The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Cooking without charcoal: The "German pancake" that nobody in Germany knows

2023-02-15T09:53:04.019Z


In the USA, the cheap "German Pancake" from the oven is particularly popular for brunch. If you talk about it in this country, you usually look into questioning faces. Why? A child could be to blame.


I always find it fascinating to see how people from one country supposedly use traditional recipes and foods from another country.

"French dressing"?

Comes from the USA – you won't find a ketchup-based salad dressing in Paris or Lyon.

The name ketchup, on the other hand, comes from China: "Ket-Siap" was a sauce made from fish and mussels that sailors brought to the West.

There the name was detached from the actual product and used for the sweetish red tomato sauce that we now know as ketchup.

The tomato, on the other hand, which today forms the core of Italian cuisine, only came to Italy from South America in the 16th century.

In short: food traditions are complicated.

And to better understand what it feels like when your kitchen is considered the origin of something it has little to do with, let's talk about something that everyone knows.

Whether you call them pancakes, pancakes, omelettes or pancakes: in German-speaking countries, a simple egg, flour and milk dish is part of the standard repertoire.

Simply pour the batter into a hot pan full of melted butter and bake in the oven for 20 minutes... wait a minute, that's not how you make pancakes?

But that's what people think in the USA, where a dish called "German Pancake" is prepared in exactly the same way.

The result is a sweet Yorkshire pudding of sorts, or a soufflé without much fuss.

And this is exactly the recipe we are cooking today.

But first a brief digression: How did the supposedly German oven pancake come to be used in the US?

The culprit is probably (and the word is important here because no one knows for sure to this day) the daughter of Victor Manca, a Seattle restaurant owner in the early 1900s.

What did Manca's daughter do?

Probably just misunderstood something.

At that time, the popular dish "Dutch Baby" was on the menu in "Manca's Café", an oven-baked pancake, according to the son of the deceased founder.

The dish may have been so named because the cast-iron roasting pan in which the »baby« was baked was known to many Americans as the »Dutch Oven«.

Now the English word »dutch« (in German: »Dutch«) sounds very much like the German word »deutsch«.

An Old High German dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch is still spoken in parts of the United States, reinforcing the impression that Dutch stands for German.

And so the pancake baked in a Dutch oven pan could have become a German one due to a misunderstanding.

But maybe it was the other way around and the “German Pancake” was already a household name thanks to emigrants.

The daughter, the Manca family suspects, may have made it the "Dutch Baby" because the copies served in the restaurant were smaller than the "German Pancake" that was already widespread at the time.

My theory is that the oven variant is simply more efficient than pan-frying six to eight flat pancakes in a row.

And if there's one thing Germans are notorious for abroad, it's mechanical efficiency.

Food historians, please find the answer while we recreate the recipe.

Otherwise, I have to explain here that the court is sometimes also called »Bismarck« in the USA...

This is what you need for a »German Pancake«

The quantity is enough as a main course for two people, as a dessert for four to six.

  • 1 cup flour (approx. 130 g)

  • 1 cup of milk (approx. 250 ml)

  • 6 eggs

  • 2 tsp sugar

  • 1 pinch of salt

  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon

  • 1 packet of vanilla sugar

  • 4 tablespoons butter or margarine

  • Some powdered sugar

  • Optional: fruit, maple syrup, jam.

    The Seattle original was also sprinkled with a few squeezes of lemon juice at the table.

Important: A baking pan that is as wide as possible, preferably made of metal or glass.

A springform pan or an ovenproof pan also work as an option.

How long does it take?

About 25-30 minutes.


What does this cost?

Two euros per person for the main course and about one for dessert.

How to make a »German Pancake«

  • Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (top / bottom heat) and let the baking pan get hot in it.

    Meanwhile mix the

    flour

    with

    sugar, salt

    and

    cinnamon

    .

    Then, using a whisk or hand mixer, work the

    milk

    and

    eggs

    into the flour mixture until there are no lumps.

    Leave for five minutes.

  • Is the oven preheated?

    Then put the

    butter

    or

    margarine

    in the hot baking pan and let it melt in the oven for two minutes.

    Caution: If you put butter in the mold for the entire preheating time, the proteins contained in it will burn and the whole dish will taste burnt afterwards.

  • Now pour the

    batter

    into the hot fat in the hot pan and bake for twelve to 20 minutes, do not open the oven door.

    The baking time depends very much on the oven and the shape.

    "The baby" is ready when the edge has turned golden brown and clearly outgrows the shape.

    Ideally, the inside should still be soft and pudding-like.

    If you don't like it, bake the pancake a little longer.

    You can also vary the amount of flour, if you add a little more, the dough will be firmer and more cake-like.

  • Take the »German Pancake« out of the oven, sprinkle with

    icing sugar

    and cut into several pieces.

    If you like, you can also serve a few

    berries, bananas

    or

    maple syrup

    .

In case Americans want to get in touch here and tell me that I cooked this totally wrong: I'm German, so I need to know how to correctly prepare this traditional recipe!

It occurs to me that in the USA the "German Chocolate Cake" is also a standard cake that really everyone knows - together with its traditional German... coconut and pecan glaze?

Okay, where that's really coming from I might look at another time.

Have fun cooking!

Are you looking for more dishes that cost little money?

Then please follow me on Instagram!

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2023-02-15

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-01T19:29:41.364Z
News/Politics 2024-02-01T15:21:34.837Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.