Frikadellen and One Stale Idea

One more question. There is a part of me that will always be a teacher. That is why I still get so much joy from those little Daily Dose of Deutsch moments, when a word opens a door and you notice something you missed before. Last Thursday's word was altbacken. Altbacken can mean stale bread, which feels very practical and very German, but it can also mean old fashioned or outdated. And once you notice that second meaning, you start seeing altbacken ideas all over the kitchen. Those are the days when I become a student again. My friend Heidi told me she hesitated making frikadellen because she almost never has stale brötchen in the house. In her mind, no stale brötchen meant nothing to soak, which meant no frikadellen. Then she watched a chef make them with fresh brötchen, pulsed into crumbs in the blender. You can imagine a few German eyebrows lifting. But the chef calmly said the stale bread requirement is more myth than rule. I chuckled when she told me, because it felt like the perfect little lesson hiding inside one word. We can cling to an altbacken idea because we do not have altbacken bread. Heidi also reminded me of that old family story about the pot roast. A young girl watched her mother cut the ends off the roast before putting it in the oven and asked why. Her mother said she was not sure. It was just how her own mother always did it. So the girl went to ask Grandma. Grandma said the same thing, and she sent the girl to Great-Grandma, who smiled and said, “Oh, my roasting pan was too small.” Nothing sacred, just a practical choice that turned into a “rule” because no one asked one more question. I catch myself doing this too, especially when it comes to what is “authentic.” It is so easy to say we Germans do this and we definitely do not do that. And then later you discover there are two truly different potato salads and both of them are wonderful (I’m guilty of this too. I thought there was only the one with mayo!). So if you're in the mood for a lecker frikadellen dinner (without the stale bread), go ahead and make those hamburgers! This week, when you catch yourself thinking “that’s how it must be,” pause and ask one more question. It might just be an altbacken idea that’s been hanging around too long.Tschüss!Oma Gerhild P.S. Today's recipe: Frikadellen

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Frikadellen and One Stale Idea

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