How to Make Your Own German Foods and Ingredients

• Vanilla Sugar (Vanillinzucker) is found in most German recipes for cakes and cookies. You can buy it online, or easily make it yourself.
• German Baking Powder is usually single-acting, so it is not interchangeable with American baking powder. Dr. Oetker is king of the German baking powder scene, with a proprietary blend of sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate and cornstarch.
• Quark and Créme Fraiche (video), both fresh cheeses used in baking and cooking.

Many smoked meat products are purchased, rather than made at home. If you are hankering for a German-tasting piece of meat, though, it is not that hard to make.

• Kasseler is a type of ham which is brined, then smoked.
• This quick, Black Forest ham substitute has a salt rub and is then smoked.
• German bacon is salted and smoked. Beech wood or Alder smoke impart the uniquely German flavor.
• Find a smoker

Germans usually buy all their rolls and pastries from a bakery. When one is around every corner, why go through the trouble of baking them yourself? The following recipes are not only fresher than anything you can find in an American bakery, they are not very hard to make.

• Danish Pastry step by step with photos
• Poppy Seed Filled Rolls - step by step with photos
• White Breakfast Rolls
• Amerikanern - soft bakery cookies
• Bauernbrot - real German bread
• Soft Pretzels - step by step with photos using the lye method.

Sauerkraut came to Europe via Asia, where people have been pickling cabbage for thousands of years. Because of its high vitamin C content, it was very useful in preventing scurvy and keeping people healthy throughout the winter months when no fresh food was available.

• A virtual tour of a sauerkraut factory in Ohio.
• All About Cabbage
• Experiments in making sauerkraut

• Bread baking tips
• What does homemade bread cost?
• Learn about yeast
• Comparison of baking bread with or without sourdough