German Food & Folkways

By Rose Marie Gueldner

South Dakota Magazine, Yankton, South Dakota, July/August, 2002, Volume 18, Number 2

Food and shelter are the most basic human needs. How people met those needs in different locales and in different periods of history is a unique cultural indicator. The materials and designs of log cabins, tipis and igloos, for example, speak volumes about the people who build them and the environment in which they lived. What people ate was likewise unique to a given area; before advances in transportation made the sharing of foodstuffs across great distances possible, dinner depended on what was available locally.

That makes German Food & Folkways much more than a cookbook. It is a window into the lives of a group of people whose roots stretch from the Dakotas to the Volga River to the villages of Wurttemberg: The Germans from Russia.

Crispy bratkartoffeln. Succulent brathuhn. Creamy kopfsalat. Tasty knopfla. If you know and love such dishes, this volume will teach you a little more about the people and culture that created them. If you don't know them from sushi, but are an adventurous sort in the kitchen, you are in for a treat.

Reprinted with permission of the South Dakota Magazine.