11 Mouth-Watering Pork Dishes From Germany You Need To Try

Germany has had a long love affair with pork. It's the most widely consumed meat in the country – in 2023, the estimated consumption was 27.5 kilograms (about 60.6 pounds) per person, according to the Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (via Euro Meat News).

 Historically, pigs were plentiful in Germany, where even domestic animals freely roamed the forests in search of tasty nuts to eat. They were considered so valuable that the worth of forest land was once based on the number of pigs the land could support. In addition, pigs are traditional symbols of good luck in Germany.

Even though German pork consumption has decreased with the rise in pork prices, as well as concerns about health and animal welfare, German cooks still take pride in their distinctive pork dishes, and eager eaters still flock to sample them. To learn about some of the best pork dishes in Germany, Chowhound spoke exclusively to three German food experts. Thomas von Meer, a German epicure; Chelsey Maschloff, co-founder of Lotte's Meats; and Berkeley Hoflund, owner of Stubbies Sausages, all shared some of their favorite pork dishes and what they love about them.

When asked to list their favorite German pork dishes, all three experts immediately mentioned schweinshaxe. Little known in the U.S., this iconic Bavarian specialty –- a long-braised pork knuckle with crispy skin –- exemplifies every popular American conception of German cuisine: It's big, rich, hearty, and yes, loaded with beer.

"Any visitor to Munich's famous Hofbräuhaus or its annual Octoberfest has surely seen and perhaps even sampled this dish, as it is one of the traditional meals for this celebration," Thomas von Meer said. To make the dish, he explained, cooks rub a skin-on ham hock with a mixture of salt, pepper, caraway, and garlic, bake it at low heat in dark beer until it's tender, then raise the heat to crisp up the skin. 

It's an impressive portion of meat, and von Meer advises that eating one by yourself (along with the traditional potato dumplings that accompany it), "requires a certain amount of dedication and commitment." But if you travel to Germany and get the chance to try it, go for it. According to Chelsey Maschloff, it's nearly impossible to replicate in the U.S., since skin-on pork knuckles (also known as ham hocks) are rarely sold here.

One of the best-known German pork specialties in the U.S. — schnitzel — is just as popular in Germany as it is here. "Our go-to dish has to be pork schnitzel with a side of spaetzle," Maschloff said. "We're talking about a thin, crispy, and perfectly golden-brown pork loin cutlet that's been breaded and fried to perfection. It's so good with a fresh, zesty cucumber salad." German schnitzel is somewhat similar to Japanese katsu, also breaded pork. 

The traditional spaetzle served on the side of schnitzel, Maschloff added, are little, noodle-like dumplings sauteed in brown butter with tangy pickled mustard seeds. Like many popular dishes, schnitzel takes a number of forms, with different cooks and geographical regions each putting their own spin on it. In Vienna, von Meer explained, schnitzel comes lightly breaded, while in Munich, the breading is flavored with horseradish and mustard. 

Berkeley Hoflund recalled that at her former restaurant, her chef designed their schnitzel to impress. "Chef Kevin would pound the schnitzel out by hand," she said. "I mean, they were as big as your head."

Meatballs are a favorite in cuisines around the world, and can be just as varied as the people who make them. They can take on just about any flavor profile, which makes them a great place to showcase traditional local ingredients. This is also why they've become signature dishes of cultures around the world, from Sweden's iconic meatballs in cream sauce to hearty lion's head meatballs from China. And modern cooks love them because they're not only cute and flavorful, but more affordable than bigger cuts of meat.

A flavorful German take on meatballs, according to Hoflund, is a hearty dish of meatballs braised in beer and leeks. "We called them Belgian meatballs," she explained. "And although they were Belgian, German [and] Belgian cuisine have quite a bit of overlap. We would braise them in beer, and they were made with a combination of pork and veal, very tender. Those were always a big favorite." Hearty, comforting, yet a little out of the ordinary, these meatballs would make a satisfying winter dinner.

No discussion of German pork dishes would be complete without mention of some of the country's celebrated sausages, most of which are made from pork or a combination of pork and beef. "The ones that are really close to my heart would be our Nuremberger wurst, and that one is from the town of Nuremberg, Germany," Hoflund said. 

Long and slender, "they almost look like what we would consider breakfast links here in the United States," she added. Like many German sausages, they're often served on a bun as a sandwich, but because of their thinness, two or sometimes three sausages are served nestled together in the bun.

The sausages also have an unusual origin story. According to local legend, the unusual shape of the sausages had a purpose: As Hoflund explained, in the 1700s, vendors delivered the sausages to homes as late-night snacks. "It was kind of like the original DoorDash," she said. "They would bring these sausages and pass them through the keyhole." In another version of the legend, the sausages were passed through the keyhole of Nuremburg's gates after curfew, so that travelers who missed the curfew could still enjoy the local specialty. Whether or not these stories are true, they earned Nuremberger wurst the affectionate nickname "keyhole sausages."

Germany is probably best known for its beer culture, so any serious discussion of German cuisine has to mention how well the food complements the country's beers. Not only do most German dishes taste great with a glass of beer on the side, many feature beer as an essential flavor component or cooking liquid.

An unusual, and mouth watering, example of this is the Bamberg onion. Little known in the U.S., this local specialty is a white onion hollowed out and stuffed with a flavorful ground pork and beef, then baked and served with a flavorful beer-based sauce. What makes it special, however, is the beer used for the sauce. 

"Bamberg is known for its rauchbiers, which are smoked beers," Hoflund explained. "They almost taste like liquid smoke." These unique beers get their distinctive flavor from malted barley grains that are smoked before being added to the base for the beer. But even if the idea of downing a whole pint of smoky beer sounds like a bridge too far, a pleasantly smoky sauce for a savory stuffed onion might be an easy way to get to know this unique brew.

