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FijiFlavors · Frankfurt
Cold sauce of seven chopped fresh herbs with sour cream, served with hard‑boiled eggs and potatoes. The mixture of the seven herbs, grown largely in the Oberrad neighborhood, has protected geographical indication.
Traditional dish from Frankfurt, Hesse
Also known as: Grüne Soße, Grie Soß, Frankfurter Grie Soß
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Frankfurter Grüne Soße — Frankfurt, Germany
The Frankfurter Grüne Soße, called Grie Soß in the local dialect, is a cold green sauce made with seven fresh herbs: borage, chervil, garden watercress, parsley, salad burnet, sorrel and chives. The herbs are chopped very finely and mixed with sour cream or curd, a little oil, vinegar and seasonings. Many recipes also include chopped hard‑boiled eggs. In Frankfurt they say there are as many recipes as there are kitchens.
By tradition the seven herbs come from the kitchen gardens of the Oberrad neighborhood, south of the Main River, which the city names as the origin of Grie Soß. Producers sell the ready herb mix rolled into a white paper cone at markets and the Kleinmarkthalle. The European Union protected geographical indication applies to that herb mixture, grown in Frankfurt and neighboring towns, not to the finished sauce. Each herb must be included within a minimum and maximum proportion so that none dominates.
The sauce’s origin is unclear. Green herb sauces have existed since Antiquity, and the city of Frankfurt suggests the local version may come from the French sauce verte, perhaps brought by Huguenots who settled in the region in the late 17th century. The story that Goethe, born in Frankfurt, had Grüne Soße as his favorite dish is unproven and treated as anecdote.
Grüne Soße is served cold, typically with boiled potatoes and hard‑boiled eggs halved; it also accompanies boiled meat, fish or schnitzel. The season traditionally begins on Maundy Thursday (Gründonnerstag in German) and runs until the first autumn frosts. In the apple‑wine taverns of Sachsenhausen it appears alongside Ebbelwoi.
Frankfurt , Hesse
The mixture of the seven herbs of Frankfurter Grüne Soße has protected geographical indication, grown chiefly in the Oberrad neighborhood of Frankfurt.
Seven fresh herbs (borage, chervil, garden watercress, parsley, salad burnet, sorrel and chives), sour cream, curd or yogurt, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and, in many recipes, hard‑boiled eggs and a little mustard.
Cold, with boiled potatoes and hard‑boiled eggs. It also accompanies boiled meat, fish or schnitzel.
From Maundy Thursday until the first autumn frosts, when the fresh herbs are in season.
Your questions
Borage, chervil, watercress, parsley, salad burnet, sorrel and chives. In Frankfurt the mix is sold ready‑made, rolled into a paper cone.
Cold. It accompanies boiled potatoes and hard‑boiled eggs, and also boiled meat, fish or schnitzel.
Traditionally from Maundy Thursday until the first autumn frosts, when the fresh herbs are in season.
Flavors of Germany
Aachen spice cookie, sweetened with syrup and with small pieces of brown candi sugar that crackle when you bite them. It can be hard or soft, plain, with almonds or coated in chocolate. It has a protected geographical indication from the European Union.
Fresh pasta dough filled with ground meat, spinach, soaked bread, onion and herbs, served in broth, browned with onions, or sliced and fried with egg. A Swabian dish with protected geographical indication since 2009, traditional at Easter week.
Layered chocolate sponge cake soaked in Kirschwasser, the cherry brandy of the Black Forest, with cherries and whipped cream, topped with chocolate shavings. Black Forest tourism presents it as the region’s most famous sweet specialty.
Dark beer with a smoky flavor, made with malt dried in the smoke of beech firewood. Bamberg tourism presents it as part of the city’s identity, and the traditional preparation is listed in the Slow Food Ark of Taste.
Paste of camembert or brie cheese mashed with butter, paprika and, depending on the recipe, onion, cumin or beer; eaten with bread or a pretzel. A beer‑garden dish from Bavaria, with protected geographical indication since 2015.
Sausage sliced into rounds, topped with tomato sauce and curry powder, served with french fries or bread. The creation of the sauce is attributed to Herta Heuwer, who sold it in Berlin in 1949.
Kale slowly cooked with bacon, served with the smoked sausage Pinkel, smoked pork and potatoes. Bremen’s official portal presents it as the city’s best-known specialty, a winter dish of the Kohlfahrt.
Light, pale beer with top fermentation, served in a thin cylindrical 0.2‑liter glass by the breweries’ waiter, the Köbes. It is a protected geographical indication and may only be made in Cologne and in a few breweries in the region.
Sweet Christmas bread with raisins, candied orange and lemon peel, almonds and plenty of butter, coated with powdered sugar. Mentioned in Dresden since 1474, it has had protected geographical indication status since 2010.
Amber-colored beer, top-fermented with a pronounced bitterness, brewed in Düsseldorf’s brewery-taverns from a mid-19th-century recipe. The city’s tourism promotion presents it as the typical drink of the Altstadt.
Sweet made from fermented, laminated dough with butter, sugar and cinnamon, rolled and pressed until it takes its characteristic flattened shape. Hamburg’s official portal presents it as a specialty of the city.
Dry, acidic apple wine, fully fermented, served in the Bembel ceramic jug and in the diamond-patterned glass called the Gerippte. It is a protected geographical indication of Hesse, and the apple wine culture of the state is listed in the German inventory of intangible heritage.
Little tart of shortcrust pastry filled with marzipan, almonds and a touch of jam or a cherry, with two strips of pastry crossed on top. It replaced the roasted lark, a Leipzig dish until the hunting ban in 1876.
White veal sausage with bacon and parsley, warmed in hot water and served with sweet mustard and a pretzel, traditionally before midday. It is one of Munich’s best-known specialties.
Honey cake with spices, walnuts and almonds, often baked on a thin wafer and covered with chocolate or icing. It has a protected geographical indication since 1996 and may only be made within Nuremberg.
Pork sausages 7 to 9 centimeters long, seasoned with marjoram and grilled, served by the dozen with sauerkraut or inside a roll. They have protected geographical indication since 2003 and may only be made in Nuremberg.
Ball of strips of shortcrust pastry, fried and dusted with confectioners’ sugar, resembling a snowball. Rothenburg ob der Tauber tourism presents it as the city’s regional specialty.
Cake baked in thin layers on a spit that turns in front of a fire; when sliced it shows rings like those of a tree trunk. Made in Salzwedel since the early 19th century, it has been a protected geographical indication since 2010.
Long, thin pork sausage, 15 to 20 centimeters long, seasoned with marjoram, cumin and garlic, grilled over charcoal and eaten in a small roll with mustard. The earliest known mention dates from 1404, and the name has protected geographical indication status since 2004.
