20 Oktoberfest Recipes: German Recipes to Celebrate Autumn (2024)

FAQs

What foods are traditionally eaten during Oktoberfest in Germany? ›

Oktoberfest (German pronunciation: [ɔkˈtoːbɐˌfɛst]; Bavarian: Wiesn, Oktobafest) is the world's largest Volksfest, featuring a beer festival and a travelling carnival, and is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, from mid- or late-September to the first Sunday in October, with more than six million international and ...

Besides the food and beer, the festival is full of traditional Bavarian music, open-air performances, a grand entry and parades, vendor tents, carnival rides, a shooting competition, and traditional German outfits. The two-week fair wraps up in dramatic fashion with a boisterous brass band and a gun salute.

These German recipes celebrate some of the dishes Germany is most known for: crispy fried schnitzel, robust sausages, chewy pretzels, and all manner of mustard-tinged delights. We've even included a handful of items on the sweeter side, too, like a tangy apricot kuchen and a berry-studded German pancake. Guten appetit!

A bratwurst (like a hotdog) or schnitzel (pounded, breaded and fried meat) is a great place to start. For slightly less picky eaters, try a spaetzle (potato noodles - usually with onions and cheese), konigsberger klopse (German meatballs), or a German potato salad or marinated cucumber salad!

Prost! Translation: Cheers! Toss on an “Ein Toast!” at the end to encourage a celebratory “bottoms up!” before drinking your Märzen with friends. Fun fact: if you find yourself in Switzerland with a beer in hand, you can substitute “Broscht!” for “Prost!” This is the Swiss-German way to say “Cheers!”

It falls upon the Mayor of Munich to open Oktoberfest by tapping a beer keg and shouting “O'ZAPFT IS'!”, thus officially starting the festivities. It literally means “It's tapped!”

Wies'n means "field" or "meadow" in the Bavarian dialect (the high German word is die Wiese). The locals in Munich will often refer to Oktoberfest as "die Wies'n” as a short hand for the festival's location, the Theresienwiese.

The main meal of the day is das Mittagessen, or lunch. The tradition is to have a hot meal during lunch. Sauerbraten, snitzels, Frikadellen (German meatballs), potatoes (such as Kartoffelsalat), green beans, soups, and stews are frequently served for lunch.

What is an Oktoberfest pretzel? ›

The main thing that sets the pretzels served at Oktoberfest (and throughout Germany) apart from their soft American counterparts is the use of lye to form a dark chewy crust.

Sliced radishes, salted raw kohlrabi, as well as pickled Krauts (as in sauerkraut and red cabbage) and pickled cucumbers (as in gherkins, cornichons or pickles) are perfect culinary matches to pretzels, mustard, sausages or pork knuckles and beer.

It's pretty simple, the month of October is spelled with a K in the German language. Most non-German festivals keep this spelling to honor its German roots. Oktoberfest is officially held in Munich from September 17 until the first Sunday in October or October 3^rd, whichever comes later.

Germans are known to be intensive consumers of meat. Schweinefleisch (pork) is the most popular meat in the country, followed by Hänchehfleisch (chicken) and Rindfleisch (beef). As well as eating meat fried, baked, or boiled, people also enjoy it in the form of hams, pâtés, and sausages (Wurst and Würstchen).

It's not just about beer. Over 510,000 whole roast chickens and 60,000 sausages are eaten. While 124 cows, 48 calves, and 59,000 pork knuckles are also consumed.