German foodies enjoy the country's varied sausages in many forms –- they can show up as everything from main courses at a sit-down dinner to late-night snacks. They also show up as flavor accents for other dishes. Because of their powerful and distinctive seasonings, Germany's sausages can be a fast and easy way to add interest to an otherwise bland dish.

For instance, Hoflund recalls an enticing soup she encountered made with Regensburger wurst. "It's a special from time to time at our sausage cart, and it's like a pink sausage with slightly smoked chunks in it," she explained.

"We were out to dinner in Regensburg — it's this old, beautiful, medieval town on the Danube. And it was winter time, it was cold, and they had a [dish] with chunks of Regensburg sausage in a potato soup. My husband was just raving about it." Smoky sausage, or even bacon, is a great ingredient to elevate your potato soup. Cleary, Germany has perfected the art. 

In Germany, it's never too early or too late for sausages and beer. Hungry club-goers regularly enjoy servings of currywurst in the wee hours of the night after the clubs have closed, and early risers can enjoy a uniquely German breakfast combo: weisswurst and weissbier. Weisswurst, or white sausage, is (as its name suggests) pale and mildly flavored. It's a delicate, soft sausage made from pork and veal, and traditionally eaters peel off the skin before enjoying the tender interior with a bit of sweet mustard.

It's no accident that weisswurst is considered strictly a breakfast food. "The white sausage from Munich has a long history," Hoflund explained. "They have to be eaten very fresh." In the days before refrigeration, this meant they could only be served soon after they were made, thus, early in the morning. 

While no longer necessary for food safety or freshness, this tradition continues even today. "In Munich, they don't serve them after 12 noon," Hoflund said. If you want to lean fully into the weisswurst tradition, enjoy the sausage with a glass of weissbier, a slightly cloudy wheat-based beer considered the ideal flavor match for weisswurst.

If a lot of German specialties seem strikingly familiar to you, it's because they've established deep roots in American soil. When German immigrants came to the U.S., they brought their love of sausages — and skill in making them – and soon adapted their traditional recipes to accommodate local tastes and locally available ingredients. 

Probably the most famous of these adapted dishes is the traditional German frankfurter sausage, which transformed into the all-American hot dog. Bratwursts have since become a staple of Midwestern backyard cookouts and tailgates, with grillmasters working to perfect their process. In Germany, the term bratwurst encompasses a range of sausages of different sizes, with different seasonings, including Würzburg bratwurst flavored with Riesling, and bierwurst, a smoky sausage flavored with paprika, mustard seeds, and pepper. These, however, are all fairly recent innovations. 

Bratwurst was originally developed as a tasty way to make use of meat scraps (the name bratwurst means, loosely, "no-waste sausage"). And while today's artisanal sausage makers intentionally select the meat cuts they use in their bratwurst, they keep the original, pork-forward flavor profile. "We love our signature, snappy spin on a classic Bratwurst recipe," Maschloff said. "We use pork shoulder, mustard seed, nutmeg and ginger in our recipe to really let the pork shine."

Few things signal welcome and hospitality more than a big, lovingly prepared roast, so it's no wonder they're frequently the centerpiece of dinner parties or other festive gatherings with lots of hungry people. Pork-loving Germany boasts numerous flavorful versions of pork roasts, from slow-roasted pork neck cooked with beer and root vegetables to crispy-skinned roast pork shoulder.

Families and cooks all have their favorite variations on pork roast. Hoflund recalls that her father's favorite version used pork tenderloin, an especially lean and tender cut from the area near the spine of the pig that is not the same as more widely available pork loin. "[My father] would roast that in different types of beer with onions and root vegetables, potatoes," she said. 

It's substantial enough to be a meal in itself, but traditional sides for German pork roasts include stewed red cabbage and apples, cold cabbage salad, and semmelknödel, round dumplings made from bread crumbs, onions, and parsley. Should you have any roast left over after your big feast, one traditional way to enjoy it is to serve it cold in thin slices with pickles, horseradish, and bread for a light lunch or starter.

A big platter of roast pork is always a welcome sight, but pork roast stuffed with other good things signals a special occasion. To stuff a pork roast, German cooks butterfly and flatten the roast, lightly season it, top it with the fillings of their choice, then roll and tie it up before roasting or braising it. It's a bit labor intensive and requires good knife skills, but the pretty spiraled slices and combination of meat and stuffing in each bite make the effort more than worth it.

Depending on who's cooking, rouladen can contain a range of fillings with different flavor profiles. Thomas von Meer cited a version filled with sliced ham and cheese — rather like a pork version of chicken cordon bleu. More filling versions could contain a seasoned bread stuffing, while others feature individual servings of pork filled with a punchy mixture of mustard, bacon, and chopped pickles.

Jägerschnitzel,or boneless pork chops with mushroom sauce, is a cozy German classic that's easy enough for most home cooks to pull off on a weeknight. It consists of smaller pork fillets that are quickly sauteed, then topped with a simple sauce made from cooked, chopped onions, mushrooms, garlic, and broth. In some versions, the pork is pounded, breaded, and pan-fried to give the dish extra crunch and richness.

The dish's German name, jägerschnitzel, is an oblique reference to its ingredients. In German, jäger means "hunter," and in cooking, the term traditionally referred to foods procured by hunters, whether by hunting or foraging. Historically, jägerschnitzel had been made with wild boar or venison, so the association with hunters was clear. 

Today, many believe the name refers to the mushrooms, which historically would have been foraged during the slow moments of a hunt. And while the ingredients in most versions now are foraged from the supermarket, it's still a comforting and satisfying dish to enjoy at the end of a long day.