Pomeranian Recipes

Pommerscher Gansebraten (Pomeranian Roast Goose with Stuffing)

1 (8 to 9 pounds) goose
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon salt (divided)
1 1/2 cups pitted prunes, halved
4 tart apples, peeled, cored and quartered
1 cup coarse rye bread crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons flour

 

Wash and dry goose. Remove giblets. Place in 1-quart saucepan with onion and 1 teaspoon salt. Cover with water. Simmer, partially covered, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Strain; reserve stock.

Sprinkle goose inside and out with remaining salt. Combine prunes, apples, rye bread and sugar; fill cavity of bird. Skewer openings together. Place on rack in shallow roasting pan, breast side down.
Roast in 400-degree oven for 45 minutes. Drain fat from pan and reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Roast until tender when pierced with fork and juices are light yellow, about 1 hour. Drain fat from pan; turn goose breast side up; brown until golden, about 30 minutes longer. Remove from oven and keep warm. Let rest at least 20 minutes before carving.

Skim off remaining fat. Stir flour in 2 cups reserved stock; add to drippings in pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring and scraping browned bits, until thickened. Serve with goose. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

 

This recipe courtesy of the Pommerscher Verein Freistadt Wisconsin

 

These cookies have been made as described below for at least 125 years by the descendants of Gottfried Wegner from Wartin and August Dettman from Triebs.

The recipe uses farm ingredients - sussmilch is right from the cow, lard is rendered on the farm, and eggs are from neighbors who raise chickens. The state shut down most of the little places that made sorghum, so we now buy it from the grocery store. Bad news -- it is VERY difficult to find someone (pharmacist or chemist) who will sell you the potassium carbonate.) You can cut the recipe in half, but if you substitute molasses for the sorghum, the cookies will not be authentic.

When the weather turns cool in the fall (usually about Halloween here), make the cookie dough. You will need a cool, but not refrigerated, place to store the dough while it works for about six weeks. You will need a very large pan to mix the dough in and, ideally, a crock to store it in while it works. The recipe calls for an approximate amount of flour. It is mixed entirely by hand, and the mixer determines when the right amount of flour is added by the way the dough acts and looks. The mixer will have sore hands and arms for a day or two because this recipe makes a lot of stiff dough.

Ingredients:
2 oz powdered potassium carbonate ("potash")
1/2 cup whole unpasteurized milk ("sussmilch")
2 lb lard, room temperature
2 lb butter, room temperature
8 eggs
1 lb white sugar
1 lb brown sugar
5 lb sorghum syrup
2 tsp cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
10-15 lb all-purpose flour (Ceresota if you can get it)

 

Instructions:
In a small dish, combine potash and milk and set aside

In a very large pan, combine lard and butter, working them together with your hands. Break the eggs into a separate bowl then incorporate them into the combined lard/butter. When the eggs are well incorporated, add the two sugars, and spices. Mix well. Pour in the sorghum and mix well.

Add flour by cupfuls, mixing with hands, until dough takes on a glossy appearance when patted. Dough will be slightly stiff.

Place in a crock covered with waxed paper and weighted plate, or a cloth tied tightly over it. Leave in a cool place for about six weeks.

Bake as time permits. The dough keeps well uncooked. Roll out and cut shapes as desired. I like slightly thicker cookies so I roll mine out to 1/3." Roll to whatever thickness you prefer, and punch holes in them if you want to hang them on the tree.

Bake 8-15 minutes in 375 degree F. oven (time varies by thickness of dough). Cool. Store covered - they keep well.

This recipe makes lots of cookies, and the cookies will make you lots of friends.

---