South Tyrolean Wine Soup: Südtiroler Weinsuppe

The South Tirol (German: Südtirol) is a region of northern Italy with a complicated demographic history, as people who came to be called Germans settled in part of the region about 1500 years ago. The area later was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a confusing title that was really the name used for the Old German Empire (as French philosopher and writer Voltaire said in the mid 1700s, the Holy Roman Empire was "neither holy, Roman, nor an empire"). The area eventually became part of the Habsburg family lands (the Habsburgs were a German noble family with their base in Austria), but after the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War One, Italy received the South Tirol for having fought on the Allied side during the war. The northern parts of the region were exclusively German for all practical purposes, but the population was more and more mixed (German and Italian) the further south in the region one went, with some areas having Italian majorities. The whole matter was very contentious, but eventually the region, known in Italian as "Trentino Alto Adige," was granted self-governing rights on local matters, but within Italy. German is the language of every day communication for much of the population, except of course in Italian areas, and the German dialect there is a part of Austro-Bavarian.

 

This is not a diet soup, but you can cut some of the fat and calories by substituting canned evaporated milk, which has far less fat and calories than cream does. Remember, the South Tirol is in the Alps, with farming being one of the main parts of the economy. Foods that provide calories have long been important in such communities, but of course, this was generally before there was much thought about heart health or other health concerns. 

 

A good bread for the croutons is "Bauernbrot" (farmer's bread), a sourdough rye bread common in German cultural areas in Europe, that was often taken along when people left those areas and became immigrants to other countries. In larger German immigrant communities, bakeries were founded to supply the immigrants with their customary breads and other baked goods from their homeland. Bauernbrot is available in the U.S. and Canada, and likely other countries too, but as a specialty bread or as an import; thus, if you're interested in buying it, you may have to check around for it. Here in the Greater Cleveland area the number of German bakeries has dwindled, as large scale German immigration is no longer taking place, but we still have "Reinecker's Bakery" in suburban Cleveland, and they make Bauernbrot, as well as some other German and European bread types. Some German breads, usually already sliced, are also imported from Germany, and Dimpflmeier, a German bakery in the Toronto area of Canada, was exporting breads to the U.S., but the pandemic disrupted this, and I'm not sure whether this has resumed or not. (Just a note, Haab's Bakery was a well known German bakery on W. 19th Street here in Cleveland, and it was in business for more than 100 years, but it is now gone.)    

Gewürztraminer is actually a type of grape used to make a type of white wine also called "Gewürztraminer." The grape seems to have begun in the Tramin area of the South Tirol. Tramin is a village there; thus, the second part of the grape name. "Gewürz" in German means "spice, seasoning, flavoring," and the aroma and flavors of the wine earned that description. Gewürztraminer is often dry, but there are somewhat sweeter versions too; so, semi-dry. This recipe uses dry white wine, and while in the South Tirol dry Gewürztraminer is commonly used, of course, you can use other dry white wine.

 

Ingredients:

 

3 cups chicken stock

1 1/2 cups dry white wine (dry Gewürztraminer is common in the South Tirol)

4 egg yolks (from large or extra large eggs)

1 1/2 cups heavy cream (or evaporated milk, or evaporated milk mixed with some heavy cream)

2 or 3 light (in color) rye bread slices, crusts removed and cut into cubes for croutons

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 "good" pinch nutmeg

(Note: I use no salt in this at all, as the chicken stock has some salt, but you can certainly add salt to your own taste.)

 

For the croutons: Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the cubed bread and saute, turning the bread pieces until lightly browned. Remove the croutons from the skillet to a plate with paper towels to absorb excess butter.

 

For the soup: In a heavy bottom pan, add the chicken stock and the white wine over medium heat. Let this heat up, but do not boil it, then turn the heat to low. In the meantime, mix together the cream (or milk or cream and milk) and the egg yolks and beat well. Next, use a whisk, add the yolks and cream mixture to the warm stock and wine slowly, whisking constantly to prevent the yolks from scrambling. Keep the soup over low heat, DO NOT BOIL! Sprinkle in the ground cinnamon and the pinch of nutmeg and stir well (the tastes of the spices are NOT supposed to be anywhere near prominent).

Serve with some of the croutons with each serving.   

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Fair-This is for the adjective, NOT the noun meaning "market, festival," which is unrelated. "Fair" has lots of meanings and "fair" goes back to Indo European "pek," with the notion of "to make clean, to make pretty, to tidy up or make suitable." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "fagraz," meaning, "beautiful, pretty, suitable, fitting, proper," which gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "fæger," meaning, "beautiful, pleasing," with the extended meanings, "bright, clear (of weather)," and for people, "morally proper, of good character, honest." The spelling then became "fager," and then "feyr," as the "g" sound died out, and finally, "fair." The positive meanings of the word were easily contrasted with negative meanings; thus, "fair" came to be used in competitive events for "play by rules, play honorably;" thus also the expression, "fair play." The idea of "proper and honorable" moved "fair" along to also mean, "unbiased." As I mentioned, it was a word used at times to show contrast, and "perhaps" from the weather use came the usage of "fair" in complexion or hair, contrasted to "swarthy" or dark. The 1300s saw the word also come to mean "not as usual;" thus, "above average," which gradually became our more modern "good, but not great;" "not bad, but not exceedingly good," as in, "How was your day?" "Oh, fair." Modern German has "fair," as in "play by the rules," and it is pronounced very similarly to the English form, from which it was borrowed in the 1800s, but German once had "fagar," meaning "beautiful," which later became "fager/vager," before dying out. German also has the related verb "fegen," originally meaning "to clean," but in modern times meaning the more specific "to sweep." Old Saxon, the Saxon dialect that remained on the Continent after part of the Saxons migrated to Britain and participated in the founding of England, had "fagar," which died out. Old Norse had "fagr," meaning "beautiful," and its descendants Swedish has "fager," meaning "beautiful," Norwegian has "vakkar," "beautiful," Icelandic has "fagur," "beautiful" and Danish has the now dated and high style "fager" meaning "wonderful." The English adverb "fairly," goes back to Old English "fægerlice," which meant "splendidly;" that is, "beautifully" in a figurative usage. As with the adjective form, the adverb has had some twists and turns, as it later meant "beautifully, handsomely," then "honestly, justly," then "totally," but then like with "fair," it became less decisive by meaning "somewhat, to some degree," as in, "you're fairly well off."