by Nick Tullius, Oct 8, 2007

Comment:  There was hardly a Sunday in our Banat villages without “Supp un Fleisch” (meaning “soup & meat”) on the table for the main meal at noon.

The soup was most often made with beef shanks, including those ‘bones with marrow’. Sometimes it could be chicken soup, or a ‘beef and chicken’ soup (rarely duck or goose). The soup cleared up beautifully, after the meat had been taken out, so it was really what you find in today’s restaurants as “consommé”.

Before serving, you added either very finely cut egg noodles, square-cut egg noodles (called Fleckle), cream-of-wheat dumplings (Griesknedle), or liver dumplings (Lewwerknedle) made from shaved chicken livers. Some people added ground black pepper (not really needed when the soup was good and peppercorns had been cooked with the soup, others added a little piece of dried red peepers (chilli pepper).

The meat removed from the soup was kept warm, together with the peeled potatoes, carrots, and parsley roots that were boiled with the soup, to be served as the second course, with a sauce. The most common sauces were made with fresh dill (Kapersos), garlic (Knowwelsos), or tomatoes (Paradeissos).

A summer specialty was the sauce made with sour cherries from the garden (Kerschesos). The horseradish sauce (Krensos) was not really a sauce, as it was really ground raw horseradish prepared with cream, vinegar, sugar, salt (the balance of ingredients is what counts). The horseradish roots kept well in the root cellar or cold storage room over the winter. Because the horseradish was so much hotter than onions, many tears were spilled when peeling and grating it. Today we buy prepared horseradish in little jars; it is acceptable if not too many extra ingredients have been added.

To conclude the Sunday meal, most often a “Kuchen” made from yeast dough was served. Examples are walnut rolls (Nussestrudel), poppy seed rolls (Maksstrudel), greaves cakes (Griewekuche; Grammelpogatsche) and many
others.

The ‘soup and meat’ was even served on holidays, but it was then followed by a roast (Bratl, Braten) typically of pork, beef, chicken, goose, duck, or (rarely) turkey. Besides fried or mashed potatoes, fruit preserves (Dunschtobst) accompanied the roast. For desert, finer baking products were brought out: Torten of various types, Krempita, Nussbitten, and many more. All were home-made.  

Edited by Rose Mary Keller Hughes

Last updated: 04/26/2026