Throughout the German Empire, the cereals, legumes, greens, roots, and fruits supply an important proportion of the food consumed by the common population. Wheaten bread chiefly, but also black bread made from rye, is largely used throughout the north of Europe; it is somewhat inferior in nutritious quality to the former, although by not so much as some have supposed; also beans and peas are used abundantly. Potatoes and green vegetables of all kinds are served in numerous ways, but largely in meat-soup, a favourite dish. Sauer-kraut is a preparation of the cabbage-leaf after fermentation in salt brine, by which it is preserved for use at all seasons of the year, and is largely used and esteemed as a wholesome and palatable addition to other food. Meats, chiefly pork, are greatly esteemed in the form of sausage, and appear also in small portions or joints, but freely garnished with vegetables, on the tables of those who can afford animal diet. Moreover, sweet farinaceous dishes, containing more or less butter or lard, abound. Going further north, where the climate is no longer adapted for the production of wheat, as in Norway and Sweden, the common people rarely see bread, living on oat and rye meal porridge, potatoes, adding much bacon and herrings for necessary fat and more proteids. Hard rye cakes hanging in the cottage rafters half the year are esteemed, as are sour milk in summer, and coffee or weak beer at all times. In northern Russia the same cereals, salted fish, and bacon form the staple foods, while much coarse-grain spirit is consumed.

* For full details as to the nature and preparation of the pot-au-feu, see the Appendix.