a method of low temperature smoking. For consumption, Frankfurters are occasionally not boiled; they are heated in hot water for only about eight minutes to prevent the skin from bursting. They are also commonly grilled over propane or charcoal flame. They are traditionally served with bread, mustard, horseradish and/or potato salad. Meat sausages as a Frankfurt speciality are already mentioned in medieval sources, often served during the Imperial coronation ceremonies at the Römerberg. Smoked Frankfurter Würstchen have protected geographical status in Germany since about 1860. Since 1929, the indication is only allowed to be used for sausages that are produced in the Frankfurt area, mainly in Neu-Isenburg and Dreieich. Originally, Frankfurters were made without nitrite curing salt. After going through specific aging and smoking processes, the sausages, now of a golden colour, are put into wooden boxes with small sheet of parchment paper between layers. Therefore, the traditional sausages have a square cross-section, but there are a few exceptions where the sausage is round.

Baked or fried Camembert cheese, serve with bread, cranberry compote

Green sauce or greensauce is a family of cold, uncooked sauces based on chopped herbs, including the Spanish and Italian salsa verde, the French sauce verte, the German grüne Soße or Frankfurter grie Soß , the British mint sauce and greensauce, and the Argentinian chimichurri.: 354  The Mexican salsa verde, though also called a "green sauce", is instead based on tomatillos and is commonly cooked; the New Mexico version uses a green chile base. Green sauce has a long history in many parts of Europe. It was certainly present in the Middle Ages, and may date to the Classical period.: 354 

Handkäse is a German regional sour milk cheese (similar to Harzer) and is a culinary specialty of Frankfurt am Main, Offenbach am Main, Darmstadt, Langen, and other parts of southern Hesse. It gets its name from the traditional way of producing it: forming it with one's own hands. Handkäse is a small, translucent, yellow cheese. It has a pungent aroma, and a sour taste. Handkäse is traditionally topped with chopped or sliced onions, locally known as "Handkäse mit Musik" (literally: hand cheese with music). It is usually eaten with caraway on it, or served on the side. Some Hessians say that it is a sign of the quality of the establishment when caraway is in a separate dispenser. As a sign of this, many restaurants have a little pot for caraway seeds.[citation needed]

Pungent cheese made with curdled sour milk, from Hesse, Germany

Kochkäse is a German spreadable cheese made by melting dairy products like Handkäse or Quark with butter and cream, often flavored with caraway seeds. It has a rich, creamy texture and is typically enjoyed on bread or as a dip.

Soft cheese made from cow's milk in the Odenwäld region in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Soft cheese made from cow's milk in the Odenwäld region in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Beef sausage

Baguette-like bread

Cheese spread, made with quark, cream cheese, onion, paprika, salt and pepper, serve with pretzels, crackers

Yam porridge, made with yam powder, water and salt