One of my favourite German dishes is Maultaschen. In case you haven’t heard of them, these are pasta squares filled with minced meat, spinach, breadcrumbs and onions, and flavoured with various herbs and spices. I can only recommend trying them.
Last night, however, I was not eating Maultaschen; I was having a consolation drink with my pub quiz team in cosy HOME Bar after a particularly dismal performance. To cheer everyone up, I told them about my new favourite German word – Sandwichkind (literally, sandwich child). I guess “Malcolm in the Middle” was called “Malcolm is the Filling” in Germany, although I might need a German to corroborate that.
Norbert: Hey, you want to hear another funny thing?
Me: Funny funny or German funny?
Norbert: ?
Me: OK, go on.
While I was aware that Maultaschen (probably) translates as “mouthofananimalbag”, I hadn’t really given much thought to the origins of this delectable Swabian treat. Clearly I should have for it turns out that the Swabians are tricky, non-God-fearing buggers, as Norbert explained.
Maultaschen are traditionally associated with Lent, which is when all good Christians are encouraged to refrain from eating meat. Like me, the Swabians obviously decided this was a load of nonsense. So they invented Maultaschen, the idea being that because the meat is covered by the pasta dough, God won’t be able to see it. Genius, right? There’s even a Swabian nickname for the dish – Herrgottsbescheißerle – which means “small-God-cheaters”.
Me: Bah haha! That IS funny!
Herr God, if you’re reading this, I made it all up. Can the Swabians and I still go to heaven? We’ll bring you some Maultaschen…
Expat Eye on Germany 
That’s MAD funny. And also quite expected from the Germans to have a word like this 🙂
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It seems there is nothing you can’t do with German words! 🙂
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After taking a Swabian cooking course, my husband and I now make these ourselves, right down to making the pasta dough ourselves. It takes a good afternoon (and you need a looooong countertop), but we freeze what we don’t eat on the first evening and can enjoy homemade “Little God Bullshitters,” as I call them for months afterwards. 🙂 There’s a restaurant in Esslingen that does only Maultaschen, and it’s impressive to see how many different ways it can be prepared/served. I wrote my blog post about these little snout bags before we really learned how to make them. The pasta needs to be thin enough to read a newspaper through it!
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Little God bullshitters – hahahaha! Brilliant! Sounds like a lot of work to make them properly – thankfully there’s a great Swabian restaurant just down the road! 😉
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They sound like ravioli. I guess usually ravioli has cheese as the filling, but I think you could any filling. Anyway, sounds SO good. And I like the story 😉
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Same! Love how I can still be surprised by stuff after living here for more than 4 years 🙂
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Maultaschen are a tasty tasty gift to us all. Never heard that story… am totally going to ask some of my Swabian students about that one!
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Most of my students hadn’t heard it but I guess none of them are Swabian! So funny 🙂
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Had some for lunch today! I eat them in soup (broth with veggies), though. Delish 🙂 It seems like every food culture has a version of this. I also love the Chinese ones (jiaozi).
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Don’t think I’ve had the Chinese ones but definitely willing to give them a try if they’re even half as good! 🙂
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Hah! That is such a good reason for the name! I have never tried them…but now I want to. It looks like perfect comfort food!
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It is! They’re so tasty and filling – have a serious craving now! And now that I know the reason for them, I like them (and the Swabians) even more!
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Maultaschen is probably my favourite German food and I’ve always loved their origin story.
I’m afraid I have to disappoint on Malcolm though – I’m pretty sure he’s Malcolm Mittendrin.
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How dull! Can’t believe I’ve been here 4 years and been chomping on them all this time and never knew! Manfredas actually didn’t know either!
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😂😂😂 They sound fabulous, I must say 😋
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They really are very good! Highly recommended!
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