Let’s look at two favourites that are synonymous with German culinary culture - bread and ‘liquid bread’ (otherwise known as beer!).
Bread and beer are held in highest regard in Germany, and the trades of baker and beer brewer are very respected. In Germany, you need to do a three-year apprenticeship followed by three years of work experience before you can be called a master baker or brewer.
German bread is named after its colour - grey, black or white. Typically, black bread is as the name suggests: a really dark loaf made of wholemeal flour, dense in consistency and with whole nuts and seeds. The dark colour comes from sugarbeet syrup. Heavy and moist and similar to what we know as pumpernickel (pronounced poompernickel).
Grey bread generally is a mixture of fine rye and wheat flour, which then results in a grey beige colour; while white bread is similar to what we know here, but perhaps with less preservatives.
With the darker moist breads, experience shows that they can keep fresh under good conditions for up to a week. Good conditions meaning kept away from sunlight and wrapped in a cloth and then stored in bread bin or similar container.
Another form of bread that is highly revered and has sustained villages is beer (bier). A variety of factors contribute to making German beers some of the best in the world, and with over 1200 individual breweries, is testament to the depth of the industry and culture. Factors influencing the beer included time, attitude & the ‘purity law’.
Beer-brewing techniques were refined in monasteries.Perhaps the Romans brought beer to Germany, but ever since then, the Germans have embraced it as their own. In the Middle Ages, beer-brewing techniques were refined in monasteries. In 1516 the ‘purity law’ was enforced which allowed only three ingredients, water barley and hops and it wasn’t until the 1800s that yeast was introduced. If there was anything more or less than that, you were not allowed to call it beer. With those sort of limitations people had to be inventive and creative in the procedures to create their own taste. In the early days it would have been easier to brew your own beer instead of carting kegs over a great distance – Microbrewery, Middle Ages style.
Finally, the German attitude to do things as perfectly as possible cemented German bier as one of the best in the world. If you were to try a German beer alongside an Australian beer you will notice differences because here we are allowed to add what we like to what we call beer. As people become more aware of good ingredients, microbreweries are growing at a rate of knots, resulting in more and more quality beers being available in Australia. So why not go and find your personal favourite! PROST!
And food for thought…perhaps the English don’t have the temperature too wrong after all, as ideally beer should be served at 6ºC - resulting in a balance between a refreshing cool beer and maximum flavours.
Jens' recommendations
If you are looking for good bread, Jen recommends:
- Sol Breads in Paddington, Newstead and West End
- Le Sebastian (who use a starter culture of wild yeast & lactobacillus that is 100 years old) in the Valley
- Chouquette (French boulangerie) in New Farm
Some good German beers available in Brisbane include Furstenberg, Lowenbrau and Bitburger.
