The New German Cookbook: More Than 230 Contemporary and Traditional Recipes [Hardcover]

`The New German Cookbook' by Jean Anderson and Hedy Wurz and `The German Cookbook' by Mimi Sheraton are both written by leading American culinary writers. Although their publication dates are separated by thirty years, Ms. Sheraton's earlier book has been brought up to date at almost exactly the same time the newer book was published by Ms. Anderson and her co-author.

The raw numbers put Ms. Anderson at about 390 pages of recipes for a list price of $30 and Ms. Sheraton at about 500 pages of recipes for a list price of $35. Ms. Anderson includes an excellent bibliography of both English and German sources, including a reference to Ms. Sheraton's book. Ms. Sheraton has no bibliography, but includes the excellent feature of an English and a German index. Ms. Anderson includes a very nice glossary of German culinary terms. Ms. Sheraton's list of terms is much shorter, at the end of a short chapter on cooking utensils, which looks almost identical to such a section you would find in a good book on French recipes. In fact, it has a lot of similarities to a much more complete section in Julia Child's landmark `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' which appeared just a few years before Ms. Sheraton's book. While my primary objective is to compare the two German books, I will say at this point that neither comes close to matching the quality of Ms. Child's classic.

Ms. Sheraton, with the longer book, is claiming to be a complete guide to mastering authentic German cooking while Ms. Anderson specifically aims her book at `new' German cooking and avoids any claim to being a survey of all German cuisine (Ms. Sheraton does say, here and there, that there are some typical recipes which are simply so starchy and plain that she thinks they will be of no interest to American cooks, so she leaves them out). A quick look at the first few chapters confirms this assessment. In appetizers, Ms. Sheraton has 18 recipes while Ms. Anderson has but 10. In the next chapter on soups, Ms. Sheraton has 38 recipes while Ms. Anderson has but 25. And, Ms. Sheraton follows her soup chapter with a chapter on soup garnishes.

Which of these two books one may wish to buy has a lot to do with what you want from a `German cookbook'. I happen to be from a German and Pennsylvania German background, so I am looking for a wide variety of recipes for classic German and Austrian dishes. For this, I certainly prefer Ms. Sheraton's more complete coverage. I think the most typical buyer may be interested in a few famous German / Austrian recipes such as Sauerbraten, Sauerkraut, Spatzle, Wiener Schnitzel, Sausage dishes, and Strudel (It is entirely coincidental that all of these dishes start with an `S'). A comparison of all these dishes in both books shows that in every case, not only does Ms. Sheraton have more recipes, her recipes are also more complete.

One place where this is most dramatic is in the recipes for strudel. Ms. Anderson gives but one recipe for strudel, calling it a `Bavarian Strudel', and accurately stating that it is less like the classic Austro-Hungarian dish than like a cobbler. And, rather than giving a homemade recipe for the dough, Ms. Anderson's recipe uses frozen filo dough. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, as long as you are not buying her book to get a good classic strudel dough recipe. Ms. Sheraton does give us a full recipe for the classic Austrian strudel dough plus recipes for apple, cheese, cherry, plum, poppy seed, rhubarb, and Tyrolean strudel. Everything but cabbage strudel (however, there is a sauerkraut strudel recipe under sauerkraut recipes)! With sausage dishes, the picture is similar. Ms. Anderson has but three sausage dishes while Ms. Sheraton gives us ten.

Ms. Sheraton's recipes do tend to be just a bit more concise than those in Ms. Anderson's book. This is understandable since Ms. Sheraton says at the outset that her book assumes you know your way around the kitchen and know in practical terms, the difference between blanch and poach, for example. And yet, with very important recipes such as with sauerbraten and spatzle, two dishes which require considerably more than the average amount of technique, Ms. Sheraton's recipes are more descriptive than those from Ms. Anderson.

It is entirely appropriate that Ms. Anderson's co-author is a German travel writer, as one of the things in `The New German Cookbook' which is missing from `The German Cookbook' are sidebar stories describing the origins of most recipes.

The bottom line for all of this for Ms. Anderson's book is that it is very similar to a cookbook of recipes from a popular modern German restaurant. And, restaurant cookbooks are bought primarily to supply the reader with new ways of doing classic dishes and cute stories of how the executive chef came by the recipes. The main difference is that unlike recipes from great French and Italian restaurants, the recipes in Anderson's book are primarily simplified versions of the classics rather than fancy new twists.

Really want good recipes from the authentic, traditional German cuisine, get Ms. Sheraton's book. If you are so devoted to German recipes that Sheraton's book simply does not supply enough variety, get both books. Both books give good sketches of wine and beer production in Germany and there is little redundancy. Ms. Sheraton adds the extra touches of recipes for wine and beer based drinks and punches.

Ms. Sheraton's book is a reasonable addition for German cuisine to the great one volume treatments of ethnic cuisines done by Diane Kochilas on Greece, Diana Kennedy or Rick Bayless on Mexico, Penelope Casas on Spain, Barbara Tropp or Virginia Lee on China, Shizuo Tsuji on Japan, and Jean Anderson on Portugal!

This book is a decent supplement to information on its subject.

This book is a terrific guide to modern cooking trends in Germany. It refutes the typical, anti-German stereotype of that cuisine as consisting entirely of sausage and vinegary potatoes. American readers will recognize much of the frenchification that their own cuisine has undergone. The book consists mostly of recipes, but has some good information of a very introductory nature on wines and the basic style of German food. Many of the recipes are a little too professional-level to be representative of "German food", but the variety in complexity and sophistication is quite good. The book features excellent recipes for green beans with pears and bacon, a cherry and pumpernickel souffle, and a few traditional dishes. The book is probably not the first choice for anyone looking for an all-out ethnic survey of German food and its hallmark dishes, but the selection of recipes and regions is good for those looking for a more modern style. Lots of the sour-sweet and ! ! rooasted tastes that are popular these days.

Light, contemporary revisions of many (almost 230 recipes included) German traditional recipes are here.

My favorites include an unbelievably great "BlackForest Trout Soup"; "Rhineland-Style Sauerbraten with Raisin Gravy" "Schnitzel Pot" and the humorous "Rat Tails" or "Green Beans, Pears and Bacon."

For dessert, try the german "quark" which is like ricotta cheese, and can be substituted for easily with products available in most locals.

This is welldone work, but lacks any photos, which would add greatly to the motivation to try more recipes, and also provide serving suggestions.

All in all, though a great one to try, given it modifys the traditional heavy rather bland style that permeates so much of what most know as German cooking. This is light, contemporary and easy to secure ingredients and techniques cookbook.