Now, I'm not all that picky about observing holiday traditions. I've had Birthdays without candles, Christmas without a Tree, and Easter without chocolate. However, what I will not abide is a Thanksgiving without the proper food. Of course, preparing all the classic dishes for just myself would be both expensive and ludicrous. Therefore, when my floor requested suggested for a floor-wide dinner on the 24th, I thought "That's close enough for me." My American Thanksgiving proposal was accepted and the planning began.
I decided that the necessary dishes included turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, biscuits, something with green beans, something with sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and apple pie. Given a rough budget of €60 and about 15 people to feed, I dared not add anything else.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, canned pumpkin does not exist in German supermarkets. It is not alone in its nonexistence. The following ranged in difficulty to find from annoying to impossible.
- Annoying
- sweet potatoes
- Found: Rewe, Kaufland, Kaisers
- Sweet potatoes aren't actually that tricky to find. I've seen them just about everywhere besides Aldi, Lidl, and Netto. The tricky part is that they are not stocked in particularly large quantities. They may be there one day and gone the next.
- whole turkey
- Found: Kaufland
- I could find whole turkeys in the freezer sections of several stores, but they were at most 10 lbs (4 and something kg). Finally, I found a 13.6 lb (6.20kg) full turkey in Kaufland. This is the biggest grocery store in Aachen. The turkey came stuffed with the neck and some giblets in a plastic bag. However, the heart and some other unidentifiable innards were still attached. Watch out for that when dressing the bird. Moreover, it did not come with a pop-up thermometer. If you don't have a meat thermometer handy like we didn't, I'd err on the side of dry and have some gravy ready.
- Difficult
- baking soda
- Found: Rewe
- Backing soda is called Natron while baking powder is called Backpulver. If you're hoping to find a nice can or a hearty box of either one, forget it. Backpulver is sold in packages of 15g paper packets. Natron is also only found in paper, but not every store will stock it. Aldi, for instance, almost certainly won't.
- Seemingly Impossible
- cranberries
- Substitute: Lingonberries (Preiselbeeren)
- The only cranberries you're likely to find in Germany are dried ones. If you're up for rehydrating them to make you're sauce, be my guest. Otherwise, I found that Lingonberries boiled for a while and mixed with sugar made a fairly suitable substitute.
- pre-made pie crust
- substitute: make from scratch
- Until this year, the thought of making a pie crust from scratch would have terrified the pants off me. Crust were always the hallowed duty of my dad, master of the rolling pin and pastry blender. However, I have come to learn that if you keep the ingredients cold and your surfaces well floured, making dough yourself is not only doable but fun. I highly recommend practicing with pasties though. If they come out odd on the first attempt, only you have to know.
- pie tins
- Substitute: springform pan
- There are two problems with finding a proper pie tin in Germany. 1. Those lovely disposable aluminum packs we have in the States are nowhere to be found. You will have to buy a round Kuchenform either with nice slanted sides or make do with a spring form pan. 2. The standard diameter is not 8 or 9 inches but 26 cm. That's a little more than 10 inches across. Adjust your recipes accordingly.
- canned pumpkin
- Substitute: pureed Hokkaido or other round, orange squash.
- Hokkaido seems to be cheapest and most readily available in Kaufland. I had the pleasure of using a ricer to simultaneously mash and remove tough pieces of baked pumpkin. I definitely recommend it.
- brown sugar
- Substitute: 2 tbsp molasses and 1 cup white sugar per cup of brown sugar replaced
- Don't get me wrong. If you go into the baking goods section of a store in Germany, you will find something called brauner Zucker. This is a trap. Brauner Zucker or Rohrzucker is in fact raw/cane sugar. Instead of dark brown, sticky granules, you get hard brown crystals. The good news is though that brown sugar as we know it consists simply of refined sugar and molasses. If you beat the two together in the above mentioned proportions, you will get something adequately similar. Now, I did not have molasses and was not about to buy some for 1 meal. However, maple syrup or dark honey make good 1 to 1 substitutes. Personally, I think the maple added a nice tone to the pie.
