Hosting guests and subtly doing politics has been a proven practice for millennia. The Celts combined their diplomacy with a feast and a good intoxication, the Baroque princes impressed rivals with stuffed swans or finest mocha squirrels.

In modern times hardly a politician has skillfully combined food and power as the former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. He invited state guests to the star club "Deidesheimer Hof" near his hometown Oggersheim, a home game for Kohl. There his personal chef Manfred Schwarz served hearty Palatinate specialties with an original twist.

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Helmut Kohl: home games in the Palatinate province

Kohl demonstrated his voters' down-to-earthness - and gave his guests the feeling of a private meeting with insights into his state of mind. In encounters with Mikhail Gorbachev or Maggie Thatcher Kohl made the "Saumagen diplomacy" almost legendary.

When Boris Yeltsin was a guest in May 1994, there was Palatine blood sausage strudel, no less hearty than the famous Saumagen. Yeltsin liked the dish so much that he personally had the recipe written down by the head chef to make it boil in the Kremlin.

But how does it sound if you are not on a diplomatic mission? Try out! In the video Christian Rach demonstrates how to whip up the strudel without complications. And more historical recipes can be found in the current issue of "SPIEGEL Geschichte".

The recipe:

1 (Palatinate) black pudding
1 (Palatine) liver sausage
200 g of fresh sauerkraut or fresh savoy cabbage
4-5 layers of brick dough or strudel dough (ready in a well-stocked grocery store)
cranberries
2 apples (eg Granny Smith)
Cream horseradish (grate horseradish or grated from the glass with fresh whipped cream)

For the mustard sauce:

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
50 ml white wine
250 ml vegetable or chicken broth
100 ml of cream
2 tablespoons mustard
Salt pepper

1. Spread the dough sheets with butter lard and layer on top of each other.

2. Put the sauerkraut in a thin layer on top of the dough. Make sure that enough dough remains free at the edge to be able to wind up the vortex later.

3. Remove the intestine from the sausages and cut the sausages diagonally into slices or along chopsticks. Layer the sausages alternately next to each other or on top of each other.

4. Roll the strudel loosely together from one end, brush the edge with clarified butter and roll it up. Place the seam down on a baking sheet covered with baking paper and brush the top with butter lard.

5. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees (circulating air) for about 20 minutes, until the dough has got color.

6. For the mustard sauce, melt butter in a small saucepan. Add flour and stir constantly with a whisk until the flour has turned a light brown color.

7. Pour in white wine and bring to the boil, then add broth and bring the liquid to about 100 ml. Add the cream, add mustard and cook the sauce to the desired consistency, season with salt and pepper.

8. Peel the apples, cut into small cubes and sauté for a short while to make them crisp.

9. Serve the finished strudel on a bed of apples, decorate the creamy horseradish and cranberries next to it and serve with mustard sauce.

Good Appetite!

  • More dishes with history , tested by TV chef Christian Rach, can be found here.