94 • AUGUST 2019THE HEART OF EUROPEphoto-illo-credit-gutterC
hef Thierry Schwaller, owner
of restaurant Finkstuebel,
laughs when
I ask him the difference between
an average baeckoeffe and a top
Baeckoeffe. Most of the tourist
restaurants, he says, receive the
ingredients for their baeckoeffe
pre-cooked: “All they have to do is
heat their meals up in a microwave.”
He then shows me how it should
be done.
Schwaller builds his baeckoeffe
with consecutive layers of potatoes,
vegetables, and meat that he has
marinated for two days in Riesling
wine and herbs. “I always add
carrots, because that helps neutralise
the acidity of the wine,” he says.
The build-up continues until thecasserole is more than full, then he
adds the reduced marinade. “Finally,
I add a piece of heavily smoked
pork rind on top for taste only.” He
pushes the lid onto it, seals it with
dough, and lets it cook in the oven
for three hours.
The result is gorgeous. "This is
the dish of the Alsace," says
Schwaller. "I have seen casseroles in
Germany, of course, but never with
wine like this."
As I eat, I consider what
Schwaller told me about the history
of the dish. The word "baeckoeffe"
comes from "baker’s oven." In the
past, people would prepare the dish
at home, seal it with dough, and take
it to the local baker on Friday, where
they would place it in the bread oven
that was gradually cooling down. The
dish would be ready the next day.
That baeckoeffe is inspired by
the Jewish sabbath dish of Cholent,
which is prepared in a similar way
to avoid cooking on the sabbath,
adds another layer to the city’s
mixed, rich culture and tumultuous
past. Strasbourg was also the scene
of one of Europe’s first pogroms,
when hundreds of Jews were blamed
for the Black Death in 1349 and
publicly burned.
That horrid story and the rest of
the city’s history, from Roman days
to the annexation of Alsace by the
Nazis in 1940 and its reintegration
into France, are featured in the
Strasbourg historical museum that