German Spices: Mustard, Caraway, Juniper, Horseradish, Bay and Currywurst’s Curry Powder

German cooking doesn’t need a long spice list. It leans on a handful of strong, pungent seasonings: mustard on sausages, caraway in sauerkraut and bread, juniper with game, horseradish with meat, and bay in the long braises. Since the late 1940s it’s also had its own curry powder dish, currywurst, and more than one city claims to have invented it.

At a glance

Mustard

Mustard is the German condiment. Mustard paste is a common condiment for boiled or broiled meat across Central and Northern Europe, and Germany has two main traditional styles. Düsseldorf, which Katzer calls Germany’s mustard capital, makes a pungent mustard similar to Dijon. Bavarian sweet mustard is made from coarsely ground white mustard seeds, honey and various herbs, and it’s the mustard you eat with the Bavarian veal sausage Weißwurst. Germany also makes lots of mild, smooth mustards from ground white mustard seed.²

We couldn’t trace two claims you’ll often see about German mustard: that it’s much less acidic than American yellow mustard, and that Bavarian sweet mustard contains applesauce. Mustard seed also goes into the marinade for sauerbraten in Alton Brown’s version.³ See yellow mustard seeds, brown mustard seeds, mustard powder and mustard seed uses.

Caraway

Caraway is the seed of Carum carvi, a member of the carrot family, Apiaceae, native across temperate Eurasia. Its flavor comes from an oil led by d-carvone and d-limonene.⁴ Katzer calls it the spice that gives southern German and Austrian food its character, and says sauerkraut is always flavored with caraway, often with juniper too.⁵ It goes into meat dishes, breads and cheese, and it flavors aquavit and kümmel. Some Central European cheeses contain the seeds.

People often say caraway is essential to German rye breads like pumpernickel. Our sources back up bread in general but not those specific claims. See caraway seeds, cooking with caraway seeds and caraway vs. cumin.

Juniper

Juniper berries are best known as the main flavoring in gin. In the kitchen, Lisa Bramen of Smithsonian describes a slightly piney flavor with touches of fruit and pepper.⁶ Juniper is much used in the traditional cooking of Central Europe and is felt to be indispensable for venison, and it pairs with caraway in sauerkraut. Saveur’s choucroute garnie (sauerkraut with pork and sausages) bundles juniper berries with cloves, garlic and bay leaf.⁷ Alton Brown’s sauerbraten marinade uses 12 whole juniper berries.³

We couldn’t trace the claim that German cooks use juniper for wild goose. See juniper berries, juniper berry substitutes and allspice vs. juniper berries.

Horseradish

Horseradish is a hardy perennial in the mustard family, Brassicaceae, and its heat comes from isothiocyanates, compounds related to those in mustard and radish.⁸ It’s a very popular spice in Central and Northern Europe, and Germany has two words for it: Meerrettich, and Kren, the name southern Germans and Austrians use. In Austria, cured ham with horseradish is a traditional Easter meal, and freshly grated horseradish is often mixed with grated apple to make Apfelkren.⁹

Horseradish with Tafelspitz (boiled beef), and horseradish used in place of mustard in parts of Germany, are both widely repeated, but neither showed up in our sources. See horseradish, cooking with horseradish and horseradish powder.

Bay leaves

Bay leaves suit German braises because, as Katzer notes, they can cook for a long time without losing much aroma; he lists soups, stews, sauces, pickles and sausages among their uses.¹⁰ The flavor is herbal, bitter and slightly piney. For sauerbraten, Alton Brown’s marinade uses two bay leaves with whole cloves, juniper berries and mustard seeds, and thickens the sauce with crushed gingersnaps.³

Bay in Rotkohl (braised red cabbage) comes up a lot, but we didn’t open a source for it. See bay leaves, cooking with bay leaves and bay leaf substitutes.

Paprika

Our sources say little about paprika in German cooking specifically. Goulash has been much copied, and often changed, in the cooking of other European countries, and in Austria it’s often seasoned with caraway. Hungary’s Hungarikum Committee notes that Hungarian paprika was hot until the 1940s.¹¹

We couldn’t trace three claims about paprika in Germany to a source: that it only caught on there after World War II, that German cooks usually use sweet Hungarian paprika, and the dish Paprikaschnitzel. See paprika and smoked paprika.

Curry powder and currywurst

Currywurst, sausage served with a curry-spiced tomato sauce, is the best-known German use of curry powder. According to Germany’s Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), Herta Heuwer created her sauce on 4 September 1949 at her sausage stand on the corner of Kantstraße and Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße in Berlin-Charlottenburg, experimenting with tomato paste, curry powder and Worcestershire sauce. She registered the name “Chillup” as a trademark, granted on 21 January 1959 on an application of 21 February 1958, but she never patented the recipe.¹

The origin story has rivals. The DPMA notes that the writer Uwe Timm claimed currywurst for Hamburg, saying he ate it there as a child in 1947, and that the Ruhr area and Duisburg have claims too.¹ The often-told detail that British soldiers gave Heuwer the curry powder and ketchup isn’t in the DPMA’s account. See curry powder and Worcestershire powder.

Related pages

• Yellow mustard seeds and mustard powder
• Caraway seeds and caraway seed substitutes
• Juniper berries and horseradish
• Bay leaves, cloves and paprika
• The master list of herbs and spices