An Alsatian recipe journal

Duosse

Alsatian Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Recipes from the border country between France and Germany, written down the way the region actually cooks: with butter, lard, Riesling and patience. Not a drop of seed oil in the house.

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Half timbered Alsatian house with flower boxes in the windows

Half timbered lanes along the Alsace wine route

Terroir the Rhine plain feeds the pot Schmàlz butter and rendered fat, never seed oil Wìnstub the table is slow and shared

The recipe index

Six dishes, one region

Alsace cooks in cast iron and stoneware, braises in white wine, and finishes everything with fat that comes from an animal or an olive. These six recipes are the backbone of that table.

Sausages served over sauerkraut with potatoes on a plate
Choucroute the winstub way: kraut, smoked meats, potatoes

Choucroute Garnie

La choucroute, the signature dish of Alsace

Sauerkraut braised slowly in Riesling and piled with smoked pork, sausages and potatoes. Every winstub in Strasbourg defends its own version, and every version starts with good fat and good wine.

  • Time3 hrs
  • Serves6
  • LevelIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 2 lb (1 kg) raw sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
  • 3 tbsp lard or duck fat
  • 1 large yellow onion, sliced
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 1/2 cups dry Riesling
  • 10 juniper berries and 2 bay leaves
  • 1 lb (450 g) smoked pork shoulder or loin
  • 4 Strasbourg sausages or quality frankfurters
  • 1/2 lb (225 g) thick cut slab bacon
  • 6 waxy potatoes, peeled

Method

  1. Melt the lard in a heavy casserole over medium heat and soften the onion and garlic without letting them brown, about 8 minutes.
  2. Stir in the drained sauerkraut until every strand is coated in fat, then pour in the Riesling and enough water to almost cover. Tuck in the juniper berries and bay leaves.
  3. Bury the smoked pork and the bacon in the kraut, cover, and simmer very gently for 2 hours, checking the liquid now and then.
  4. Add the peeled potatoes for the final 30 minutes so they cook through in the winey broth.
  5. Slip the sausages into the pot 10 minutes before serving, just long enough to heat them without splitting the casings.
  6. Mound the choucroute on a warm platter, arrange the meats and potatoes on top, and serve with strong mustard.
Thin crisp tart with cream and toppings on a wooden board
Flammekueche, charred at the edges as it should be

Flammekueche

Tarte flambee, the flame kissed tart

A whisper thin sheet of dough blistered at ferocious heat, spread with fromage blanc and creme fraiche, scattered with sweet onion and smoked lardons. Alsace made this long before anyone asked for pizza.

  • Time45 min
  • Serves4
  • LevelEasy

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (250 g) all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 2 tbsp melted butter, plus more for the pan
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt
  • 2/3 cup fromage blanc (or thick strained yogurt)
  • 1/3 cup creme fraiche
  • A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 large sweet onion, sliced paper thin
  • 5 oz (140 g) smoked bacon lardons
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. Mix the flour, salt, water and melted butter into a supple dough. No yeast, no rising. Rest it under a cloth for 20 minutes.
  2. Heat the oven as hot as it will go, 500 F (260 C), with a heavy baking sheet or stone inside.
  3. Whisk the fromage blanc with the creme fraiche, nutmeg and a generous grind of pepper.
  4. Roll the dough into a rectangle so thin it is nearly translucent. Spread the cream mixture edge to edge, then scatter the onion and lardons.
  5. Slide the tart onto the scorching sheet and bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the rim chars in places. Cut into strips and eat immediately.
Tall fluted cake dusted with powdered sugar on a ceramic plate
The fluted crown, dusted the moment it cools

Kougelhopf

The Sunday crown of Alsatian baking

A tall, butter rich yeast cake studded with kirsch soaked raisins, baked in the famous fluted earthenware mold with an almond seated in every groove. Villages serve it for Sunday breakfast with coffee.

  • Time4 hrs, includes rising
  • Serves8
  • LevelIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 3 1/4 cups (400 g) bread flour
  • 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup lukewarm whole milk
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 9 tbsp (130 g) soft butter, plus more for the mold
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • 3/4 cup raisins soaked in kirsch or warm water
  • Whole almonds, one for each groove of the mold
  • Powdered sugar for dusting

Method

  1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk with a pinch of the sugar and let it foam for 10 minutes.
  2. Knead the flour, remaining sugar, salt, eggs and yeasted milk into a smooth, elastic dough, about 10 minutes by hand.
  3. Work in the soft butter in three additions, kneading until the dough turns glossy. Cover and let it rise 1 1/2 hours, until doubled.
  4. Fold in the drained raisins. Butter the kougelhopf mold generously and drop an almond into each groove.
  5. Shape the dough into a ring, seat it in the mold, and let it rise again until it crests the rim, about 1 hour.
  6. Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 40 to 45 minutes until deep gold, tenting with foil if it browns too fast.
  7. Rest 10 minutes, unmold onto a rack, cool, and dust thickly with powdered sugar.
Stew of meat and vegetables simmering in a large pot
Baeckeoffe, sealed and left to the oven's patience

Baeckeoffe

The baker's oven pot

Beef, pork and lamb marinated overnight in white wine, layered with potatoes, sealed under a rope of dough and left to the oven for hours. Named for the days when the village dropped its pots at the bakery on washing day.

