Kosher Cuisine Show #18 – Germany Before the War. This is the original script for the show. Some of the non-essential text may have been edited out of the final version that aired on Lexington Community Radio due to time constraints. Also, some off-the-cuff comments may not appear in this script.  This script is posted in its entirety for both 18a and 18b Bandcamp editions for continuity.

First Segment

Hava Nagila Music Intro [35 seconds then fade…]

Hello, everyone! This is Leah Kiser and you’re listening to Kosher Cuisine. This is a show about food safety, international kosher recipes and amazing music from areas around the world.

Today we’re going to talk about pre-war Germany and of course, sausages and beer, among other things.

The concept of Germany as a distinct region in central Europe can be traced to Roman commander Julius Caesar, who referred to the unconquered area east of the Rhine as Germania, thus distinguishing it from Gaul (France), which he *had* conquered.

The Germans states, which didn’t actually completely unify until 1871, had always been fractious and were happy to fight each other and their neighbors. The two largest states, Prussia and Austria, hada string of smaller neighboring German states that often followed their lead in matters of dealings with Jews and Judaism. You may have heard of some of these, like Saxony, which figures in Arthurian Legend and early British history. Wurttemberg was sort of the night life center, ruled by a Duke who liked to party. Smaller city-states were general run by church bishops, who in reality were from powerful noble families and were not particularly interested in religion.

The name Martin Luther should be familiar to you – it was in 1517 in what is now Germany when he began the Protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church. The northern German states became Protestant, while the southern German states remained Catholic. Luther believed his reworking of Christian doctrine would cause Jews to flock to him and his new interpretation of Christianity. When they didn’t, Luther became rather pointedly anti-semitic and his teachings colored relations of the German states and the Jews in several ways in northern German. The Catholic states, of course, still considered themselves part of the Holy Roman Empire, which had been founded in 962 in what would later become Germany. So Jews were not particularly welcome there, either.

The Reform sect of Judaism was also born in Germany and the first Reform Temple opened its doors in 1810. It had been founded by businessman and philanthropist Isaac Jacobson, who had previously founded an egalitarian, religiously pluralistic boarding school. He valued the ideas of the Enlightenment, and wanted to bring Judaism into the modern, rational world.

Part of my family’s story begins 60 years prior in Baden-Wurttemburg, a German state in the southwest , near Stuttgart, which is currently the 6th largest city in Germany. Stuttgart is unusual in that it is spread across a variety of hills, many of them vineyards, with lush valleys and parks. Later Stuttgart was the cradle of the automobile and led early industrialization. But as one of the smaller German states, historically Wurttemburg often followed Prussia in policy making back in the day.

So, in the early 1700s, the Kings of Prussia began enacting laws restricting the rights of Jews. Only one son could inherit a right to residency from his parents, the other sons were expected to leave unless they could come up with an exorbitant amount of money to buy residency. Later even the oldest son had to cough up a small fortune to stay in Prussia. Next a law was passed forbidding Jews to engage in any trades that competed with local Christian guilds, and prohibited them from dealing in local produce of any kind. So the few livelihoods open to them were importing expensive foreign goods, dealing in old clothes – in other words, the rag business, and moneylending. So paradoxically, merchantilism for Jews was encouraged but residency and land ownership was restricted severely, with new laws of land and inheritance passed in 1750. It left the Jewish leaders reasonably wealthy, but also confused and wary.

So in 1750, three brothers decided to come to America. They realized the conditions in Wurttemburg had become precarious, the residency taxes were too onerous, and the situation regarding land inheritance and trades was becoming intolerable to ordinary families who weren’t uber wealthy merchantilists. They finally landed in America in 1752, and I am a direct descendent on my maternal grandfather’s side. The family has a lively history that goes through the Revolutionary War, the westward expansion, the Civil War – on both sides, actually - as well as service in World War I and World War II. During the Great Depression my grandfather and his brother ran guns and ‘shine to supplement the family dairy farm income. They were practical people who weren’t afraid to tackle any problem.

