Frankfurter 'Green Sauce' (Grüne Soße)

Ingredients for Frankfurter Green Sauce. Photo by Bel

Published: 19th May 2006

Frankfurter Grüne Sauce, locally known as Grie Soß¹, is a dish of seven or more herbs that is traditionally eaten on Gründonnerstag ( Maundy Thursday) in Frankfurt. Rumour says it was Frankfurt's most famous son Goethe's favourite dish and that he asked his mother, Katharina Elisabeth Textor-Goethe, known locally as Aja Textor², to serve it on the Thursday before Easter. Alexander von Humboldt is said to have given precise instructions to the Royal Kitchen in Potsdam as to which herbs should be delivered on Maundy Thursday from the Royal Gardens³. Nobody knows exactly where the green sauce derives from; some say it's based on the French vinaigrette. A similar dish is known in Austria. It is now no longer a local dish only, but eaten throughout the Hesse province and the world. Due to the fact that Easter is either in March or early April, most of the herbs used for the sauce weren't cultivated in people's gardens; seeding and planting usually only started on Maundy Thursday, hence wild herbs were collected. Recipes vary, but the traditional Grüne Sauce, which you can buy pre-packed, contains the following herbs:

• parsley

• borage

• chives

• sorrel

• chervil

• burnet

• lemon balm

Other herbs which may be included are:

• lovage

• tarragon

• dill

Ingredients
For a meal for four you need:

• 300g (total) of the aforementioned herbs; you should try to find at least seven different herbs

• 2 onions

• 4 hard-boiled eggs

• 1 tbsp vinegar

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• ¼ l sour cream

• 150g yoghurt

• a pinch of sugar

• salt and pepper

• 400g new potatoes, boiled

Method
Sort the herbs, wash and dry them and chop them with a mezzaluna (recommended to get the best results).
Peel and chop the onions and put herbs and onions into a large bowl. Add all ingredients except the eggs. Mix thoroughly, cover the bowl with a lid and put it into the fridge for an hour. Chop the eggs, add them to the sauce and mix again. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with boiled potatoes in their skins.

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¹ Green Sauce, pronounced: gree sauce.
² