I am from southwestern Germany, and my grandmother used to fry apple slices covered with this kind of batter. While still hot they were sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.
cave felem so a bit like me then. my father was 100% Greek but my mother was an American with German Dutch and Spanish roots. I was curious because as my Germanic blood is from the Rhineland I've always loved the cuisine from that region and when you said Southwestern I assumed you were swabian I wanted to know how they prepare dishes like sauerbraten there.
The history of my family is actually quite funny because for centuries it has been truly matriarchal, with only the women actually being born and raised here and daughters inheriting the house from their mothers and with their husbands coming from wherever and getting stuck here. The "correct" sauerbraten recipe is a difficult topic because there are quite a few regional variations and everyone has strong opinions about them. People from my part of Germany think that the kind of sauerbraten eaten in the Rhineland is disgusting.^^ Southwestern German cuisine is quite different from that of the rest of Germany as this area is not only very close to France and shares a common dialect and culture with norther Switzerland but also belonged to Austria far longer that it has belonged to Germany until now. The secret to Alemannic dishes is: everything tastes better with wine (and the secret to cakes: everything tastes better with kirsch liqueur). My grandmother's sauerbraten looked like this: - Mix several liters of good (very good!) red wine (preferably pinot noir) with several whole peeled onions, a handful of bay leaves, cloves, and dried juniper berries - Marinate a piece of beef or a rabbit in this wine mixture for about a week - Take the meat out of the marinade and dry it well - Heat oil in a large pot and roast the meat until it is brown on all sides - Roast the whole onions as well - Pour the wine into the pot - Put some flour in a clean pan and heat it, stiring the flour all the time until it is golden brown - Add a small amount of wine to the roasted flour and mix it well, then add this mixture to the wine sauce in the big pot to thicken it - Cook it for several hours - If the sauce gets too thick you can always add some red wine - Serve it with home-made knöpfle (Alemannian pasta), apple sauce, and bilberry jam
German here. I'm a bit late to the party, but I hope you'll read this regardless.. My grandma used to have this recipe where she'd deep fry bunches of elderflower (still on the stems) coated in batter. She told me that this was something she'd learned from her own grandmother back in the day, so it goes easily back to the 19th century, if not further. This recipe is something that can obviously only be done in spring, but it's a wonderfully light and fluffy treat, doesn't really need any spices either, just a tiny bit of powdered sugar on top. Maybe if you can get your hands on some elderberry blossoms (we had plenty in our garden) you could try that some time. She also used to make elderflower syrup, we'd just cut it with water 1:10 and it makes a great and refreshing drink. Now that I'm an adult, I'm thinking that elderflower wine could be made that way as well, but unfortunately I don't have access to fresh elderflower any more.
@@davecannon1523 Yes, elderberries need to be heated through before you use them, which is why a syrup of them is a traditionally popular way to use them, as you would cook the juice out of them. The flowers have a similar, albeit more floral taste, unsurprisingly. Since 2005 there is a new cocktail going around, called a Hugo. It's prosecco and sparkling water with elderflower syrup, fresh lemon balm and mint. Sometimes lime is also added.
I made some elderflower Champaign for the first time this year, not my cup of tea a bit too perfumed, might try the flower heads in batter though, thanks good idea.
@Gabby Mouse Nice. Kind of makes sense too since my granny was originally from Sudetenland which is east of modern-day Germany in the Czech Republic. Her family escaped to Germany when the place kept changing hands during WW2, and she may well have brought the recipe with her from there.
poor chap ! wondering where he ended up to not have access to eldertrees and their flowers anymore if you work with elderflowers take in mind that they also got some medicinal properties and if you eat to much of them it induces a light fake fever and can also irritate your stomach and throat, just like overuse of another old cake-herb, meadowsweet, would do ...they both got stomach irritating "herb-aspirin" in them, I think
Great ... I'm from Austria and we still make this dough often .. more stiff for kind of Eclairs (sweet or spicy) , like here we cover Elderflowers or Apple slices ... it's a "Brandteig" ... love it ...
