Heisse Biersuppe
Hot Beer Soup

From Time/Life's Foods of the World - The Cooking of Germany, 1969:

To serve 4:

3 12-ounce bottles or cans of light beer
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly-ground black pepper

Pour the beer and sugar into a heavy 4- to 5-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved, then remove the pan from the heat. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with a wire whisk or fork to break them up, and beat in the sour cream a little at a time. Stir in about 1/4 cup of the hot beer into the mixture, and then whisk it into the beer. Add the cinnamon, salt and a few grindings of pepper. Return the pan to low heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until the soup thickens slightly. Do not let boil or it may curdle.

Taste for seasoning and serve at once from a heated tureen or in individual soup bowls.

I never found much use for light beer in cooking as it adds nothing in flavor .I would try a fuller bodied beer.
Beer soup is Germany's version of Zabaione which is made from flavorful Marsala .

Mete - it is posssible that something might be lost in the translation; however, I have two different recipes from two different German sources, and both say to use light beer....Having said that, I'm willing to bet that a fuller-bodied beer would really bring out some depth in this.

This is a very old dish in Germany, at least from the Middle Ages. From the same source:

quote:

As the Middle ages drew to a close and the Renaissance began, German life changed. Cities became more powerful, and with them, a new urban middle class. An age of trade began, bringing new goods and grerat wealth to Germany....In terms of food, the results of the trading reached down to the actual consumer; at the end of the 15th Century, Bozen and other markets of the inland Tyrol dold such imported delicacies as capers, rice, almonds, figs, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, currants from Smyrna, Polish mustard, cinnamon and precious sugar....

As the renaissance progressed, the art of fine cooking sifted down from the nobles to the rising middle classes, who quickly adopted an extravagantstyle of eating and drinking. In Germany, the age of Humanism and the Reformation brought a new freedom of behaviour and a new luxury of living. Now the new bourgeoisie could keep up with princes and nobles when it came to feasting.

Seven hundred guestswere invited to the wedding of a Berlin maiden at the end of the 16th Century. The meal started with a beer soup heavily spiced with pepper and ginger, served on a table set with enormous cheeses. The first full course included a gruel of millet tinted with saffron and enriched with sausages, mutton and kale, veal tinted with saffron, roast venison with garlic and onions, and roast baor and spice cakes. The second course brough ham and bread, a second gruel of millet, bread with caraway and fennel, boiled fish, a selection of venison baked in a crust, and a cream of almonds. The beverages included spiced wine and four kinds of beer.

Another source, Culinaria Germany, agrees that this is a very old dish:

quote:

Since the Middle Ages, beer soup has been a common dish in Germany, and has generally been consumed in the morning for breakfast. In once used to be thickened stodgily with flour so that it made a filling meal. It has, however, been refined over the centuries with the addition of lemon peel, cinammon, sugar and raisins, as well as egg yolk, which combine to give the soup the final, stylish touch.

Culinaria's recipe for beer soup is from Munich; it has the same base (light beer, sugar, salt, pepper, egg yolks and cream), but is spiced with lemon, nutmeg and caraway:

quote:

Münchner Biersuppe
Munich Beer Soup

2 tablespoons butter
4 cups (1 litre) light beer
Salt, pepper and sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground caraway
A pinch of ground nutmeg
The juice of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup (100 millilitres) cream
4 tablespoons croutons

Melt the butter in a pan. Add the beer, season with salt and pepper, a pinch of sugar, caraway, nutmeg and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, and removce from the heat at once. Whisk the egg yolks with the cream, and stir into the soup. Serve with croutons.

Thanks for that info. Bozen of course is Italy , Bolzano ! The flavors then are the spices rather than the beer. Sounds like they ate well !

quote:

Bozen of course is Italy , Bolzano

but of course! i cut out a paragraph that talked about trade networks in that portion of europe, including non-food trade, which probably explains the way its kinda sitting out there on its own....

Being a rather devout fan of German beer, and having a dark one now, I suspect that the description "light" beer does not mean what we in America have come to understand. It means something other than a dark beer -- the bottom of the barrel, which I have come to love.

Don't use Miller Lite.

