Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

cuisine encompasses regional cooking traditions of

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

. In general the cuisine is very hearty and features many peculiarities of Mid-Germany such as a great variety of

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French word t ...

s which accompany the

main dish A main course is the featured or primary dish in a meal consisting of several courses. It usually follows the entrée ("entry") course. Typically, the main course is the meal that is the heaviest, heartiest, and most intricate or substantial o ...

and the fashion to serve Klöße/

Knödel Knödel (; and ) or Klöße (; ) are boiled dumplings commonly found in Central European and East European cuisine. Central European countries in which their variant of ''Knödel'' is popular include Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, ...

as a

side dish A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal.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,

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Rice flour, or legumes such as beans or lentils, are som ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

. Also much

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, especially the difference in levels of s ...

is used in Saxon cuisine, particularly

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

and

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

as is the case throughout

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

. The rich history of the region did and still does influence the cuisine. In the blossoming and growing cities of

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

and

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 ...

an extravagant style of cuisine is cherished as exemplified by

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

as an ingredient in

Leipziger Allerlei 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 and consists of a mixture of various vegetables such as young peas, carrots, green beans, asparagus heads, m ...

. Other regions where the people had to work really hard to yield some harvest and were really poor like in the Erzgebirge peasant dishes play a major role and famous dishes originating there are e.g.

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 with

quark A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. All commonly o ...

, potato soup or potato with

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

and

linseed oil Linseed oil, also known as flaxseed oil or flax oil (in its edible form), is a colourless to yellowish oil obtained from the dried, ripened seeds of the flax plant (''Linum usitatissimum''). The oil is obtained by pressing, sometimes followed by ...

. Also in the region

Vogtland Vogtland (; cz, Fojtsko) is a region spanning the German states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia and north-western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It overlaps with and is largely contained within Euregio Egrensis. The name alludes to the former ...

there were many peasants but they were wealthier and that's why in this region the

Sunday roast A Sunday roast or roast dinner is a traditional meal of British and Irish origin. Although it can be consumed throughout the week, it is traditionally consumed on Sunday. It consists of roasted meat, roasted potatoes and accompaniments ...

is a tradition that is nowadays still lived up to.

Beer in Saxony

Throughout Saxony there are

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...

traditions and traditional

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

s. Many famous varieties are brewed there, such as

Freiberger The Freiberger, also known as Franches-Montagnes, is a horse breed from Switzerland, from the Jura region, described as either a " heavy warmblood" or a "light coldblood". It was widely used as draft and pack horse in the Swiss army. It h ...

Radeberger Radeberger started in 1872 when the brewery was founded as ''Zum Bergkeller'', in Radeberg, a town in the vicinity of Dresden. Radeberger ranks No. 9 among Germany's best selling beers. History This beer was also brewed for a period for the K ...

, and Wernesgrüner, which was especially in the time of the GDR frequently exported.

Desserts and sweets

The baking goods and

pastries Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ...

of the cuisine of

are known to be varied and unique. The German tradition of Kaffee und Kuchen (lit. coffee and cake), ''Gaffee un Guchn'' in the Upper Saxon dialect, originates in Saxony and the Saxons were the first to serve cake with their coffee. This distinction can be seen in the expressions '' Kaffeesachse'' and ''Kaffeetante'' (which conveys the idea that 'aunties' (Tanten) or old women would meet to gossip over a cup of coffee). This custom, which shows the cultural relations to the

cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, and that of Bohemia, is still followed today. No other region in Germany has such a distinct and rich café-culture as Saxony. This can be seen in the many old, grandiose

coffeehouse A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...

s in

, where the first German café was opened, and in

Nationwide famous dishes

Eierschecke Eierschecke is a confectionery speciality from Saxony and Thuringia. It is a layer cake with a base layer of cake, a middle layer of quark-based cheesecake and a top layer of vanilla custard. Parts of it are covered with a glaze made of cream, wh ...

*Blinsen (a kind of

pancake A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a Starch, starch-based batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or fryi ...

) *

Quarkkäulchen Quarkkäulchen (literally "little quark ball") is a Saxon dish made from dough containing about two-thirds mashed potatoes, one-third quark cheese, eggs and flour, and perhaps spiced with cinnamon or dotted with raisins. The dough is fried in b ...

*Klitscher (a variety of

potato pancake Potato pancakes are Frying, shallow-fried pancakes of grated or ground potato, matzo meal or flour and a binding ingredient such as Egg as food, egg or applesauce, often flavored with grated garlic or onion and seasoning. They may be topped with ...

) * Kalter Hund *

* Saure Flecke * * Dresdner Stollen *Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen (a kind of

gingerbread Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as ...

) * Sächsischer Sauerbraten File:Sächsischer Sauerbraten.jpg, Sächsischer Sauerbraten File:Sächsische Flecke 1.jpg, Sächsische Flecke File:Leipziger_Allerlei_mit_Morchel-Kresse-Hollandaise_&_Kartoffeln.jpg,

File:Stollen-Dresdner Christstollen.jpg, Dresdner Christstollen File:Oberlausitzer Quarkkeulchen.JPG,

File:Eierschecke_mit_Streuseln.JPG,

Literature

*Jürgen Helfricht: Sächsisches Spezialitäten-Backbuch: Schlemmer-Rezepte von Dr. Quendt. 4. Auflage, Husum Verlag, Husum 2009, . *Thomas Schaufuß: Sächsische Tischkultur und Lebensart, Dresden, Leipzig, Verlag Edition Limosa, 2013, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Saxon Cuisine Cuisine of Saxony

Cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...