Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

cuisine encompasses regional cooking traditions of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. 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 flavour, texture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

s which accompany the main dish and the fashion to serve Klöße/

Knödel Knödel (; and ) or Klöße (; : ''Kloß'') are Boiling, boiled dumplings commonly found in Central European cuisine, Central European and East European cuisine. Countries in which their variant of is popular include Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, ...

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 tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

es,

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

. Also much

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are fish species that spend some or all of their lives in bodies of fresh water such as rivers, lakes, ponds and inland wetlands, where the salinity is less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine habitats in many wa ...

is used in Saxon cuisine, particularly

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

and

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

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. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

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

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

an extravagant style of cuisine is cherished as exemplified by

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

as an ingredient in Leipziger Allerlei. Other regions where the people had to work really hard to yield some harvest and were really poor like in the

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

peasant dishes play a major role and famous dishes originating there are e.g.

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

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 nucleus, atomic nuclei ...

, potato soup or potato with

bread Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...

and

linseed oil Linseed oil, also known as flaxseed oil or flax oil (in its edible form), is a colorless 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 (; ) 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 Euroregio Egrensis. The name alludes to the former leadershi ...

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 British dish traditionally eaten on Sunday. It consists of roast meat, roast or mash potatoes, and accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, gravy, and may include condiments such as apple sauce, ...

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 b ...

traditions and traditional

beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

s. Many famous varieties are brewed there, such as Freiberger, Radeberger, and Wernesgrüner, which was especially in the time of the GDR frequently exported.

Desserts and sweets

The baking goods and

pastries Pastry refers to a variety of doughs (often enriched with fat or eggs), as well as the sweet and savoury baked goods made from them. The dough may be accordingly called pastry dough for clarity. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bak ...

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, List of cooking techniques, techniques and Dish (food), dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, 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 serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

s in

, where the first German café was opened, and in

Nationwide famous dishes

* Eierschecke *Blinsen (a kind of

pancake A pancake, also known as a hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack, is a flat type of batter bread like cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based Batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk, and butter, and then cooked on a ...

) * Quarkkäulchen *Klitscher (a variety of

potato pancake Potato pancakes are shallow-fried pancakes consisting of grated or ground potato, matzo meal or flour and a binding ingredient such as egg or apple sauce, often flavored with grated garlic or onion and seasonings. They may be topped with a var ...

) * Kalter Hund * Leipziger Allerlei * Saure Flecke * * Dresdner Stollen *Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen (a kind of

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

) * Sächsischer Sauerbraten File:Sächsischer Sauerbraten.jpg, Sächsischer Sauerbraten File:Sächsische Flecke 1.jpg, Sächsische Flecke File:Leipziger_Allerlei_mit_Morchel-Kresse-Hollandaise_&_Kartoffeln.jpg, Leipziger Allerlei File:Stollen-Dresdner Christstollen.jpg, Dresdner Christstollen File:Oberlausitzer Quarkkeulchen.JPG, Quarkkäulchen File:Eierschecke_mit_Streuseln.JPG, Eierschecke

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, List of cooking techniques, techniques and Dish (food), dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, ...