A wee dram of Laphroaig on the side would top it off nicely...

quote:

Being a rather devout fan of German beer, and having a dark one now, I suspect that the description "light" beer does not mean what we in America have come to understand. It means something other than a dark beer -- the bottom of the barrel, which I have come to love.

Don't use Miller Lite.

agreed - i'm thinking a light-coloured wheat beet will probably be great with this!

Culinaria Also has a recipe for Sorbian beer soup, which reflects Germany's Slavic population near Spree Forest and Lausitz Bergland:

quote:

[Germany's western Slavs] presereve theri own language and culture as well as cuisine in the Oberlausitz, Saxony and Niederlausitz, Brandenburg. With their colourful regional folk costumes, with the splendid bonnets, and their folk festivals, they have made their mark on the whole region....[For] more than a thousand years they lived in a largely peaceful manner with their German enighbours....

The Sorbs are also known for their Easter traditions - including beautifully-decorated Easter eggs - and the Bird's Wedding:

quote:

[This is] a children's festival which is celebrated on January 25th, predominantly in the Bautzen/Kamenz/Hoyerwerda area. As on Saint Nicholas's Day, the children put plates on the window sill or outside the door. The magpie and her bridegroom, the raven, then put candy on the plates, especially sroki, little magpies made from milk dough rolls with sugar frosting and raisins for eyes, as well as baked birds' nests and merungue birds....Later in the day, the children dress up as birds or wear their traditional costumes and celebrate a wedding.

Here's the recipe for Sorbian beer soup:

quote:

Sorbische Biersuppe
Sorbian Beer Soup

1 cup (250 millilitres) lager
1 cup (250 millilitres) malt beer
2 cups (500 millilitres) milk
2 Tablespoons flour
Scant 1/2 cup (100 grams) cream
Sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup (100 grams) raisins

Mix the beers together and heat them through. In another pan, bring the milk to a boil and pour it into the beer. Blend the flour and cream together and use the mixture to thicken the soup. Bring to a boil again and season to taste with sugar and salt. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the beaten egg. Pour the soup into soup cups and sprinkle the raisins on top.

quote:

Originally posted by tasunkawitko:
Mete - it is posssible that something might be lost in the translation; however, I have two different recipes from two different German sources, and both say to use light beer....

You have to remember that light beer in 1969 meant just that light, not dark. Light beer as we know it today did not exist in Germany at the time.

exactly, z1 - i've been doing some reading on what constitutes the german idea of ;ight beer, and as you say it has nothing to do with american. thanks to a lot of good microbrews, a person should be able to find just the right thing. one guy said he tried it with sierra nevada pale ale and it was ok, but didn't quite work right. three that i am considering from montana breweries (i plan on making the first (heisse biersuppe) are trout slayer ale from big sky brewing:

http://www.bigskybrew.com/Our_Beers/Trout_Slayer_Ale

bayern's pilsener:

http://www.bayernbrewery.com/beer/pilsener.htm

or, based on it's description, bayern's st. wilbur weizen might be the way to go, if it's available:

http://www.bayernbrewery.com/beer/st_wilbur.htm

my goal is a light (in the german sense) beer that is not too bitter or "hoppy." i'm not too much of a beer expert, so it might be a bit of a walk through the forest, but finding out should be a good experience!

will be seeing if i can get each of these today. the first two shouldn't be a problem, but the third (the one i really want to try) might not be available due to the season.

I for one am looking forward to trying the recipe. I can't drink beer anymore but the Doc didn't say I couldn't eat it, lol.

Any German Pils or Lager should be a good start.

sounds good. if you do give this a try, let me know hwo it geos, and post a pic or two if you can.

Heisse Biersuppe

Following our discussion of various versions of biersuppe here:

http://foodsoftheworld.activeb...1709&title=biersuppe

I decided to take a run at heisse biersuppe, featured in Time/Life's Foods of the World - the Cooking of Germany. I found it to be unique and very good in its own right with a pleasant, unexpected flavour that I would definitely be willing to explore again.

