Leipziger Allerlei mit Morchel-Kresse-Hollandaise & Kartoffeln

Leipziger Allerlei is a regional German vegetable dish that may be served as a main or side course. It is named after the city of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and consists of a mixture of various vegetables such as young

peas The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

, carrots,

green beans Green beans are young, unripe fruits of various cultivars of the common bean (''Phaseolus vulgaris''), although immature or young pods of the runner bean (''Phaseolus coccineus''), yardlong bean ( ''Vigna unguiculata'' subsp. ''sesquipedalis' ...

asparagus Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. It was once classified in ...

heads,

morels ''Morchella'', the true morels, is a genus of edible sac fungi closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi in the order Pezizales (division Ascomycota). These distinctive fungi have a honeycomb appearance due to the network of ridges ...

, and

celery Celery (''Apium graveolens'') is a marshland plant in the family Apiaceae that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity. Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves. Depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, lea ...

Cauliflower Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the species ''Brassica oleracea'' in the genus ''Brassica'', which is in the Brassicaceae (or mustard) family. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed. Typically, only the head is eaten – the ...

and

kohlrabi Kohlrabi (pronounced ; scientific name ''Brassica oleracea'' Gongylodes Group (horticulture), Group), also called German turnip or turnip cabbage, is a Biennial plant, biennial vegetable, a low, stout cultivar of wild cabbage. It is a cultivar o ...

are often added; occasionally

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

s are used too. There are numerous variations to the basic recipe. A classic Leipziger Allerlei also includes a sauce made from crayfish butter, crayfish tails and semolina dumplings.

History

According to legend, the dish was invented in

after the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

to protect the city from beggars and tax collectors: in storing the more sustaining and more expensive meat-based dishes, and serving vegetables instead, city officials hoped to encourage beggars and tax collectors to move on to neighbouring cities. City clerk, Malthus Hempel, is said to have suggested to the city fathers: "Let's hide the bacon and bring only vegetables to the table, on Sundays maybe a piece of sausage or a crab from the

Pleiße The Pleiße is a river of Saxony and Thuringia, Germany. The Pleiße has its source southwest of Zwickau at Ebersbrunn, then flows through Werdau, Crimmitschau, Altenburg, and other towns and villages in Saxony and Thuringia, before flowing fr ...

. And if you come and want something, you get a bowl of vegetable broth instead of meat and all the beggars and tax collectors will orientate themselves to Halle or Dresden." However, the dish is first attested in a 1745 cookbook. According to other sources, Leipziger Allerlei represented an intermediate dish in a festive

menu In a restaurant, the menu is a list of food and beverages offered to customers and the prices. A menu may be à la carte – which presents a list of options from which customers choose – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established seque ...

for which young early vegetables were used. Leipziger Allerlei also found its way into the kitchen of privy councillor and poet,

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

.Joachim Nagel: ''Zu Gast bei Goethe. Der Dichterfürst als Genießer. Mit 40 Rezepten, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1998, p. 65. ISBN 3-453-14161-X

Preparation

To prepare the dish, the vegetables are cut and cooked separately, tossed in butter and arranged in a bowl. The crab butter is melted, diluted with

veal Veal is the meat of calves, in contrast to the beef from older cattle. Veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any breed, however most veal comes from young male calves of dairy breeds which are not used for breeding. Generally, v ...

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

, thickened with egg yolk and poured over the vegetables. In addition there are the cooked crab tails and semolina dumplings. In addition to

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

and

white pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diame ...

, the spices of

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...

chervil Chervil (; ''Anthriscus cerefolium''), sometimes called French parsley or garden chervil (to distinguish it from similar plants also called chervil), is a delicate annual herb related to parsley. It was formerly called myrhis due to its volat ...

and parsley are used. There are numerous variations of the recipe - with brown

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...

, thickened with

roux Roux () is a mixture of flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cooke ...

, using

Mettwurst Mettwurst () is a strongly flavored German sausage made from raw minced pork preserved by curing and smoking, often with garlic. The southern German variety is soft and similar to Teewurst. Braunschweiger mettwurst is partially smoked but stil ...

instead of crabs, toasted

breadcrumbs Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickeni ...

etc. Leipziger Allerlei is also available in tins and is a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

for a mixture of peas and carrots with pieces of asparagus. The canned vegetables have little in common with the traditional recipe.

References

Barbara und Hans Otzen: ''DDR-Kochbuch.'' Komet Verlag, Cologne (no year of publ.); pp. 106–107. ISBN 3-89836-350-3. "Leipziger Allerlei" In: F. Jürgen Herrmann (ed.): ''Herings Lexikon der Küche.'' Fachbuchverlag Pfanneberg, Haan-Gruiten 2012 (Lizenzausgabe Nikol, Hamburg 2016); p. 520. ISBN 978-3-86820-344-8.

Literature

* Ulla Heise: ''Leipziger Allerlei – allerlei Leipzig. Ein leicht bekömmliches Lesebuch vom Essen und Trinken aus fünf Jahrhunderten.'' Leipzig 1993 * "Leipziger Allerlei" In: F. Jürgen Herrmann (ed.): ''Herings Lexikon der Küche.'' Fachbuchverlag Pfanneberg, Haan-Gruiten 2012 (Lizenzausgabe Nikol, Hamburg 2016), p. 520. ISBN 978-3-86820-344-8.

External links

* {{cite web, title=Herrn Paulsens Deutschstunde: Das Leipziger Allerlei ist eine verkannte Delikatesse, periodical= welt.de, publisher=, url=https://www.welt.de/lifestyle/article4246339/Das-Leipziger-Allerlei-ist-eine-verkannte-Delikatesse.html, url-status=, format=, access-date=2018-12-15, archive-url=, archive-date=, last=Stevan Paul, date=2009-09-16, year=, language=, pages=, quote= Saxony Leipzig Saxon cuisine