It is from my grandfather that I get my overdeveloped sense of social justice and a willingness to try any sort of hands-on project. He was a stand-up kind of guy, with the Oil, Chemical & Atomic workers union, who fought for fair wages, decent benefits, and safe working conditions for his fellow workers after WWII, he was a master boiler-maker who maintained the complicated machinery that cracks coal molecules into various chemical substances that are used in modern industrial production. He died, not surprisingly, of cancer in December of 1994.

And he liked beer. I have to confess I don’t, particularly, but he did. In the years when the county where he lived was dry, he would drive to another state and buy beer to take home. So in his honor we’re going to be playing music by the Munich Meistersingers on a CD called German Beer Drinking & Merrymaking Songs. So, pull out your lederhosen and grab a stein. We’re off to Germany.

[Track 1, 2, & 3 – Jagerburger March, Heimatland-Platzerland, Komm und Tanz]

Second Segment

Welcome back to Kosher Cuisine!

Today we’re talking German food, and that means sausages. There are several kinds of traditional German sausages, many if not most also come in a kosher all beef version that has been a staple of peasant Jewish cooking in Eastern Europe probably since sausages were first invented. The one thing you need to know about sausage is that they do need to be cooked to a fairly high internal temperature of 165 degrees, the same as other ground and stuffed meats. Of course, in kashrut having sausage is always a meat meal, so no dairy products can be served at the meal.

The twelve most common types of German sausages are:
1. Bratwurst, which is usually grilled and served with German sweet mustard and bread. The spices in it are usually marjoram, caraway, and sometimes garlic. You can also slice it up and make currywurst, which is a ketchup like sauce with curry seasoning.

2. Nurnberger Rostbratwurst are smaller pinkie sized brats, usually served with sauerkraut, potatoes, and a side of horseradish mayo.

3. Blood Sausage or Blutwurst doesn’t have a Kosher equivalent, because the Torah forbids people from eating blood. It usually has fillers like fat, bread or oatmeal. You may recognize a British version of this if you’ve ever eaten British or Scottish pub food.

4. Frankfurters, also called Bockwurst, originated in the city of Frankfurt and is usually made with veal, salt, pepper, and paprika. It is generally boiled, and eaten with beer and mustard. Imagine a very long hotdog, like a footlong.

5. Bregenwurst comes from lower Saxony and is traditionally made with brains as well as regular meat, though that is no longer the practice since mad cow disease was discovered. It is often stewed and served with kale.

6. Knackwurst sausages have always been all beef. They are short and stubby and flavored with garlic, and sometimes smoked. They are traditionally served with sauerkraut and potato salad.

7. Landjager is a type of dried sausage and contains sugar as well as spices. It rather resembles salami, and can be eaten cold or boiled.

8. Leberwurst is liverwurst, a soft, spreadable sausage sort of like a firm pate. The kosher version is made with veal and is one of my favorites. I have always liked liver, including liver and onions, and chopped liver. When we first got married my husband claimed he didn’t like liver and onions. Now when we haven’t had it for a while he wonders when we’ll have it again. Go figure.

9. Leberkase, which literally translated means “liver cheese.” This is native to Bavaria and doesn’t contain either cheese or liver, actually. It is in fact a sort of meatloaf, made from finely minced corned beef and onions and spiced with marjoram, which is baked in a bread pan until a golden crust develops. You can serve it fresh baked in slices like meatloaf, or you can fry the slices. It can be eaten cold or hot and even on sandwiches, just like regular meatloaf.

10. Teewurst is an air-dried or quote-unquote raw sausage like salami, which is smoked over beech wood. It is then fermented, similar to making yogurt, to help preserve it. It was meant to be eaten at tea-time on open faced sandwiches. It has a mild flavor with a hint of sour and the recipe is kept secret.

11. Gelbwurst means “yellow sausage” and it gets its name from the saffron colored casings used. It is spiced with lemon, mace, ginger, and cardamom. This can be made from beef or from chicken.

12. Last but not least, is weisswurst, which means “white sausage.” This is a traditional sausage of the southern German states and the kosher version is made of veal and beef bacon, parsley onion, lemon, and cardamom. It is usually boiled and eaten without the skin, and served with sweet mustard, beer, and soft pretzels.

So the first thing I want to give you today is a recipe for all-beef brats which you can make at home for a fraction of the cost of the toxic nitrate filled flavorless store-bought ones sold in America.