Here's the recipe:

quote:

Heisse Biersuppe
Hot Beer Soup

To serve 4:

3 12-ounce bottles or cans of light beer
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly-ground black pepper

Pour the beer and sugar into a heavy 4- to 5-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved, then remove the pan from the heat. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with a wire whisk or fork to break them up, and beat in the sour cream a little at a time. Stir in about 1/4 cup of the hot beer into the mixture, and then whisk it into the beer. Add the cinnamon, salt and a few grindings of pepper. Return the pan to low heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until the soup thickens slightly. Do not let boil or it may curdle.

Taste for seasoning and serve at once from a heated tureen or in individual soup bowls.

Please note that, in the German context, a "light" beer does not have the same context that it has in America. Because I wanted to use a Montana-brewed beer, I limited my options somewhat, but the truth is that there are many out there, German, American and otherwise, to choose from.

When I made this, I wasn't having much luck with the camera. Some are a little pixilated, and others got a little washed out from all the light colours, but you will definitely get the idea.

Here are the goods:



As you can see, there is nothing here that is exotic, but I was impressed with the different layers of flavour. You definitely get a little bit of everything, from sweet (sugar) to sour/acid (sour cream) to salty (take a guess) to bitter (the beer) - albeit with an emphasis on sweet.

For this project, I chose Trout Slayer Wheat Ale, from Big Sky Brewing Co. in Missoula, Montana. It has long been a favourite of mine:



This worked pretty well, but there are so many good choices out there. One I would like to have tried would have been a "Berliner Blonde" or similar "light" beer. Another good choice would probably be Blue Boar, From Henry Weinhard's "Private Reserve" line. I don't know if Beck's would be a good choice, but after trying the beer by itself, it is one I will probably for this soup at a later date. Judging by the results, you want to avoid one that is overly-bitter or hoppy.

Anyway, the first thing I did was measure out my spices; when I do something completely unfamiliar for the first time, I usually stick pretty close to the recipe the first time. Here we have salt, pepper and ground cinnamon:



Next, I prepared the eggs by separating them and breaking up the yolks with a fork until they were a smooth, creamy yellow:



Then, I poured the beer into a Dutch-oven-type pot:



Added the sugar:



Then brought the beer and sugar to a quick boil:



And removed it from the heat.

Meanwhile, I stirred the sour cream into the egg yolks:



And then began the process called tempering, which involves adding a little bit of the hot beer into the eggs:



And stirring it into them well:



In order to bring their temperature up without cooking them.

I then added the tempered egg mixture back to the beer and added the spices:



I'm not sure why I added another picture here, but there it is:



By now, I was getting a blend of a lot of different aromas, and it was pretty good. A very warm, spicy sensation that promised good things on a cold day.

I kept the biersuppe over low heat, stirring constantly:



The recipe says that the soup will "thicken slightly," but to me, this never really happened, even though it stayed quite warm (not boiling, which would curdle the soup) for an extended period of time. It did get a little more "body" to it, but by no means was it "thickened," in my opinion; however, when I judged it to be done, I ladled it into bowls:



And gave it a try.

For myself, I liked it. The different flavours played off well with each other, and it kind of reminded me of the famous "Cinnabons" in a way, or perhaps French toast, thanks to the sweetness and the cinnamon, of course, but also the yeasty, creamy quality that came from the beer and the sour cream. Even though there was no vanilla in the recipe, this soup also seemed to have that quality, which contributed to the "Cinnabon" perception. My only real complaint was that it was so "thin," that it didn't have any substantial "body" to it.

There was some bitter undertone, probably due to the style of beer I chose; I am not sure if it was from hops, since I thought there were no hops in ale, but it was something. It wasn't unpleasant to me, but it was enough that the rest of the family wasn't impressed. A less-assertive beer might have helped with this.

All-in-all, I liked it, and would certainly make it again. As I said before, it is great on a cold day, and from the flavours, I can see why it is mentioned as a breakfast item in Germany; having said that, I believe it would be good any time of day. If anyone wants to try this, I would recommend putting some thought into choosing a beer for it. Based on my experience, you might want to try a lighter, mild-tasting beer your first time; the malted, yeasty quality of beer is great with this recipe, but you will want to experiment to find your level of bitterness or hoppiness that works for you.