Jägerschnitzel, Soljanka, Grilletta and Kalter Hund: recipes from East German kitchens to cook at home, plus stories about shopping and everyday food in the GDR.
Hearty, simple, no frills. This is how people cooked when not everything was always in the shops. All 18 recipes
Saxon Eierschecke is a sheet cake in three layers: thin yeast dough at the bottom, Quark (fresh curd cheese) in the middle and a golden cream of vanilla pudding, butter and eggs on top. In the GDR it belonged on the Kaffeetafel, the afternoon coffee-and-cake table, whether it came from the bakery or from your own baking sheet.
Halberstädter Würstchen with potato salad is what many East German families eat on Christmas Eve: hot frankfurter-style sausages and a potato salad with mayonnaise, pickled gherkins and egg. Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt is considered the birthplace of the canned sausage. The salad is made in the afternoon so it can soak up the dressing.
In East Germany, Jägerschnitzel is a thick slice of Jagdwurst, a mild bologna-style sausage, fried in breadcrumbs. It came with macaroni and a slightly sweet red tomato sauce, just as it was served on the tray at school lunch, the hot midday meal served in GDR schools.
The Käse-Igel, a cheese hedgehog, stood in the middle of the cold buffet at birthdays, Brigadefeiern (parties of a work team) and New Year's Eve in East Germany. Half a cabbage wrapped in aluminum foil becomes the hedgehog's back, and the spines are skewers of cheese, grapes, pickled gherkin and canned mandarin oranges. No cooking is needed.
Kalter Hund, literally "cold dog", is a cake you do not bake: butter biscuits and a chocolate cream made with Kokosfett, solid coconut oil, layered in a loaf pan and chilled overnight. In East Germany it came to the table at birthdays and at the Kaffeetafel, the afternoon coffee-and-cake table, sometimes called Kalter Hund, sometimes Kalte Schnauze (cold snout).
… your mouth is already watering.
Do you still remember typical East German recipes, the taste of Jägerschnitzel and Quarkkeulchen? Green Thuringian dumplings and Klitscher with applesauce or goulash? Buchteln, Senfeier, Tote Oma or Goldbroiler?
If you want to cook like in the GDR, you’ll find the right recipes here. And you don’t have to stand in line for hours before cooking or put on your Kittelschürze, the wraparound smock apron.
Read moreFrom the Baltic coast to the Thuringian Forest: what people ate in the five states of East Germany, and the dishes everyone knew.
Fish, Tüften (potatoes) and kale with raisins
Asparagus, Spreewald pickles and mushrooms from the forest
Harzer cheese, Baumkuchen layer cake and Halloren chocolates
Hearty: Sauerbraten, Soljanka and Saxon Flecke
Green potato dumplings, Rostbratwurst and Karpfen blau
Classics from school lunch, restaurants and afternoon coffee and cake that people knew everywhere
On scarce goods, penny items and the brands that outlived the GDR.
East German food was simple and often of good quality, without many preservatives or artificial flavorings. The selection at the Kaufhalle, the state-run supermarket, …
From the KaufhalleTropical fruit such as bananas, oranges and pineapples was scarce in the GDR because it had to be bought with hard currency, that is, D-Mark (West German marks) or …
From the KaufhalleThere were close to 700 brands in the GDR, many with their own design. A good number did not survive the Wende, the political turnaround of 1989–90, because after 1990 …