The soup was
most often made with beef shanks, including
those 'bones with marrow'. Sometimes it could be
chicken soup, or a 'beef and chicken' soup
(rarely duck or goose). The soup cleared up
beautifully, after the meat had been taken out,
so it was really what you find in today's
restaurants as "consommé".
Before
serving, you added either very finely cut egg
noodles, square-cut egg noodles (called Fleckle),
cream-of-wheat dumplings (Griesknedle), or liver
dumplings (Lewwerknedle) made from shaved
chicken livers. Some people added ground black
pepper (not really needed when the soup was good
and peppercorns had been cooked with the soup,
others added a little piece of dried red peepers
(chilli pepper).
The meat
removed from the soup was kept warm, together
with the peeled potatoes, carrots, and parsley
roots that were boiled with the soup, to be
served as the second course, with a sauce. The
most common sauces were made with fresh dill (Kapersos),
garlic (Knowwelsos), or tomatoes (Paradeissos).
A summer
specialty was the sauce made with sour cherries
from the garden (Kerschesos). The horseradish
sauce (Krensos) was not really a sauce, as it
was really ground raw horseradish prepared with
cream, vinegar, sugar, salt (the balance of
ingredients is what counts). The horseradish
roots kept well in the root cellar or cold
storage room over the winter. Because the
horseradish was so much hotter than onions, many
tears were spilled when peeling and grating it.
Today we buy prepared horseradish in little
jars; it is acceptable if not too many extra
ingredients have been added.
To conclude
the Sunday meal, most often a "Kuchen" made from
yeast dough was served. Examples are walnut
rolls (Nussestrudel), poppy seed rolls (Maksstrudel),
greaves cakes (Griewekuche; Grammelpogatsche)
and many
others.
The 'soup and
meat' was even served on holidays, but it was
then followed by a roast (Bratl, Braten)
typically of pork, beef, chicken, goose, duck,
or (rarely) turkey. Besides fried or mashed
potatoes, fruit preserves (Dunschtobst)
accompanied the roast. For desert, finer baking
products were brought out: Torten of various
types, Krempita, Nussbitten, and many more. All
were home-made.