The German Christmas table is replete with all kinds of traditional holiday dishes. Among the treats there are vegetables, poultry, fish, as well as various sweets. What is customary to put on the Christmas table in Germany? What traditional dishes do the Germans hold in high esteem?
Cold salted herring salad. The Germans try to prepare this dish every Christmas. The salad is quite simple to make, while very tasty. The treat is one of the classic Christmas dishes in Germany. According to the once established traditions, the dish is always made by the eldest of the family members. The main ingredients of the Christmas fish salad are: salted herring, mayonnaise, pickled or pickled cucumbers, chopped or grated beets.
Baked goose. Perhaps no Christmas in Germany is complete without such a dish. Fat and juicy goose are cooked in different ways in German cities. In one case, the poultry is baked with dates and prunes, on another occasion a goose is cooked for Christmas with apples and dumplings. A must-have ingredient in a German Christmas dish is wine, which is generously poured over the bird. To add spice or piquant notes, the baked goose is seasoned with all kinds of aromatic spices.
Potato pancakes. Potatoes are common on the Christmas table in Germany. It is served as a side dish, boiled or fried. A very popular Christmas traditional treat of potatoes is pancakes. To prepare them, take raw potatoes, grate them, and then mix them with flour and eggs. Salt and various seasonings are added to the mixture to taste. Then small pancakes are formed and fried in a pan by dipping potato pancakes in melted heated fat. This German Christmas treat is served as a main course along with black bread, green onions, and fresh vegetables. But it is also used as a sweet treat. Then the potato pancakes are poured with sugar or apple syrup, jams and powdered sugar are added to them.
Potato salad. This Christmas traditional treat from Germany can be served cold or warm. Most often, boiled potato salad is used just as a side dish for poultry, meat, fish. Pickled or pickled cucumbers, onions, various seasonings and spices, fried bacon are added to boiled potatoes. Mayonnaise is used in large quantities as a dressing, because the salad is considered very fatty and satisfying.
Baked carp. Germans cannot imagine a Christmas table without carp. The fish is baked in the oven as a whole, pre-stuffed with vegetables. Such a treat must be accompanied by potato salad, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms. Another option: frying carp fillets, to which lemon rings and citrus juice, spicy sauces, cucumber salad are then added. In some parts of Germany, carp are boiled for Christmas in salted water with the addition of herbs, spices, and vinegar. Homemade horseradish sauce must be added to this treat on the Christmas table.
Gingerbread. No Christmas in Germany goes by without such a sweet treat. Gingerbread gingerbread men, houses, stars, cockerels, cats, canes, snowflakes - the form of the treat can be any. Traditionally, it is customary to bake gingerbread at home, but they are also sold in all shops and at German New Year's fairs. If a treat is prepared at home, then all family members take part in the cooking process according to established traditions. Baking gingerbread men is a kind of Christmas ritual in Germany.
Edible tree. Another sweet treat for Christmas, which is not without this winter holiday in Germany. The main ingredients of the dessert are sugar and salt, vanilla, flour, eggs, butter. The dessert looks like a tree ring. It is laid out in layers, because the cut shows the "rings of life of an edible tree."
