Halfway down the Danube

See, this is why so many left for Wisconsin in 1848: the freedom to eat bratwurst the way we want. A big bun! and sauerkraut! or horseradish! and maybe some of those onions you boil the bratwurst with! Or not!

The real question is, do they use beer or water?

I don't know about them, but I use beer.

Salted water. With juniper berries in it. (Once, after the Grand Flood of 1988, gin, liberally.)

Now? Mrs. NYCMT doesn't like sausages so much except for homemade and cervelat and sometimes a full beef dog from Abeles and Heymann and mostly I guess air-dried cervelat.

But we now have the MEAT GRINDER ATTACHMENT for the Kitchenaid (we have another, old-fashioned meat grinder, but our utility table is a bit too nice for the clamp.) YEE HAW! I'm making merguez tonight, baby!

So yesterday's great adventure was weisse lebkuchen for the new year.

Rezept
Die bestandteile
7 eggs, separated
1 lb (454g) toasted minced nuts (almonds, filberts, walnuts, pecans, brazils, whatever)
1 lb (454g) superfine sugar
1/4 lb (130g) minced candied lemon
1/4 lb (130g) minced candied orange (actually, clementine peel)
1 lb (454g) flour
1 tbsp ground cloves
1 tbsp ground black cardamom
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground black pepper

and, for variation, 1 tsp ground aniseed.

1 tsp baking soda.

Die verarbeitung

Cream yolks with sugar for 1/4 hour until yolks convert (color changes, sugar is emulsified, texture is transformed.

Whip whites to hard peaks. Fold whites into creamed yolks. Work for another 1/4 hour. (for the life of me I do not understand this step, since the folding of the whites into the fatty yolks will undoubtedly cause the denatured white foam to collapse. Es war barockkeiten!)

Combine with flour, nuts, fruit, spices until a uniform mixture. Allow to rest overnight. Work in baking soda, form into cookies on small wafers of rice paper or gauffrettes, and bake in a 350F (180C) oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown and delicious.

Annoint with sugar icing, or chocolate, as ye may.

Warning: I should note that these are old-fashioned spice cookies, with an aftertaste that lingers longer than a modern breath mint.

I like 'em!

Christ, overwhelmed by a savage lust for a bratwurst, with the süßes Senf. Or maybe a debreziner with Kren? Where can I get a hot German sausage in London?

"Salted water. With juniper berries in it."

Juniper berries? Gin? Heathen!

Doug,
Interesting historical review. You mentioned that Ostheim was just a days march from the frontier with the "Slavic" Sorbs.

Weren't the Sorbs the same people as the Serbs? If I remember correctly, the Sorbs were originally a Sarmatian/Iranian people who had become 'slavicized' as they migrated into eastern Europe from somewhere in Russia. They were invited by the Roman Emperor Heracleus to fight the Avars (a turkic poeple, how very fitting) and settle what is today southern Serbia / Macedonia - ancestors of today's Serbs. I think I even remember from my history that the Sorb lands were called "White Serbia."

Um. The name "Sorb" derives from the same root as "Serb", but no one is sure where that root comes from! (I have a suspicion that it might be related to the common Slavic root for 'sickle', since many peoples of that era were named for their characteristic weapon. 'Sickle' would be close to 'machete'.) You might be thinking of the origins of the word "Croat", which does seem to have an Iranian origin. However, the name of a people does not tell much about the origin of a people.

Your description of Serb/Sorb ethnogenesis seems to derive from Constantine Porphyrogenitus's account, made in the middle tenth century. But that account should be read carefully. CP states that they originally lived beyond "Turkey", by which he meant Pannonia, and in "Boiki", which may or may not have been Bohemia, where the "White Serbs" lived. The Serbs who fought against the Avars were granted an area around Thessalonica, and later were granted lands further north. No one is really sure what language the Avars spoke, incidentally.

The first mention of Sorbs, on the other hand, comes from a Merovingian chronicle, sometimes attributed to Fredegar, circa 660, which is rather earlier than CP's mention. While describing the wars against the Wends (another ethnonym that has gotten around; 'Venetia' derives from the same root, leading some uber-nationalist types to claim that Venice was original Slavic), it mentions one "Dervan, the duke of the Sorbs, a people of Slav origin long subject to the Franks" right after mentioning a Wendish campaign in Thuringia.

To make things even more confusing, Sorbs are sometimes called Wends today.

Finally, Sorbian is more closely related to Czech, a west Slavic langauge, while Serbian is a south Slavic language. Seems unlikely that one derived from the other, or that both derived from the same source after the differentiation of the Slavic languages had already begun.

Carlos, which sources/translations are you working off of?