You will need:
5 pounds of beef, not a lean cut but something with some fat in it. You need the fat for flavor and to keep the sausage from being too dry. Don’t buy ground beef, because that has gristle and bones and other crud in it. Buy real cuts of beef - or veal, chicken, or even lamb. This is your sausage and you can make it however you want.

You will also need 2 eggs, whisked

And one cup of beer. Now, if you’re gluten-free like me your choice of beers is limited. But, for ordinary people, the sky is the limit. I would suggest trying it with some local craft beers that you like. These have a much fuller and richer flavor than national chain beer companies, but any beer you like will work. You can try experimenting with your favor beer flavors to see what makes the best brats.

Next you will need to measure out your spices. You should always measure them out into small cups or containers, just like you see in cooking shows, so the spice shakers and jars are not cross-contaminated.

So measure out:
1 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of paprika, either sweet or smoked, whichever you prefer
1 tablespoon of ground dry mustard
1 tablespoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of ground sage
2 teaspoons of onion powder
5 teaspoons of fine grain salt
And 2 teaspoons of sugar – organic evaporated cane is best

Now, cut up your meat into 2 inch cubes using a clean meat cutting board and knife.

If you happen to have a meat grinder, you will want to use the ¼ inch grinding plate to make sausages.

If you have a food processor, you can pulse the cubes in small batches to get the same effect.

If you have neither of these, you need to spend a lot of time mincing the meat as finely as you can with a sharp knife.

When the meat is ready, take a mixing bowl and whisk together the eggs and the beer, and add the spices, sugar, and salt.

Finally, in a large bowl combine the meat with the beer and spice mixture, making sure they are thoroughly mixed together. When you are sure everything is evenly disbursed throughout the meat, cover the meat in plastic wrap or put into a large sealed container and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Now, at this point there are a couple of different ways you can go.

You can stuff the meat into the traditional sausage shaped casings. You need to be careful when buying these to make sure they aren’t made from pork collagen. There are beef collagen sausage casings, as well as cellulose casings made from plant fibers. The beef casings are the kind that can be left on and eaten. The collagen casings are generally peeled off after cooking the sausages, because they are tough to chew. I don’t recommend plastic casings because it is likely the petro-chemicals leach into the sausages.

If that sounds like more trouble than it is worth, you can divide the meat into 1 pound portions for later use, or you can make them into hamburger style patties, or you can press them into small breakfast style patties, or even roll them into small balls. Freeze the ones you aren’t going to use immediately in the next day or two. Again, when you cook them, make sure they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

And while your sausage is seasoning in the fridge, here is some more drinking music from the Munich Meistersingers CD.

[Track 9 – Shone Platz]

Third Segment

Welcome back to Kosher Cuisine!

Today we’re talking German food, and what are sausages without sauerkraut and fried peppers and onions?

So you may want to think about making homemade sauerkraut. The stuff is cans is fairly disgusting, I never liked it. I took a class on making sauerkraut from a local lady who gave a demonstration where we got to make some and take it home to ferment. Since then I have bought an inexpensive large mason jar with a special cap that lets out the gasses and makes it easier. You can find these online.

The basic recipe for traditional lacto-fermented sauerkraut is pretty easy.

You will need one green cabbage, and a small red one if you like, for a total of about 3 pounds together.

You need 1 and ½ tablespoons of kosher salt.

And that’s it. Optionally, you can add in thin sliced onions, or peppers, or flavorings like caraway seeds, but for now let’s stick with the basics.

First, you need to take either one 2 quart mason jar or two 1 quart jars, and wash them clean, rinse them thoroughly, and boil them in a pot of water to kill unwanted bacteria. If you don’t have the special lid assembly, you will need to do the same with one or two smaller glass jars, jelly jars perhaps, to weigh down the cabbage and let gas escape.

You will need a large parve bowl, cutting knife, and cutting board. Wash your hands and rinse them well. You will need to massage the cabbage with your bare hands – don’t use gloves. The good guy bacterium that you need grow naturally on your skin.

First, discard the outermost leaves of the cabbage, and any under-leaves that appear damaged. Now, slice the rest of cabbage quite thinly, discarding the core. The idea is to make very thin ribbons, like spaghetti or even angel hair.

