Pichelsteiner is a German stew that contains several kinds of
meat and
vegetable
Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...
s.
Preparation
In the first step,
beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus'').
In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...
,
pork
Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE.
Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...
and
mutton
Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...
are seared. Then the vegetables are added, which are usually
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es, diced
carrots and
parsley roots, cut
cabbage and
leek. Subsequently meat broth is poured over the mixture and everything is cooked together (some recipes also add diced
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 onio ...
s and
garlic).
In
Swabia, it is common to serve the marrow of the bones with which the broth was made together with the finished stew as a garnish. As the dish is very easy to prepare, ''Pichelsteiner'' is often prepared in large-scale catering kitchens. Its consistency is normally quite thick.
Etymology
The creation of this dish has been traced to Auguste Winkler (née Kiesling). Originally from
Kirchberg im Wald, she worked as an innkeeper in
Grattersdorf
Grattersdorf is a municipality in the district of Deggendorf, Bavaria, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, a ...
, where she is also buried.
The name is likely to have derived from the nearby
Büchelstein
The Büchelstein is a mountain, high, in the southern Bavarian Forest near the higher peak of the Brotjacklriegel.
Its forested slopes rise above the bowl of the Lallinger Winkel in the east and the village of Grattersdorf to the north. Just ...
mountain, where the annual Büchelsteiner Fest has been celebrated since 1839. As early as the 40th anniversary in 1879, the open-air-cooking festival was considered a tradition, and because the letter ''ü'' is pronounced like ''i'' in the local dialect, the dish's name developed.
In
Regen
Regen (Northern Bavarian: ''Reng'') is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and the district town of the district of Regen.
Geography
Regen is situated on the great Regen River, located in the Bavarian Forest.
Divisions
Originally the town consisted ...
, a town in the
Bavarian Forest
The village of Zell in the Bavarian Forest
The Bavarian Forest (German: ' or ''Bayerwald''; bar, Boarischa Woid) is a wooded, low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany that is about 100 kilometres long. It runs along the Czech border and is co ...
, the citizens have met annually since 1874 on
Kirchweih Monday to eat Pichelsteiner together, a tradition that is still alive today. They also claim the name's etymology. In their opinion, it derives from the pot in which the stew is cooked, which was called a ''pichel'' in the past, but this version is highly questioned by Bavarian researcher Max Peinkofer.
The dish was first mentioned in a cookbook in 1894.
See also
*
Bavarian cuisine
Bavarian cuisine is a style of cooking from Bavaria, Germany. Bavarian cuisine includes many meat and Knödel dishes, and often uses flour. Due to its rural conditions and cold climate, only crops such as beets and potatoes do well in Bavaria, be ...
*
Bosnian pot
*
Irish stew
Irish stew ( ga, stobhach/Stobhach Gaelach) is a stew native to Ireland that is traditionally made with root vegetables and lamb or mutton, but also commonly with beef. As in all traditional folk dishes, the exact recipe is not consistent from t ...
*
List of stews
This is a list of notable stews. A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables (such as carrots, potatoes, bean ...
*
Nikujaga
is a Japanese dish of meat, potatoes and onion stewed in sweetened soy sauce and mirin, sometimes with ''ito konnyaku'' and vegetables. Nikujaga is an example of ''yōshoku'' ( Western-influenced Japanese cuisine). Generally, potatoes make ...
*
Swabian cuisine
Swabian cuisine is native to Swabia, a region in southwestern Germany comprising great parts of Württemberg and the Bavarian part of Swabia, as well as the Allgäu which has parts lying in Austria. Swabian cuisine has a reputation for being r ...
References
* Max Peinkofer, "Büchelsteinerfest und Büchelsteinerfleisch"
he festival and meats of Büchelstein (a mountain in Bavaria, Germany)in: ''Der Brunnkorb''
fountain in the town of Tittling, Bavaria, Germany (Passau, Germany: Verlag Passavia, 1977), {{ISBN, 3-87616-060-X
German stews
Bavarian cuisine
Swabian cuisine
Potato dishes
Cabbage soups
Meat stews
