New Wine and Onion Cake
The days are getting shorter and it is certainly getting colder. Fall is upon us. As much as I miss the warmth of the summer, fall brings some interesting things as well. It is now new wine season. The local favorite pairing is Neuer Süßer und Zwiebelkuchen, New Sweet and Onion Cake. The freshly pressed unfiltered sweet wine goes well with the salty onion cake.
Neuer Süßer – New Sweet Wine
One of the most notable fall things for me is New Wine season. Certain types of wine can be drunk right after being made. Many stalls in the main market have their own new wine in plastic barrels as well as bottles. For about a Euro you can get a small sample glass. It is a great excuse to be drinking before 10am on a Saturday. Of course they have the wine in bottles and some places even small jugs for sale as well.
The wine is unfiltered and quite sweet. It tastes a lot like cloudy grape juice actually. This can be deceiving to its kick. This is still wine and has the alcohol to prove it, even if the sweetness covers that up. It does make for an enjoyable morning sipping away the night before if you happen to be so inclined. The wine comes in several different types, though white and several shades of red are represented in our market.
In German the word I see the most often is neuer Süßer, which translates as “new sweet”. I guess they assume you know it is wine. One of the signs of fall is when the neuer Süßer signs start popping up at the cafes and restaurants in town. I still think it is the best at the market though. It feels more like it is coming direct from the source, and there is something nice about the warmth from the alcohol on a cold fall morning in the shadow of the cathedral.
One of my fellow expat writers Frau Dietz, writes about autumn and Federweißer in her region, which seems pretty similar.
Zwiebelkuchen – Onion Cake
A second sign of fall locally is the appearance in Zwiebelkuchen in bakeries and restaurants. Onion cake, as it translates to, is a concoction of dough with creme, large amounts of onions and often bacon. So don’t be fooled by the name; onion cake, it is neither sweet nor is it vegetarian. Bacon and onions seem to go well together in the German culinary mind. Zwiebelkuchen is often made in square sheets and cut into slices, although I have seen round versions of it as well. The onion, bacon and creme on dough idea is quite similar to Alsatian Flammkuchen that is very common around here as well.
The market was full of raw onions as well. Some hung in strings like garlic, others in large piles. Not only is Zwiebelkuchen a fall thing, it is very often paired up with neuer Süßer.It must be that onion harvest is a similar time to new wine season. It is quite common to see signs for the pairing in restaurants. The corner pub here has a sign for a slice and a glass for 4 euros.
Fall
When things come into season, they show up everywhere. And when the season is over such pairings will disappear just as quickly to be replaced with the next season’s thing. New wine does not last very long. Apparently the higher sugar content does not lend itself to being stored like normal wine. It is a transitory enjoyment. Onion cake is only made this time of the year as well, so it too is a sometimes thing.
If wine in the morning is not your thing, the market stalls also had normal grape juice as well as freshly pressed apple juice in the same idea for sale. A big plastic barrel for selling sample glasses ringed by bottles to take home. The fall vegetables are showing themselves. Stacks of corn on the cob and artfully arranged pumpkins of several types abound.
As much as I regret the loss of the warm, Fall has its charms.
More fall pictures from Freiburg as well as a cloesup of Zwiebelkuchen can be found on the GroundedTraveler Facebook fan page.
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October 17, 2011 @ 6:02 pm
I just had some Neuwein with friends in Frankfurt am Main two weeks ago on Reunification Day – the wine was dangerous stuff: easy to drink, easy to forget the alcohol content. Thanks for your post, Andrew!
October 17, 2011 @ 7:07 pm
Yeah, the stuff is indeed deadly. I remember wandering around a market early in the morning with friends. So before breakfast, so it went straight to your head. Thanks for the comment, Henry.
October 17, 2011 @ 2:44 pm
We loved the market in Freiburg – sad we missed out on these seasonal delicacies!
October 17, 2011 @ 7:08 pm
I am glad you enjoyed your visit here. I am surprised you didn’t see it. I kind of thought that the new wine season is a few weeks old now. If you missed it, it was only by days I fear.
Mean’s you will have to be back!
October 16, 2011 @ 7:07 pm
I am nerdily psyched to hear there is another term for this stuff (which I love!). Around here it’s usually neuer Wein or, more rarely, Federweisser. I’ve never heard neuer Suesser. The combo with Zwiebelkuchen is famously wonderful to eat and less wonderful to digest. 😉 (We all do it every year anyway!! 😀 )
October 17, 2011 @ 7:11 pm
I saw two even here. Kretzler or something like that, you can kind of see in one photo. I guess it shows how regional even the language is in Germany.
October 16, 2011 @ 6:34 pm
Great post – and thank you for mentioning yours truly! I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to try young wine with Zweibelkuchen this year, it sounds like a fab combination. And you’re right, the two drinks in our regions do sound similar – if there’s any left and I make it to Koeln perhaps we should each bring a bottle so we can do a taste test 🙂
October 17, 2011 @ 7:13 pm
You are welcome for the mention. Do you get Zwiebelkuchen up there? I was asking my german roommate, and he thought it sort of hugged the areas against the French border, but we weren’t sure how close. It is in a lot of ways and ingredients similar to Elsäßer Flammkuchen. That is a good idea to bring a bottle to Köln. I do however hear from the twitter-vine that you won’t be joining us. 🙁
October 18, 2011 @ 10:22 am
Do you know what, I have actually got no idea if we have it, I was too busy eating Flammkuchen and pumpkins last year to think about it, and now I think of it I’ve only ever eaten it in London as cooked by German flatmates (when I brought home 3kg of sliced onions from the kitchen I was working in). I shall investigate and report back.
The Koeln decision has not yet been taken, but it’s looking ever more like it that I’m not going to be able to come, which I’m gutted about.
October 25, 2011 @ 9:40 pm
It was great to meet you at WEBMU. Glad it worked out for you to come.
October 25, 2011 @ 10:30 pm
Me too – all round! 🙂