Schenker's _The Dawn of Slavic_ and Barford's _The Early Slavs_.

Carlos,

Following your reply I decided to consult the only encyclopedia I currently have, trusty :) old Wikipedia, on the origin of the Serbs/Sorbs.

First of all, apparently the Sorbs call themselve Lusatian Serbs. "Sorbs" is just the English name.

Second, there are many theories about origins of Serbs. The theory of an Iranian origin of the Serbs seems to be pretty accepted. According to this theory the Serbs were an Iranian/Sarmatian tribe first located in the lands between the Black Sea and the Caspian, but probably originating further east (some claim what is today Afghanistan). Tacitus (ca. 50 AD) described the Serboi tribe near the Caucasus. The same goes for the Croats.

Like a lot of other peoples the Serbs (or Serboi) moved west during the 4th century eventually ending up in current western Poland where they were assimilated by them leaving their name (similary like in case of Bulgarians). They were then apparently invited by the Roman emperor to drive the Avars out of Illyria, subdued some Slavic tribes and settled there.

That Sorb is more related to present-day Czech than to present-day Serbian is hardly a relevant argument since before 10th century there were no separate South Slavic languages. Basically, western group of south Slavic (Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian) languages appear to derive from western dialects of Old Slavonic language and eastern group (Bulgarian, Macedonian) appear to derive from eastern dialects.

Um. Oskar, Wikipedia is not very good at subjects which might occupy the spare time of cliques of nationalists. I think you can figure out why. It's also not very good at linguistic topics, especially linguistic origins.

I don't mean to step on your toes, but it's not the case that the Iranian origin of the Serbs is pretty well accepted. And it's also not the case that the Slavic dialects had not begun to differentiate by the early Middle Ages.

As I said before, ethnonyms do not mean much by themselves. There have been three or four different groups of Veneti/Venetii/Wends scattered around Europe. All directly related? No. There are groups in the Caucasus called Albanians and Iberians. Are they even indirectly related? Not by any objective linguistic methodology currently known. The ethnonym "Welsh" and the ethnonym "Wallachian" are related; does this mean that Dylan Thomas should be considered a Romanian poet? Maybe in Ceaucescu's pointy head. Then there's the whole Goth/Geat controversy, which still occupies the minds of many Scandinavians who really should know better.

So I'll take Schenker and Barford's word over yours, unrepentantly. They may have a bias, but it's Polonocentric if anything.

Carlos,

No toes have been stepped on, I'm just interested in the topic. Meanwhile, I've been looking around and the view that the Croat and Serb names (and Sorb as well) are of Iranian origin seem quite common. These sources are not saying that the main population were not Slavs, just that the ruling class were not. This seems to have been the situation with the Kievan Rus and the Bulgars. The etymology is of non-Slavic origin even though these countries/states quickly became Slavicized. This is much like the Visigoths and Lombards, both non-latin peoples, have left their legacies in Spain and N. Italy.

There are a fair number of Iranian words in Slavic languages, including the words for "God" and for "peace" (and hence names built from those roots, like Vladimir or Bogdan, have an Iranian component).

However, it's more difficult to show that the "ruling class" was of Iranian origin from this type of evidence. Ethnic movements of that period were, as best can be determined, rather heterogeneous; and the leadership of those groups seems to have been likewise.

The classic example is Attila the Hun. Huns, no one knows who they were: Magyar, Hsiung-nu, Ket? I've seen all those suggestions. But Attila's name is likely... Gothic. Means "little father".

Does this etymology mean that the Goths were the ruling class of the Huns? From other evidence, it seems very unlikely.

Here's a more recent North American analogy: consider Tecumseh's alliance. Linguistically, it was composed of groups of people who spoke languages more divergent than English and Turkish.

"consider Tecumseh's alliance. Linguistically, it was composed of groups of people who spoke languages more divergent than English and Turkish"

I'll need the ref for that one, as well.

Bernard "Sisyphus" Guerrero

Oh, that one is easy enough. Shawnee is an Algonquian language, while many supporters of Tecumseh spoke Muskogean languages. And, of course, Tecumseh's British North American backers, Indo-European.

No one in Serbia claims that Sorbs and Serbs are the same nations. There are simply namesakes, and their national name indicates some ancient connection. Both people are Slavic, and there are some simillarities in the vocabulary. Many common Serbian/Sorbian expressions can be found spoken among older people in Serbian villages.These expressions are probably common to all Slavic people.Serbian people very respects Sorbs and their culture. There are Serbian electronic library on the cultural ties between our two nationa: www.rastko.org.yu/rastko-lu

Horseradish Sauce Recipe:
Ingredients: sour cream, grated onion, prepared horseradish, salt... view the recipe