Babette's Table
A Bavarian Kitchen · 1956

"This cookbook was a 1956 wedding gift to my mother.
She's gone now — but her recipes aren't."

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For Erna Paul, who received this book on her wedding day.
And for Babette Martin, Erna's grandmother,
who kept the family together.

The Story

A book, a wedding, and the women who kept things together

In 1956, in postwar Bavaria, my mother received a cookbook as a wedding gift. It was Bayerisches Kochbuch — Bavarian Cookbook — by Maria Hofmann, then in its 26th edition. A standard reference for German home cooks. A serious book, for a serious kitchen.

The book is written in old Fraktur typeface — the angular Gothic script that most people today cannot read. She could read it. She cooked from it for decades.

She brought it with her when she came to the United States, and she kept it her whole life. Behind her was Babette Martin — her grandmother, the steady and loving presence who supported her through a genuinely difficult young life. This project is named for her.

I am her son. I cannot read Fraktur. But I can translate it — carefully, by hand, with attention to what each dish meant in its time and place. That is what Babette's Table is: a translation project, a history project, and a cooking project, all from a single book that never leaves the house.

The Book Bayerisches Kochbuch · Maria Hofmann
26th edition · Birken-Verlag, Munich · 1956
Originally given to Erna Paul as a wedding gift.
Written in printed Fraktur typeface.
The Collection

Translated recipes, with their stories intact

Each volume draws from a single chapter of the 1956 cookbook. Every recipe includes a headnote, historical context, US-adapted measurements, and a week-of-meals grid.

Soups · Vol. 1

Babette's Table: Soups, Vol. 1

A Bavarian Kitchen — Ten Recipes

Ten recipes from the Soups chapter of the 1956 Bayerisches Kochbuch — translated, US-adapted, and annotated with historical headnotes and a week-of-meals grid for each dish.

  • Clear Beef Broth (Fleischbrühe)
  • Bone Broth (Knochenbrühe)
  • Root Vegetable Broth (Wurzelbrühe)
  • Bavarian Tomato Soup (Tomatensuppe)
  • Dried Mushroom Soup (Pilzsuppe)
  • Lentil, Pea & Bean Soup (Hülsenfruchtsuppe)
  • Bavarian Potato Soup (Kartoffelsuppe)
  • Black Bread Soup (Brotsuppe)
  • Semolina Dumpling Soup (Grießnockerlsuppe)
  • Cold Fruit Soup (Fruchtsuppe)
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Potato Dishes · Vol. 2

Babette's Table: Potato Dishes, Vol. 2

A Bavarian Kitchen — Ten Recipes

Ten recipes from the Kartoffelgerichte chapter of the 1956 Bayerisches Kochbuch. In postwar Bavaria, potatoes were not a side dish — they were the meal. This chapter has more recipes than any other in the book.

  • Potato Goulash (Kartoffelgulasch)
  • Bavarian Fried Potatoes (Bratkartoffeln)
  • Milk-Braised Potato Gratin (Aufgezogene Kartoffeln)
  • Potato & Leek with Smoked Bacon (Lauchkartoffeln)
  • Hungarian-Style Potatoes (Ungarische Kartoffeln)
  • Bavarian Mashed Potato (Kartoffelbrei)
  • Raw Potato Dumplings (Rohe Kartoffelknödel)
  • Potato Pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer)
  • Potatoes with Egg & Sour Cream (Niedernauer Kartoffeln)
  • Potatoes in Horseradish Cream Sauce (Meerrettichkartoffeln)
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Sampler

Babette's Table: Soups Sampler

Three Recipes — A Taste of the Collection

Three recipes from the collection — one broth, one hearty soup, and one that will surprise you. The full story and format of Vol. 1, in a shorter introduction.

  • Clear Beef Broth (Fleischbrühe)
  • Bavarian Potato Soup (Kartoffelsuppe)
  • Cold Fruit Soup (Fruchtsuppe)
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Desserts, Vol. 3 · and more — coming soon.

From the Collection

A recipe, with its story

Grundrezept 85
Fruchtsuppe
Cold Fruit Soup — the recipe that will confuse and then delight you

This is the recipe that Americans stare at. Cold soup. Made from fruit. Served before a meal, not after. Yes. This is what it is, and it is very good, and Maria Hofmann puts it in the soup chapter without any sense that an explanation is required, because in Bavaria in 1956 it needed none.

My mother made this in summer, when stone fruit was cheap and the kitchen was too hot to cook properly. Cold plum soup. Cold cherry soup with a little cream stirred in. She served it in the small glasses she kept for schnapps and told us to drink it slowly. It is a first course. It is not a dessert. The distinction mattered to her.

Historical Note Cold fruit soups appear across Central and Eastern European cuisines — German, Hungarian, Polish, Scandinavian. In Bavaria they were a practical seasonal starter, not a novelty. Stone fruit was abundant in summer; a cold soup required no oven in July.

Full recipe — ingredients, method, and week-of-meals grid — in the Soups collection.

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