Now, put the ribbons into a bowl and sprinkle with the salt. The next step is to take your bare hands and begin mixing and squeezing the cabbage and salt together. At first this will not seem to be productive, but eventually the cabbage will go from being dry and difficult to being soft, watery, and limp like you expect sauerkraut to be. This can take 10-20 minutes of you kneading the cabbage and salt together. When it’s ready, if you’re going to add any additional ingredients, add them now and mix thoroughly.

OK, so you’re going to pack the cabbage into the large mason jars. You can use a canning funnel to help it behave. Every so often, press down on the cabbage in the jar with your hands – you want it to be tightly packed in there. Fill the jars with liquid from the kneading bowl. If you don’t have an official sauerkraut making lid assembly, put a cabbage leaf on top of the cut cabbage in the jars to help keep the cut cabbage submerged.

Next you need to weigh down the cabbage. This is where the two smaller jars come in – put them into the mouth of the larger jars, on top of the cabbage leaf covering, and press down. If it doesn’t look like the small jars are heavy enough to do the job you can fill them with cleaned marbles or other clean materials. The idea is to keep the liquid level over top of the leaf and the cut cabbage under it.

Now, cover the top of the jar with cloth, like cheesecloth, and secure it around the neck of the jar with twine or rubber bands. This allows air and gasses to circulate, but keeps out dust and whatever creepy crawlies there might be lurking around. Over the next 24 hours, press the jar on the cabbage down ever so often. The salt should continue to draw liquid out of the cabbage and the liquid level should remain high – you may even want to place your mason jars into bowls in case the liquid spills over. If it appears your cabbage is slow to make more liquid, dissolve 1 teaspoon of salt into a cup of water and add more liquid to the jars to make sure all the cabbage is covered continually.

After that first 24 hours, all you need to do is put your mason jars in a coolish room temperature place and ignore it for at least 3 days, but preferably about 2 weeks. The longer it ferments, the sweeter it will be. If you prefer it more sour, use a shorter fermenting time. Check daily to make sure there’s still enough salt water to keep everything covered. You can ignore the white scum that will appear – this is just the happy good guy bacteria growing and doing their thing. On the fourth day start tasting the sauerkraut There is no hard and fast rule as to when it is quote-unquote “done,” that depends entirely on how you want it to taste.

Once you are satisfied with the flavor, skim off the scum, seal the jars and put them in the refrigerator. Like pickles or other fermented vegetables, just scoop out what you need at a time and keep the rest in the fridge until it’s gone. The sauerkraut can be stored for two or three months in the fridge.

If you just don’t like sauerkraut, and many people don’t, you might prefer some potatoe kugel with your sausages and fried peppers & onions.

You will need:

4 eggs, whisked

6 tablespoons of schmaltz or vegetable oil. If you recall, schmaltz is rendered chicken fat. You can also use beef or lamb fat to make this recipe.

1 large onion, grated or minced finely

And measure out a dash of salt and a dash of ground black pepper to add to the whisked eggs.

You will need about 3 pounds of potatoes. Traditionally the potatoes are peeled, but I usually leave the peels on. Scrub them thoroughly in a plastic wash bin dedicated to meat meal ingredients, and pat them dry.

Now, grate the potatoes, or put them through the shredder of your food processor. Quickly stir in the eggs and vegetable oil or schmaltz. Don’t wait to do this, or your potato starch will start to turn purple in the air.

Finally, mix in the onion and pour into a wide shallow baking dish that has been oiled. A 9x13 dish will do, but the larger the pan, the narrower and more crispy the end product will be. It just depends on how crispy you want it.

Bake for about an hour at 350 degrees. Then turn up the heat to 450 degrees for about ten minutes, to make a nice crust. Remove the kugel when the top is golden brown.

And while you’re enjoying your brats, sauerkraut or potatoes, here are some more German drinking and dancing songs from the Munich Meistersingers CD.

[Tracks 11 – Kufstein Polka, 17 – Auf Einmal, and 19 – Lustige Witwe]

Fourth Segment

Welcome back to Kosher Cuisine!