  • Time3 1/2 hrs, plus overnight marinade
  • Serves8
  • LevelIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 1 lb (450 g) beef chuck, cut in large cubes
  • 1 lb (450 g) pork shoulder, cut in large cubes
  • 1 lb (450 g) boneless lamb shoulder, cut in large cubes
  • 3 cups dry Alsatian white wine
  • 2 onions and 2 leeks, sliced
  • 2 carrots, cut into coins
  • 3 garlic cloves, thyme sprigs and 2 bay leaves
  • 2 1/2 lb (1.2 kg) waxy potatoes, sliced thin
  • 2 tbsp lard for the baking dish
  • 1 cup flour mixed with water, for the sealing dough

Method

  1. The night before, marinate all three meats in the wine with the garlic, thyme and bay. Refrigerate, covered.
  2. Grease a deep lidded casserole with the lard. Build layers: potatoes, meats, onions, leeks and carrots, seasoning each layer, finishing with potatoes.
  3. Pour the whole marinade over the layers.
  4. Roll the flour and water dough into a rope, press it around the rim, and press the lid down to seal the pot completely.
  5. Bake at 300 F (150 C) for about 3 hours. Do not open the seal while it cooks.
  6. Crack the crust at the table and serve straight from the dish, with a green salad on the side.
Golden savory tart on a wooden table
Tarte a l'oignon, just set and barely golden

Alsatian Onion Tart

Tarte a l'oignon

Onions melted slowly in butter until they turn pale gold, folded into cream and egg, and set inside a butter crust. Quieter than a quiche and sweeter than an onion has any right to be.

  • Time1 hr 20 min
  • Serves6
  • LevelEasy

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups (160 g) all purpose flour
  • 7 tbsp (100 g) cold butter, cubed
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt, for the pastry
  • 3 to 4 tbsp ice water
  • 2 lb (900 g) yellow onions, sliced thin
  • 3 tbsp butter, for the onions
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream
  • A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
  • Salt and white pepper to taste

Method

  1. Rub the cold butter into the flour and salt, bind with ice water, shape into a disc and chill 30 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile melt the onions in butter over low heat for a patient 30 minutes, stirring often, until pale gold but never browned.
  3. Roll the pastry, line a 9 inch tart tin, prick the base and blind bake 15 minutes at 375 F (190 C).
  4. Whisk the eggs with the creme fraiche, nutmeg, salt and white pepper, then fold in the cooled onions.
  5. Fill the crust and bake 25 to 30 minutes, until just set in the center and golden at the edges.
  6. Rest 10 minutes and serve warm, with a sharp green salad.
Fruit tart baked in a metal pan
Quetsche plums, stood upright and baked till they collapse

Tarte aux Quetsches

The September plum tart

Small violet quetsche plums stood upright in butter pastry, their juices caught by a scatter of ground almonds, the whole thing finished with cinnamon sugar the second it leaves the oven. Autumn in Alsace tastes like this.

  • Time1 hr 15 min
  • Serves8
  • LevelEasy

Ingredients

  • 1 2/3 cups (200 g) all purpose flour
  • 9 tbsp (125 g) cold butter, cubed
  • 3 tbsp sugar, for the pastry
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tbsp cold water
  • A pinch of fine salt
  • 2 lb (900 g) quetsche or Italian prune plums
  • 3 tbsp ground almonds
  • 1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon
  • A small splash of kirsch, optional

Method

  1. Work the cold butter into the flour, sugar and salt, bind with the yolk and cold water, and chill the pastry 30 minutes.
  2. Halve and pit the plums. Leave the skins on, they hold the fruit together and stain the juices violet.
  3. Roll the pastry into a 10 inch tart tin and scatter the ground almonds over the base to drink up the juice.
  4. Stand the plum halves upright in tight circles, cut side facing up, and add the kirsch if using.
  5. Bake at 375 F (190 C) for 40 to 45 minutes, until the juices bubble and the pastry is deep gold.
  6. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the hot fruit the moment it leaves the oven, and serve barely warm.
A kitchen on a border learns two languages and keeps both. Alsace braises its cabbage in Riesling, bakes its cake in a fluted crown, and never once reaches for a seed oil.

Our Kitchen

Duosse is an editorial recipe journal devoted to the cooking of Alsace. We test and record traditional dishes as the region has always made them, using butter, lard, and olive oil where fat is needed, and we publish them here for home cooks who want the original methods, not shortcuts.