Saumagen

Saumagen is a German dish popular in the Palatinate. The name means "sow's stomach," but the stomach is seldom eaten. Indeed, it is used like a casing (German "Pelle", Palatinian "Haut") as with sausage, rather similar to the Scottish haggis. Saumagen consists of potatoes, carrots and pork, usually spiced with onions, marjoram, nutmeg and white pepper, in addition to which, various recipes also mention cloves, coriander, thyme, garlic, bay leaf, cardamom, basil, caraway, allspice, and parsley. Sometimes beef is used as well. The larger ingredients are diced finely. After that, the 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 cut into slices approximately 1 - 2 centimeter(s) thick, which are then fried in an open pan. The typical accompanying drink is a dry white wine.

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

Helmut Kohl, the German chancellor from 1982 to 1998, who came from the Palatinate, made saumagen very popular. He served saumagen to many foreign visitors such as Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Kohl was sometimes ridiculed for this in other parts of Germany, where it was perceived as just another sign of his alleged provinciality. The connotations invoked by the mere term "sow's stomach" in people who are not "really" familiar with the dish (of which there are quite a few outside the Palatinate region) did not help either.

In the Pennsylvania Dutch region of the United States, the dish, known locally as seimaage, hogmal, or simply pig stomach, is popular during the harvest season. Traditionally, pig stomach, not turkey, was the main course for Thanksgiving among Pennsylvania Dutch families. This tradition stems from the Old World, with the bulk of Pennsylvania Dutch settlers originating from the Palatinate. Unlike the German version, the dish is typically baked for several hours, rather than boiled.