Alsace-Lorraine Cuisine

French
regional cuisine

Alsace-Lorraine

a concise guide
for diners & travelers

Insights on the cooking
of Alsace-Lorraine

Food geography

Alsace and Lorraine are distinct French provinces, but are often culinarily grouped together (as I do here) because their cuisines are relatively similar.

German similarity

Alsatians and Lorrainers (especially the former) share a fondness with neighboring Germany for sauerkraut, pork, goose, sausages, and beer, among other hearty products. Even the Alsatian wines are close cousins to the Rhines and Mosels of Germany.

Famous Lorraine dish

This specialty is known globally:

Quiche Lorraine
a flaky open-faced pastry tart filled with a bacon-and-cheese flavored custard

Famous Alsatian preparation

Alsace's most acclaimed specialty:

Foie Gras
Delicate and light textured goose liver.

Well-known shared entrees

Both Alsace and Lorraine serve:

Choucroute Garnie
A sauerkraut, pork, and sausage casserole

Coq au Riesling
Chicken in white wine sauce

Cooking fat difference

The Alsatians tend to use pork and goose fat as cooking oil more so than do the Lorrainers. The reverse is true when it comes to butter.

Vegetables

Be it white or red, it's the most popular regional vegetable and is more often than not pickled into choucroute (sauerkraut), sometimes flavored with juniper berries. Other beloved vegetables include the potato and, in season, asparagus.

Fish

Both regions enjoy a variety of tasty freshwater fish such as trout, carp, and pike caught in the cool streams and lakes nearby.

Confectionaries

Both provinces boast of a rich supply of shops selling excellent cakes, macaroons, pastries, and chocolates, all designed to satisfy the traditional sweet tooth of the local citizenry.

Wines of Alsace

Unlike the wines produced in the other major wine producing regions of France, Alsace's best wines are officially classified by grape type rather than by geographic location. Of Alsace's many wines, Riesling rates first, and the spicy Gewurztraminer second-but the other varieties such as Traminer, Sylvaner and Tokay d'Alsace make acceptable everyday drinking wines.

Best city for gourmets

Strasbourg is the top all around food city in the Alsace-Lorraine region. Criteria include cooking, food markets, cooking ingredients, cooking schools, beverages, dining and restaurants. Nancy and Colmar are the runners-up.

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