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Fleish Salat
Corliss Cogan


Working in a small gasthaus in Berlin we had a Fleish Salat on the menu that was prepared daily.

It was, as are almost all fleish salats, prepared with Fleish Kaese, ( Meat Cheese ), which is actually a type of large sausage baked in a loaf form.Kind of like a cured meat loaf. There were two forms: 1) fein,(fine) which, as the name suggests, was smooth, and the meat was ground very fine and paste- like. and 2) Grob, which means, rough. This was ground through a larger holed grinder and was quite coarse.


Fleish kaese was never made, but was readily available at any market....You could almost say it was a cross between spam and mortadella in popularity and usage. It can be found at European Delikatessens, or if you know anyone on an Army Base, they usually sell it there at the Commissar, as there is usually a German Deli counter there.

Fleish kaese is sold by weight, usually cut into slices, the thickness of which is to your preference.

Start your salat with 2-3 slices about 1/2" thick. Usually the "fein" Fleish Kaese was preferred. Slice these in half , then slice the halves in half. Now...slice your smaller pieces about 1/8-1/4"thick. The rest is up to you....Add pickle slices, (usually a sour dill variety ) onions, sometimes blanched carrots, or apples. try to make all ingredients of uniform size.The ratio was about equal amounts of Fleish to all the other veggies....This IS a German Recipe you know!

To dress the fleish salat you can go two ways: A good vinagrette, ( We would use a little german mustard salt, pepper, dill, a cider-type vinegar and salad oil...nuttin fancy...very basic. The other alternative is a Mayonnaise-based dressing..using salad creme ( a type of mayo ), a smidgeon of mustard, dill seed, pepper,pinch of cayenne, splash of vinegar (sounds like coleslaw?) but not too much...keep it thick. You could always buy this type in the store and it was often used as "Brot Belag" or sandwich filling. In a pinch, German Housewives would use it as a base for a quick potatoe salad.( but not the Good German Housewives!!! Ha!).

Hope this helps............Enjoy!!! Corliss*

 

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Last updated February 12, 2005