I remember when my friends often called German food dull and boring. They'd give a laugh and always mention the basic foods: sauerkraut and sausages. Then I'd say, "You've never eaten my Mom's or my her Mom's [grandma Hein's] cooking." These two women in my life could make the best duck, goose, chicken, yeast dumplings, coffee cakes.... Makes my mouth water just to think about their foods.
Yes, it's true, their cooking was influenced by their surroundings just as it was by the surroundings of all our ancestors wherever they lived.
Since many of my GR ancestors were farmers and bakers, my ancestors have provided me with a huge variety of recipes. For an example, my group of GR's from the Alsace were rubbing elbows with the French, who loved their heavier creams and wine which turn reduced gravy into sauces. My grandma Hein carried these marvelous sauces to the US... We refer to her sauces as "gravy" but gravy as most people know as gravy wasn't grandma Hein's gravy. The liquid fat didn't puddle on the surface as it sat in the bowl on the table as we ate.
The coffee cakes were from the best finely ground white flour. Her "sponge", the starter used before yeast came in packages, was always in progress [added and taken].
In Borodino, Bessarbia [Moldavia] when grandma Hein was a child, the GR's didn't grow their own vegetables. This surprised me when I first heard this fact. The Bulgarians were the vegetable farmers and came into the villages with carts loaded with the seasonal vegetables and fruits, especially the melons. But I'll save this story for another time.
I've got to go make our morning coffee.....
Talk to you soon.
remmick@aol.com