On Saturday, I got started with the desserts and reheatable side dishes. The other American on my floor arrived half way into the process. We managed to whip up two pies, a batch of biscuits, mashed potatoes and some lingonberry sauce in just 7 hours! My feet and back were not happy with me.
It was the same story the next day, though a good portion of the time was spent just hanging out while the bird cooked. Due to having potentially three vegetarians present, we made stuffing with and without turkey juices as well as two types of gravy. Some members of the floor gathered about an hour and a half ahead of time to help out. I don't believe they realized that thanksgiving is a feast of preparation and timing. So...they were put on table setting duty. We got all the dish on the table while still somewhat warm (aluminum foil was our friend), and dug in.
The food was received well, the garlic mashed potatoes, biscuits and pies especially. Several people had their first experience with sweet potatoes that night as well. They kept wondering how I got the "carrots" to taste so sweet. After the meal, two of the residents got out equipment for making one of the more dramatic beverages I've ever seen called Feuerzangenbowle.
Essentially, you mix cinnamon and orange slices with Glühwein (mulled wine popular around Christmas) in a pot until warm. Pour that into a fancy glass bowl above an adjustable burner, lay a cone of sugar above the bowl, cover in rum, and SET ON FIRE. At one point, a drop of burning rum dripped down the side of the bowl, leaving a streak of blue flame against the glass. This is an alcohol-related tradition I can approve of, even if I don't know what it tastes like.
That's right. I did not sample the bubbling brew. I'm an all or nothing kind of person. I can quit something cold turkey, but handling it in moderation? Not really my strong suit. If I try something and like it, I will start letting myself have more and more until it becomes a problem. This phenomenon has happened with desserts, TV shows, and Sudoku. Imagine what could happen with a chemically addictive substance. Thus, I have sworn never to try alcohol. You can't miss what you haven't had. (Would that I had done that with chocolate!). Most of my friends and family are used to this. Explaining it to a bunch of excited Germans was different. I believe that was the first time I have ever actually felt pressured to consume a drug. I stood my ground however and drank apple juice instead.
It was the same story the next day, though a good portion of the time was spent just hanging out while the bird cooked. Due to having potentially three vegetarians present, we made stuffing with and without turkey juices as well as two types of gravy. Some members of the floor gathered about an hour and a half ahead of time to help out. I don't believe they realized that thanksgiving is a feast of preparation and timing. So...they were put on table setting duty. We got all the dish on the table while still somewhat warm (aluminum foil was our friend), and dug in.
The food was received well, the garlic mashed potatoes, biscuits and pies especially. Several people had their first experience with sweet potatoes that night as well. They kept wondering how I got the "carrots" to taste so sweet. After the meal, two of the residents got out equipment for making one of the more dramatic beverages I've ever seen called Feuerzangenbowle.
Essentially, you mix cinnamon and orange slices with Glühwein (mulled wine popular around Christmas) in a pot until warm. Pour that into a fancy glass bowl above an adjustable burner, lay a cone of sugar above the bowl, cover in rum, and SET ON FIRE. At one point, a drop of burning rum dripped down the side of the bowl, leaving a streak of blue flame against the glass. This is an alcohol-related tradition I can approve of, even if I don't know what it tastes like.
That's right. I did not sample the bubbling brew. I'm an all or nothing kind of person. I can quit something cold turkey, but handling it in moderation? Not really my strong suit. If I try something and like it, I will start letting myself have more and more until it becomes a problem. This phenomenon has happened with desserts, TV shows, and Sudoku. Imagine what could happen with a chemically addictive substance. Thus, I have sworn never to try alcohol. You can't miss what you haven't had. (Would that I had done that with chocolate!). Most of my friends and family are used to this. Explaining it to a bunch of excited Germans was different. I believe that was the first time I have ever actually felt pressured to consume a drug. I stood my ground however and drank apple juice instead.
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