Yes it is, isn't it? This is one of my few places of respite in the often vitriol laden cesspit that so much of youtube can be. It's such a great channel with wonderful content and nice, courteous people.
kez kezooie Well, it tends to not attract trolls in the first place, so that makes a lot nicer than many places. And Jon *is* a nice person - you'd have to be more of a curmudgeon than Andy Rooney (I almost said Gordon Sinclair, but you'd have to be a Canadian over a particular age to get that one) to find fault with him. I also suspect that most of the folk who watch these videos are nice, too. All of that makes the videos wonderful to watch, and fun to read the comments.
I've been trying some of the recipes out of curiosity. My wife thinks I'm crazy, and won't eat any of it, but I'm enjoying the experimentation. Great Videos!
@Belagerungsmörser the Sheep I really like your name. All those english speaking people probably will never know what Belagerungsmörser are used to do.
Every Christmas, we had a dish called “fried dough” that came from my grandmother’s family who were German immigrant farmers in Maryland back as far as the 1700s (that’s as far back as I got). However, hers was always just deep fried bread dough that was flattened out into 5-6” discs and it was served with butter and maple syrup. As I got older, I started making my own sweet dough version scented with vanilla and citrus. Now I wonder if your recipe is what hers evolved from.
In what Kind of army is there a "most german unit" ?!? I think you are in a reenactment Regiment, good sir? But i think your post was just lost in Translation for me.
A reenactment unit yes, for the Anglo-American War of 1812, the 7th Battalion of the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot fought as British Regulars made up of mostly German, Dutch, and Swiss who originally fought in Napoleon's army, captured by the British, formed into their own unit, sent to North America in 1814. They were a part of the army that invaded and captured Castine in August 1814, holding what is now eastern Maine until May 1815.
I'm from Germany and I recognised the batter recipe because my mom made dough like this every now and then. We call it "Brandteig" which means something like burndough. I know it mostly as a dough for what we call "Windbeutel", literally translated "wind bags" but you call them cream puffs or profiteroles, at least according to google.
I sent my brother to the store right now to get milk and eggs! Another great episode! I love the channel and have tried to cook several of them. It brings me back to cooking with mom and grandmothers. This channel is so great and I thank you for all you do!
My friend showed me this channel and I'm glad. Not only is it a genuine, creative, unique and really interesting idea, but your enthusiasm and delight in every video is awesome. You can tell that you love to do this. Keep it up. This is amazing!
He's not "too sensitive", I think. You just see that he's very much into doing what he does, and this was the first time that some idiots took a giant dump on his work. It's just frustrating.
He addressed an issue that was taken out of context. Anyone in his position would, considering the success of the channel and his business. All i know is, this looks absolutely delicious.
We have two similar dishes in the UK, firstly there's the "sausage roll", which is a cooked sausage rolled in puff pastry and baked, secondly there's "toad in the hole", which is cooked sausages and caremelised onions baked in a batter. I lived in Germany for a while and it was nice to see how similar many German and English foods are - although unsurprising given that English people are Germanic too.
Grew up near Old Salem, and went there for grade school field trips. Loved the fresh baked bread, ginger snaps and Moravian sugar cookies! Look forward to trying this recipe. Yum! 😋
i live about a mile from old salem. i went to lathem school from 76' to 78'..we took a field trip there too. i still live in the area, i live a block away from parkway plaza..and i work at baitys tire right up the road
These are the ultimate comfort videos, very wholesome and I love how it takes you back to the way we used to cook (which is so preferable to anything you can buy nowadays) thank you so much and please keep them coming!
How exciting! My family is from the Winston Salem area and I was raised Moravian. I have been to Old Salem more times than I can count and love our traditions.
I live a block away from Old Salem - never expected to see part of my hometown featured here! My love for early American culture and literature sprouted from visits to the town, and it makes me immensely happy to know that I share this interest with so may others across the country!
as a modern chef i am so incredibly spoiled by having literally all the information i'll ever need accessible by phone.... these people were incredible.
