Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Bringing Oktoberfest home

The 168th Oktoberfest festival is here. Known by Bavarians as the "Wiesn," Oktoberfest is a centuries-old German tradition.

Each year millions of residents and visitors from all over the world gather in Germany to consume more than five million liters of beer and eat 400,000 pork sausages in "beer tents" put up by traditional Munich breweries.

Oktoberfest dates back to 1810, when Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen invited the citizens of Munich to attend their wedding reception. The party was so much fun that it lasted 16 days. The Oktoberfest tradition has grown today to include parades, feasting and carnival activities.

If you can't travel to Germany for the authentic Oktoberfest experience, you can create one right in your home.

A traditional staple of the Oktoberfest meal is the delicious German pretzel. "This delicacy is best topped off with tangy German mustard," says a spokesperson from CMA, the German Agricultural Marketing Board. Most German mustards have a slightly sweet-sour flavor due to a touch of sugar included in the pickling liquor. One example is the Sweet'n Sour Mustard Sauce created by Jacobus Barhyte, who brought the recipe to the U.S. in the 18th century.

For an authentic Oktoberfest meal, serve these pretzels and mustard with German sausages and imported German beers such as Pils and Hefeweizen. Some may want to add other German foods, such as their condiments, confections, whole grain breads and robust cheeses to their celebration.

To make these delectable German pretzels just follow the attached quick and easy recipe.

For more German recipes, visit www.cmanorthamerica.org. To locate German foods, call CMA at 703-739-8900.

German Pretzels:

1 package of active dry yeast

1/8 cup warm water (105 degrees)

11/3 cups warm water

1/3 cup of brown sugar

5 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in 1/8 cup warm water. Stir in 11/3 cups warm water, 1/3 cup brown sugar and flour. Beat until smooth.

Knead dough until smooth and elastic. Heat oven to 475 degrees. In a saucepan, measure 2 tablespoons baking soda to each cup of water. Place enough to fill the saucepan. Boil soda and water.

Tear off some dough and roll a pencil shape with your hands. Pick up both ends, cross to form rabbit ears and then twist the ends and pull them back to the rest of the loop.

Place twisted pretzels in water-baking soda mixture for 15 seconds until the pretzel dough is golden or yellow in color. Then remove the pretzels from boiling water and place onto a salted cookie sheet.

Salt the top of pretzels with course ground sea salt. Place cookie sheet with pretzels into the oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until pretzel is golden brown.

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