Saumagen

Saumagen is a German dish popular in the Palatinate. The name means "stomach of a female pig" but the stomach is not eaten at all. Indeed it is used like a casing (German Pelle) as with sausage. Saumagen consists of potatoes, carrots and pork together with several spices. Sometimes beef is used, also. The larger ingredients are diced finely. After that Saumagen is cooked in hot water and either served directly with Sauerkraut and mashed potatoes or stored in the refrigerator for later use. To warm it again the Saumagen is fried. The typical drink for Saumagen is a dry white wine.

Saumagen was created in the 18th century by Palatinate farmers who used the left-overs they had to make a new dish. Today the ingredients are not left-overs at all, indeed the butchers creating Saumagen use very high quality ingredients.

Helmut Kohl, the German chancellor from 1982 to 1998, made Saumagen very popular. He served Saumagen to many foreign visitors such as Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Ronald Reagan.

Recipe

1 small pork stomach (order at your butcher)
375 g fatless pork belly (German Schweinebauch)
375 g pork meat
375 g ground meat (German Bratwurstf�llsel)
1-2 rolls (put in some milk)
1 kg boiled potatoes
2 carrots
3 eggs
2 onions
1 bunch of parsley
1-2 cloves of garlic
salt, pepper, marjoram, and nutmeg

Soak the pork stomach overnight and use twine to close two of the three apertures. Cut the meat and potatoes into small cubes. Stew the onions, carrots, and parsley in butter. Squeeze the garlic. Mix everything with the rolls and eggs and spice it well; then put everything into the pork stomach and close the third aperture. Put the stomach in hot water and cook for 2-3 hours. The water must not boil! Cut the stomach in 2 cm thick slices and serve them with mushed potatoes and sauerkraut. Alternatively you can store the cooked stomach in the fridge and fry it when you are ready to eat it.