Cheese & Football Feast day 15: Germany

If you have just arrived on my blog and are wondering what these posts on 'Cheese and Football' are all about it is just a but of fun whereby I try to match the food we eat to the countries that are playing while we are watching one of the major football tournaments on tv.  I get to pull some of my more obscure cookbooks off the shelves and learn a little bit more about national cuisines. I have been running with the theme of cheese dishes. We have reached the knockout stages so some countries are starting to feature for the second time. I try to do as many different nations as possible but also try to not make things too much of a challenge. So this is my second dish for Germany and I have played a little fast and loose with a take on Käsekrainer sausages.

As you can see there is not a sausage in sight, but a meatloaf, which has most of the flavourings of the smoky meat and cheese Käsekrainer.
The cheese cubes melt into the meatloaf as it bakes but you can see a little evidence of them on the outside of the loaf and a few pieces inside if my photo was a little more in focus.

I never follow a recipe for meatloaf but tend to keep the number of flavourings to a just few. This loaf was made with:

500g high meat content plain pork sausages
500g lean finely minced pork
100g finely minced smoked German ham (or use finely minced smoked bacon)
150g mild cheese like Tilsiter, or a young cheddar, cut into 1cm cubes
large pinch of celery salt
salt & pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 160C
2. Take the sausages out of their skins
3. Finely chop the smoked ham or bacon
4. Mix the sausagemeat, minced pork, celery salt and a little salt and pepper well together in a bowl. I do this with my hands as it is easier, but messy, so use a large strong fork or other implement if you would rather.
5. Gently mix in the cheese cubes.
6. Form the mixture into a smooth rounded oval /loaf shape and place in a small roasting tin or pyrex type dish.
7. Cover with foil and bake for approx 90 mins at 160C
8. Check if the loaf is cooked. I use an internal cooked temperature of 75C as a guide which is over the 'official temp.' but thermometers can vary so safer to go over. With minced pork it is actually quite hard to tell if the juices are running clear. 
9. Turn the oven up to 200C fan or a turbo fan setting and return the loaf to the oven without the foil and cook just long enough to brown the outside. A grill setting may also  do this.
10. Turn the oven off and leaf the meatloaf to sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting into slices.

This is good served with boiled new potatoes or mashed potatoes potatoes.


For those in the UK proper Käsekrainer can be purchased online from the German Deli where you will also find a selection of German mustards to go with them.

For the last of the knockouts I move to Italy and will be cooking 'Smacafam'. This is a glorious mix of polenta, cheese, onion, sausage and pancetta.