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Traditional food · Luxembourg
Smoked pork with broad beans, green bean soup, potato fritters, plum tarts and festival sweets: the flavors of Luxembourg, mostly found throughout the country.
In the photo: Castelo de Vianden, Vianden
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
The cuisine
Luxembourg cuisine is farmhouse and festive. The country is small and lies between Belgium, France and Germany, and the table reflects that neighborhood, while keeping its own identity built around pork, potatoes, broad beans and green beans, plums and Moselle white wine.
Most of the specialties come from across the whole country. Judd mat Gaardebounen, smoked pork with broad beans, is often called the national dish. Bouneschlupp, green bean soup, is also served at the bonfires lit at the end of winter; Gromperekichelcher, fried potato fritters, appear at fairs and Christmas markets; Kniddelen, flour dumplings with bacon, are made in family kitchens. The Wäinzoossiss sausage is served with a mustard sauce, and Feierstengszalot uses cooked meat in a cold salad.
Sweets follow the calendar. Verwuerelter, fried dough knots, are for Carnival; the sweet Bretzel for the Lenten Sunday when lovers exchange gifts; Boxemännchen, little brioche figures, for Saint Nicholas and Advent; Quetschentaart during the plum weeks in autumn. Bamkuch, a layered cake baked on a spit, is brought to wedding tables and large celebrations.
In the capital, the pastry shops keep a savory specialty of their own: Rieslingspaschtéit, a meat pie in crust with Riesling jelly.
Many family recipes still followed today come from Ketty Thull’s cookbooks; according to the official government portal, she became a reference for Luxembourg cooking from the 1930s. The following pages present each specialty, with their names in Luxembourgish.
12 flavors
Cake baked in thin layers around a rotating spit in front of a flame, forming rings like those of a tree trunk. It arrived in Luxembourg from another European tradition and became a sweet for weddings and large celebrations.
Thick green‑bean soup with potato, onion, bacon and sausage, served as a main course. It’s a traditional Luxembourgish home soup and is served at Buergbrennen bonfires after Carnival.
Small human-shaped brioche pastry, with raisins for eyes and sometimes a small white pipe. It is the sweet of Saint Nicholas and Advent in Luxembourg, sold in bakeries in the weeks before Christmas.
Sweet made from leavened laminated dough, covered with sugar icing and almonds, shaped into a loop that resembles two entwined arms. It is the gift of Bretzelsonndeg, the fourth Sunday of Lent, when men give it to the women they care for.
Cold salad of cooked beef cut into cubes, with hard‑boiled egg, pickled cucumber and a mustard‑and‑vinegar dressing. It originated as a way to use leftover boiled meat and has been made for generations in Luxembourgish homes.
Flat patties made from grated potato with onion, parsley and seasonings, fried until crispy. Official tourism presents them as a national dish, and they are traditional at fairs and Christmas markets.
Smoked pork neck, slow-cooked and served sliced with fava beans in a creamy sauce and boiled potatoes. It is the dish most often cited as Luxembourg’s national dish.
Simple dumplings made from a batter of flour, milk and eggs, cooked in water and served with fried bacon or melted butter. They are home-style, winter food, with recipes passed down through generations.
Open tart with a buttery crust topped with Quetschen plums arranged in circles, baked until the fruit releases its juices. It is Luxembourg’s autumn tart, made when the plums ripen, usually in September.
Sweet strips of dough tied into loose, irregular knots, fried until golden and dusted with powdered sugar. They are Luxembourg’s Carnival sweet and are still often made at home.
Pork sausages browned in a skillet and served in a creamy Luxembourgish mustard sauce, with mashed potatoes. The name means “wine sausage with mustard sauce.”
Meat pie in a golden crust, filled with a pork and veal ragù and finished with a Riesling wine jelly. It is a specialty of the capital’s pastry shop and, according to the family that sells it, was created in the city of Luxembourg in 1928.
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Your questions
Judd mat Gaardebounen, smoked pork with broad beans, is usually given that title. Gromperekichelcher, potato fritters, are also presented by official tourism as a national dish.
Quetschentaart, the autumn plum tart; Bamkuch, the layered cake; and, depending on the season, the Carnival Verwuerelter, the Lenten Bretzel and the Saint Nicholas Boxemännchen.
In Luxembourgish, the national language. Menus also show versions in French and German, the country’s other official languages.
