Top Christmas Meals
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Wine & Dine
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Discover Germany, Switzerland & Austria
TOP FIVE CHRISTMAS DINNER RECIPES FROM GERMANY In need of inspiration for this year’s Christmas dinner? Or travelling to Germany in December and need to know what to order? Just in time for the festive season, we have asked the Discover Germany, Switzerland & Austria team what the tastiest Christmas recipes are. Here are their favourites. TEXT: NANE STEINHOFF
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PHOTOS: UNSPLASH
First things first. Whether you will like the German Christmas dishes or not, there is one big advantage to all of them: although some need more preparation and skill than others, none of the food is that unusual. In fact, all of the meals will sound familiarand you have probably even eaten most of them on occasion. In most German households, the same dish is traditionally served at Christmas. According to the Holiday Special of the Statista Global Consumer Survey, potato salad with sausages (36%) comes first among people surveyed in Germany, but ducks (27%), raclette (23%) and geese (20%) are also popular, closely followed by fish (16%) and fondue (14%).
to salad are as diverse as their cooks. Effectively every German family is following some kind of traditional, years-old recipe, that has always worked and, of course, produces the best salad in the whole world. Some people use beetroot, some gherkins, most people onions, some apples and eggs. Some serve fresh bread or crispy toast, others do not. Naturally, the ingredients are always bought at the same store and have to be produced by the same companies. All of this makes the potato salad game easy for newcomers. You should not look online or in a cookbook for the perfect recipe. Just ask a German friend about their way of doing it.
2. DUCK Another firm favourite of Germans around Christmas is the roast duck, another beloved duck that is served during the festive season. Think crispy skin, and tender, juicy meat. What’s not to love? The custom of filling loved ones' bellies with duck and goose at Christmas dates back to around 700 AD. Back then, people fasted during the entire Advent season and so no meat – apart from fish – was eaten. Lent ended on December 24th, which wealthier families celebrated with a pig roast on December 25th. The meat was refined with spices and served with apples. The poorer population served liver sausage or black pudding instead of a roast, which is why sausages with potato salad are still on the Christmas menu in some families to this day. Lent began and later ended with the roast goose - the traditional St. Martin's goose - on November 11th, which is why the goose increasingly became a common alternative to pork.
Here are our favourites explained: 1. POTATO SALAD WITH SAUSAGES Sounds simple? Well, this is why it’s so loved on busy Christmas days. This is indeed one of the number one favourite meals for a German Christmas Eve. One-third of the population serves potato salad with sausages. This perfectly demonstrates the saying that less, in this case, really is more. Simple in preparation and execution and always fantastically delicious and perfectly suitable for larger groups, potato salad is just an all-around treat. Complemented with wieners, bratwurst, schnitzel or meatballs, the recipes for potaDecember 2023
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