German Meat Patties: Frikadellen

These meat patties are much like hamburger patties, but they are not just plain meat, or barely seasoned ground meat, but rather more like meatloaf patties. "Frikadelle" (singular) is a word borrowed by German "seemingly" from both Italian "fritatel(l)a" and French "fricadelle," which come from Latin. "Frikadellen," is the the plural form, and it is widely used and understood in the German speaking regions. Ah, but remember, I said this is a German food term, so that means there are regional names that have become part of the regional dialects. "Frikadellen" in Berlin dialect are more commonly known as "Buletten," a term the Berliners borrowed from French Huguenot immigrants long ago. In the Bavarian dialect of much of Bavaria and Austria, the term is "Fleischpflanzerl," while in some of the Alemannic German dialects of Switzerland, southwestern Germany, Alsace and far western Austria, you might see some form of "Fleischküechle," and in part of eastern Germany you will encounter "Gehacktes," a word closely related to English "hack," and used as a noun to mean, "chopped (hacked) or ground meat." There are more terms... trust me. I've seen these rolled and made into meatballs, too.

You can serve "Frikadellen" warm or cold with some mustard, or if you want to drive traditionalist  Germans crazy, use ketchup. Of course, a good beer is highly recommended.  

Ingredients (about 8 to 10 patties):

1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef (ground chuck is great)
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon marjoram (or you can use oregano)
1 cup raw chopped onion (then softened in hot oil, see below)
1 stale kaiser roll, soaked in a little milk to moisten it, then pressed out
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
oil for frying 

In a skillet, add 1 or 2 teaspoons oil, over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until the onion is just softened (about 3 minutes), let it cool a little. In a bowl, add all of the ingredients, including the softened onion. Mix everything together (best to mix by hand). Take an amount to form a ball a little larger than a golf ball, then press it down to form a patty, not too thin, or too thick. Heat about 2 tablespoons oil in a skillet over medium heat, then fry the patties until well browned on both sides. Some people use enough oil to actually cover the bottom of the skillet, so whatever you prefer. Fry the patties in batches.

A Frikadelle with a little dab of mustard, some creamed green beans (Rahmbohnen), pieces of homemade pickles and some pieces of German barrel pickles... To make "Creamed Green Beans," here is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2019/01/austro-german-creamed-green-beans.html

WORD HISTORY:
Bowl-There is more than one word of this spelling in English, but they are related through Indo European. This is the noun for "a round dish for holding or serving liquid food." "Bowl" is closely related to "boll" (seed pod of cotton or flax; thus, "boll weevil") and to "ball" (round object). Both are from the Germanic roots of English, although the specific form "boll" was borrowed by English from Dutch. "Bowl" goes back to Indo European "bhel," which had the notion of, "to swell, to bulge out, to bloat out," This gave its Old Germanic offspring "balluz," meaning, "bloated object, round object," and the offshoot form "bul(l)," which meant, "round container, round object." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "bolla," meaning, "container/dish for food or drink." This then became "bolle," before the modern spelling. Stadiums with a similar rounded shape came to be called "bowls," and this then transferred to special championship games played in such stadiums (usually American-style football); thus, "Superbowl," "Rose Bowl" and others. The use of large bowls for "punch" (a drink, often with an alcoholic component and fruit juices) led to the term "punch bowl," and German borrowed the word from English in the second half of the 1700s as "Bowle," with the meaning, "punch" (the drink) and also meaning "punch bowl." The closeness in descriptive meanings of the various words in the Germanic languages often makes it hard to separate which words are more closely tied to English "bowl, boll," or to "ball." German, for instance, has "Bohle" (sturdy thick piece of wood, originally cut from a tree trunk, thus round),^ Low German "Boll" (plant bulb, also another word for "onion" because of the bulb meaning), West Frisian "bôle" (bread, apparently originally "loaf of bread," which were round), Dutch "bol" (bulb, bread roll), Icelandic "bolli" (drinking container), Norwegian "bolle" (bowl), Swedish "bulle" (bread roll).

^ German also had "bolle," meaning "a round curved container or dish," and obviously a close relative of "bowl."