Everything about Saumagen totally explained
Saumagen is a
German dish popular in the
Palatinate. The name means "sow's stomach," but the
stomach is seldom eaten. Indeed, it's used like a casing (German
Pelle, Palatinian
Haut) as with sausage, rather similar to the
Scottish haggis. Saumagen consists of
potatoes,
carrots and
pork, usually spiced with
onions,
marjoram,
nutmeg and
white pepper, in addition to which, various recipes also mention
cloves,
coriander,
thyme,
garlic,
bay leaf,
cardamom,
basil,
caraway,
allspice, and
parsley. Sometimes
beef is used as well. The larger ingredients are diced finely. After that, the saumagen is cooked in hot water and either served directly with
sauerkraut and mashed potatoes or stored in the refrigerator for later use. To warm it again, the saumagen is cut into slices approximately 1 centimeter thick, which are then fried in an open pan. The typical accompanying drink is a dry white
wine.
Saumagen was created in the
18th century by Palatinate farmers who used leftovers to make a new dish. Today the ingredients are not leftovers at all; indeed the butchers creating saumagen use very high-quality ingredients.
Helmut Kohl, the German
chancellor from
1982 to
1998, who came from the Palatinate, made saumagen very popular. He served saumagen to many foreign visitors such as
Margaret Thatcher,
Mikhail Gorbachev,
Ronald Reagan and
Bill Clinton. Kohl was sometimes ridiculed for this in other parts of Germany, where it was perceived as just another sign of his alleged provinciality. The connotations invoked by the mere term "sow's stomach" in people who are not
really familiar with the dish (of which there are quite a few outside the Palatinate region) didn't help either.
In the
Pennsylvania Dutch region of the
United States, the dish, known locally as seimaage, hogmal, or simply pig stomach, is popular during the harvest season. Traditionally, pig stomach, not turkey, was the main course for
Thanksgiving among
Pennsylvania Dutch families. This tradition stems from the
Old World, with the bulk of
Pennsylvania Dutch settlers originating from the
Palatinate. Unlike the
German version, the dish is typically baked for several hours, rather than boiled.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Saumagen'.
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