Oktoberfest flavors
Milwaukee area’s Pomeranian community has own traditions
A Pomeranian-style Oktoberfest brings some little-known flavors — and history. Food & Dining,
Oktoberfest whets our appetite for amber-hued lagers and hearty German food, but much-loved bratwurst, sauerkraut and potato pancakes are merely an elementary introduction. ● Aficionados of authentic German fare know their Schnitzel, Rouladen, Sauerbraten and Schweinsbraten too. Some of us own a Spaetzle Hobel, the unusual grater with a little hopper for dough, to simplify production of Germany’s tasty little dumplings. ● We may debate whether German potato salad — with the saucy pushpull of vinegar, sugar and bacon — should be served hot, warm or at room temperature. Or whether the best cabbage dish is pickled, steamed or braised. Beyond that? Enthusiasts of German history and culture add fondness for regional specialties that might seem foreign to the rest of us.
Consider Pommerscher Derein Freistadt (the Pomeranian Society of Freistadt), which keeps alive the heritage of Pomerania, a province in Prussia that became Germany after Unification in 1871. The area was at Germany’s far northern edge, along the Baltic Sea.
Much of Pomerania became a part of Poland after World War II. “The Pomeranians were expelled,” explains Terry Schoessow of the Freistadt society, “which is why you may not have heard of it,” even though the migration from Pomerania to Wisconsin was significant.
“Many people — including myself, until I married — were taught they were ‘German’ and don’t realize they are actually Pomeranian. The saying goes that if you are Lutheran and live in southeast Wisconsin, odds are great that your family was from this province.”
Pomerania today refers to a historic region that includes parts of Poland and Germany. The German segment follows the Baltic Sea and is a part of the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania state.
Schoessow says the society makes a pilgrimage to the area – east of Hamburg and north of Berlin – every other year, but a spring trip was postponed until 2021 because of the pandemic.
COVID concerns also prompted the society to combine its summer and autumn festivals into Pommern Abend on Sept. 25 in Germantown.
Foods include three traditional Pomeranian specialties: cooked red cabbage, herring in wine sauce and cherry soup. Ground cloves are the secret ingredient in the cabbage, which also has apples, says Schoessow, the event’s head cook (husband Tim Schoessow is society president).
The herring, usually served on a buttered hoagie roll, will be sold by the
small, disposable cupful this year. “The herring is something you either love or hate,” Schoessow acknowledges, but the cherry soup (see accompanying recipe) is a clear favorite. Fans agree the dessert requires tart, pitted cherries (from Door County), but then the banter begins.
“The soup gets cloudy because of the egg-milk batter that’s added, and the amount of flour used,” Schoessow says. The batter forms dumplings that can be thin to thick. The soup can be served warm or chilled. There’s no definitive way to make or present it, only personal preferences — and longtime memories.
Duane Bogenschneider of Mequon says his mother made the soup throughout the year, dipping into a stash of cherries frozen after family trips to pick them in Sturgeon Bay.
“I remember driving to Door County with my grandparents — up and back in one day because Opa was a farmer — to pick tart cherries each summer,” says Craig Tews of Menomonee Falls. “Ohma Ernst always served cold cherry soup when the cherries were in season.”
Tews and his wife still make the soup for the annual holiday party of their dance group, Pommersche Tanzdeel.
During an average year, cooks for the Freistadt society’s spring festival — called Pommerntag — make enough food to feed 1,000. For the first-time Pommern Abend, Schoessow guessed, they’ll serve around 250 or 300 because this is such an atypical year.
“So many of the people who would come are older” and might feel vulnerable, she says, but they can either sit in a new, open-air pavilion or stay in their vehicle and roll down a window to hear polka music and order food from a carhop style of service.
Also on the menu: Rollbraten (thinly sliced pork with sauteed onions, served in a Kaiser roll), German potato salad (served warm and saucy) and brats (the more traditional Knackwurst were dropped because of a loss of popularity). German brews are sold too, but the event “is not so much of a beer-drinking thing.”
Schoessow says the area’s Pomeranian festivals and heritage stay strong because of LeRoy Boehlke, in his mid 90s, who has written several books about the region’s history, culture and genealogy. But don’t rule out the interest of younger generations too.
Heidi Williams of Milwaukee earned a 2020 Girl Scout Gold (similar to an Eagle Scout for boys) because of her online work — at facebook.com/pommernlandusa — to create “a global resource for German descendants of Pomerania to preserve and share our rich cultural heritage through delicious recipes from our ancestral homeland.” In one year, she has posted dozens of food and cooking photos, family recipes and reminiscences from descendants of Pomerania.
It’s a place to learn about quark cheese, potato dumplings, cucumber salad, Easter wreath bread and more — while comparing notes about how your grandma’s cooking quirks stack up with others’.