Sometimes I wish our eating culture nowadays was more like it was back then. More simple, with good simple ingredients. Nothing too fancy. Greetings from Germany. I love your channel 😊
^^agreed. The health police ruined it for us with lies. Lard was deemed unhealthy so now we have to use coconut oil, sausage was deemed unhealthy so now we have plant based monstrosities. Eggs were deemed unhealthy so now we eat avocados. Meanwhile we live shorter and have more diseases today than ever before. I’m goin back to sausage, rye bread, butter, and honey.
I've seen rues (butter and flour), a thickener for many milk based sauces and soups (cheese sauce for mac and cheese, clam chowder for examples) made well in advance
lolletsplay04 as a man that has worked in the restaurant industries for a decade, and still gets routinely out cooked by my grand mother... that kind of thinking is foreign to me. Thank you for the explanation.
@@PlayaSinNombre Whoops, only now saw your question. But yeah, the reason I found it so funny, is if you hear it used nowadays (I'm German), it is in a derogatory way. Like a (very mild, mind you) swearword. Historically it wasn't. "Frauenzimmer" used to refer to the part of a royal household that belonged to the lady (all her staff and her rooms). And later it was used to refer to peasant women in general.
I just wanted to say that that positively, enthusiasm and passion are in short supply these days and James Townsend and Son stand out as examples of what the world needs more of. I cook, I'm an academic. The latter is my job and tires me, but this show takes me to a place apart where I can just exist in wonder and enjoyment and away from the troubles of the world. Thank you for all for your hard work and for working so hard for so many years and sticking it out so you can bring us the advanced products you do today
Thank you for illustrating this to us, wonderful recipe but more than that that history is so interesting. An old country Italian recipe we always made when I was young was not batter but a fried dough that could be stuffed with anchovies or sausage or cooked plain and rolled in sugar. these older recipes were always so adaptable to make something regardless of how much you had.
It looks to me like Yorkshire pudding batter with butter added to it, and when you cook it with the sausage it becomes sort of like toad in the hole. I might try this.
By golly! - you're right . Except that the fat source comes from butter and not rendered fat. I wonder what the history of Yorkshire pudding might be? Any ideas?
Think of cooking a large joint using technology like Jon has here. Maybe you've got it on a spit before the fire and are slowly turning it. While you do that, there's going to be a lot of fat dripping off the joint, falling into the fire, and causing flare-ups that put out a lot of smoke or that might be a fire hazard. At some point, someone got the bright idea to place a pan of batter such as they might use for pancakes beneath the roast to catch the drippings.
They would roast a joint or a fowl suspended in front of the fireplace with a pan under to catch the dripping. Sometimes they would put Yorkshire pud or a dish of mashed potatoes under instead.
A very similar type of batter is used here in Catalonia (where I live) to make "bunyols de vent"; it's a type of sweet fritter pastry or desert prepared during Lent and Easter. Sugar is not added into the batter, but I usually add some cinammon (not called for on the original recipes). When done properly, you put a round"ish" blob of batter into the pan so it inflates and grows like a balloon to the size of a golf ball or more, and the fun aspect of the dish is that inside it's almost completely empty, it's full of air. "vent" in catalan means wind, so you could translate it as wind fritters more or less, refering to that empty space inside. I sometimes prepare custard creme and inject them to fill the empty space, but the true dish is meant to be left empty and fluffy, then gently roll them in sugar to partially cover them right after cooking, providing the sweetness. Also, this german dish reminded me of the time I was living in Asturias, also in Spain like Catalonia, but a different region. There they have a specialty that is smoked chorizo, that looks like a red, oily and greasy sausage, so good and tasty, and they use it to eat it per se, or implement it on a lot of dishes. Once a year, they prepare a special dish called "bollo preñado", that in castillian means more or less pregnant bun. Basically, they prepare some bread mix, the kind that leaves a nice and fluffy interior, and then they use it to cover up a whole smoked chorizo. While on the furnace, the chorizo heats up liberating part of it's oils and grease, impregnating the insides of the bun now tinted orange/red and providing an explosion of flavour to the bread. The result is so delicious I can't recommend it enough. But again, anything prepared with this kind of chorizo is amazing; from baked beans or lentils, to an upgraded bolognese with pasta in the form of minced smoked chorizo, used as filling in an asturian "cachopo" which is two enormous (in length, not thickness) pieces of breaded and fried cow steak that are filled on the middle with a variety of things, or simply cut and cooked/boiled in apple cyder (another typical drink of Asturias) with a couple of bay leaves. All the results are amazing! By the way, thank you for sharing all this gastronomical history and culture! I love to see you experimenting with new(/old) things and giving hystorical explanations about the reason the dishes are made the way they are.
