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FijiFlavors · Bremen
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.
Traditional dish from Bremen, Bremen
Also known as: Braunkohl und Pinkel, Grünkohl und Pinkel, Grünkohl mit Pinkel
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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Kohl und Pinkel — Bremen, Germany
Kohl und Pinkel is Bremen’s winter dish. The base is curly kale, which in much of Germany is called Grünkohl, green kale, and which in Bremen many people call Braunkohl, brown kale, because it darkens when cooked for a long time. The kale is slowly cooked with onion, lard or bacon and stock until tender and dark.
The star is the Pinkel, a smoked sausage made from pork meat or fat, oats or barley grains and spices. The name may cause giggles, but in Bremen it refers only to this traditional sausage. The complete dish also includes Kasseler, cured and smoked pork, pork belly and potatoes, sometimes caramelized in butter with sugar.
Bremen’s official portal says it is the city’s best-known specialty and that it appears on menus during the cold months, after the first frosts, when the kale becomes more flavorful. The dish is linked to the Kohlfahrt, the kale walk: groups of friends, colleagues or clubs walk through the fields and paths around the city, pulling a wheelbarrow with drinks and games, and end the day at a plentiful table of Kohl und Pinkel. At the end, the group crowns a king or queen of the kale, who organizes the next year’s walk.
The Kohlfahrt is seen as typically from Bremen, but the origin is attributed to the neighboring region of Oldenburg, where a gymnastics association reportedly held the first winter kale walk in 1871. Bremen’s representation in Berlin also organizes a Kohlfahrt each year with guests, which helped spread the custom beyond the city.
Bremen , Bremen
Bremen’s official portal presents Kohl und Pinkel as the city’s best-known specialty, linked to the winter tradition of the Kohlfahrt.
Curly kale (Grünkohl or Braunkohl), onion, lard or bacon, stock, Pinkel sausage (pork meat or fat, oats or barley grains, seasonings), Kasseler, pork belly and potatoes.
In a deep dish, with the kale in the center, the Pinkel and the meats on top and the potatoes at the side; often served after a winter walk, the Kohlfahrt.
In the cold months, after the first frosts; the Kohlfahrt season generally runs from November to March.
Your questions
It is a smoked sausage of pork meat or fat with oats or barley grains and seasonings. In Bremen, it is an indispensable part of the kale dish.
It is a winter group walk through the fields around Bremen, with a wheelbarrow, drinks and games, that ends in a meal of Kohl und Pinkel. At the end, the group crowns a king or queen of the kale.
Because the kale becomes dark, almost brown, after the long cooking. It is the same kale that is called Grünkohl in other regions.
Flavors of Germany
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