As I ponder the circumstances of Germany in 1750, it is hard not to wonder if the decision of coming to America perhaps wasn’t my family’s first choice. Perhaps there was a closer country they would have liked to live in, one where they were more familiar with the language and culture. But like the pre-unified German States, many other nations also had quotas or large financial fees or outright edicts that prevented Jews from moving there. America had no such quotas, fees, or laws at the time. Once you get over that having to cross the ocean and maybe sinking to the bottom to never see your friends and family again thing, it no doubt looked attractive to many because immigrants came here year after year, fleeing religious persecution, economic exploitation, political oppression, and hoping to have a home and a peaceful, ordinary life.

That’s all most people want, just a peaceful, ordinary life.

Today there is still religious persecution, even between different sects of the same religion. There is still economic exploitation, as Wall Street plunders and pillages their way across the world. There is still political oppression, and voter suppression, and there are wars here and there and everywhere, it seems – wars which are mostly egged on by the United States. The Robber Barons think nothing of destabilizing fragile areas for their own profit and gain, and to topple democratically elected government that won’t sing to Washington’s tune.

The US provided guns and training to the drug cartels in South America, and to the mujahedeen in the Middle East. The US has set up puppet governments in other nations, and has supported dictator after dictator as long as it meant that dictator would sell off his country’s natural resources and his people’s labor to Wall Street at ridiculously low prices.

What does that have to do with your town, you might be wondering? A lot more than you think.

Even though America is starting to look like a glorified Banana Republic, with all the money going to the 1% and the government funding the military above all else regardless of the people’s needs, life here is still cleaner and safer and has more opportunities than the mess the US government has made in other nations, and people still want to come here.

The Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union no longer exists, bashed to death in the Regan Thatcher era and its pro-Wall Street aftermath, and other unions have disappeared or been seriously weakened as well. But so far, wages, though dropping, are still better than foreign places the US is exploiting, so people still want to come here.

And while we do have occasional bombings or arsons, and serious problems with police brutality, and wacked up ranchers holding native American lands hostage every now and then, at least we aren’t having a civil war, yet. Kidnapping people’s children for political purposes or for extortion isn’t commonplace. Vendettas that wipe out whole families are not ignored by the government here, so people still want to come.

That brings us to the this week’s tikkun olam issue, that of refugees and immigrants – the people who have had to flee the conditions that the US largely created or helped to create overseas. Many have chosen to settle here.

America used to be called “the melting pot,” but it’s clear from the presidential debates that there are many, many people who would like to enact the same sorts of laws here that the German states enacted in the years leading up to 1750. They want to say children born here have no right to live here. They want to force people of other races and religions to leave, and they want to shut the door behind them with quotas and laws requiring great wealth in order to live here. They want to strip them of the ability to receive public education or health care. And they want to punish people who try to help them. It’s like the middle ages all over again.

It’s hard to believe we’re still hearing this kind of nonsense in this day and age. Yet it has been on national TV, in the papers and magazines, on the radio and on social media nearly daily for some years now. Why are we even entertaining these ideas? They are not enlightened, they are relics of the dark ages and need to be put to rest, once and for all. They didn’t work before, and they won’t work now. It is time to set aside hatred and discrimination, and embrace a true enlightened culture that welcomes all and treats people equally.

Everyone just wants to have an ordinary, peaceful life. A home, good food, clean water, and family and friends to celebrate special occasions and enjoy life. My ancestors came here to find those simple things. So did yours. Did you know the most common 2nd language in Kentucky other than English or Spanish happens to be German? It’s true.

So as you listen to this last section of pub songs and dance music from Germany, remember that your ordinary, peaceful American life has been in part at the expense of other nations not having one. It is our obligation, and tikkun olam, to welcome the stranger, and to help right the wrongs that have been done in our name, by our leaders, both here and around the world. All people are created equal. Let us celebrate our common humanity so all of us can enjoy a peaceful, ordinary life.

[Tracks 13 – Musik Das is Mein Leben & 15 – Alles Klar, ]

Thank you for listening to Kosher Cuisine. Next week we will have some more great international food and music and we’ll talk a bit more about food safety, kashrut, and tikkun olam.

This is Leah Kiser wishing you Sabbath peace, this week and every week. Shalom! [Hava Nagila fade…]