You were grinning the whole time and I can understand why :D Greetings from Germany. We still use a similar recipe for fried stuff in dough. We mostly use a sausage or apples cut in rings.
I really enjoy these videos, thank you Townsends.... one of the things I love about these videos (apart from your engaging and enthusiastic personality John) are the beautiful vessels and utensils, fabulous
Thanks for all the excellent cooking videos you've been creating lately (especially the ones you've made with guests). But I also love the simple campfire/soldier cooking videos you make. I hope you make some more of those in the future. They're fascinating & really useful (for some of us, anyway).
How can you not love this guy! He's turned me into a video junkie on all the varied topics that he puts out. I never comment on videos but the material shared in his videos is exceptional. Thanks for taking the time to share all of this with us.
I have recently found your channel and really love the content I have found, my children and I love watching everything together. Thank you for the clean family friendly videos. Question though, the hat you are wearing seems to be one of your favorite as I have seen you wearing it in several of the other videos. Do you have a video on it or would you be able to give more detail about it? Thanks!
Kind of reminds me of "Toad in the Hole" a recipe from the UK, which basically is Yorkshire pudding baked with sausage in it. Yorkshire pudding essentially just being a batter placed in oil and baked.
German ancestor's here! My Great Grandmother born in 1874 taught my mother to beat the eggs in one at a time. I think they blend easier that way. Thank you for this wonderful channel!
This video was fun to watch! In germany it's called "Brandteig". I just love this dough! It's what french use for éclairs, so they fill it with custard and put a special fondant on top. In germany we typically fill it with fruit (usually cherries in with cornstarch thickened juice) and whipped cream and decorate with icing sugar 😍! But i have never seen it to be used like this! Thank you!
Even the process is almost identical. Only difference I really notice is adding the flour from the start as opposed to adding it to already boiling milk/water.
more power to your manual labor! I recall my mom stirring batters prior to owning a hand mixer! They are good memories, but mom worked hard on all the goodies!
We call it "Brandteig" in Germany. As it is often the case, it will probably be hard to find out where exactly in Europe it originated - and also irrelevant. The taste is important!
Hello Jon. I came across your videos purely by chance as they were recommended that I might like. And I certainly do. Hoping to start buying some of your stuff including the cookbooks. I liked how you got excited about putting cheese in this batter and frying it. I too share a love of fried cheese.
Jon, we made this recipe today at the Goschenhoppen folk festival in Frederick, PA. First we used bratwurst, then used ham. Finally, we fried the last of the batter up by itself. It went very well with a little molasses. If I could attach a picture, I would.
My mother is a Winston-Salem, N.C. Moravian. This is the dough (thicker than his batter) that she used to make chocolate e’clairs. Dropped by long spoonfuls on a cookie sheet, then when cooled filled with a whipped chocolate butter pudding and chocolate iced. As children we would have to be driven off of them, and I with my plain tastes would eat the shells all by themselves. Watching him mix that batter brought back so many memories.
I am a North Carolina native and when I was a young lad back in the early sixties, my school took us to Old Salem for a field trip. It was a wonderful place, the sights and the bread baked in a stone oven are very fond memories. I still have a candle snuffer that I bought there during that field trip, I will pass it on to my grandchildren.
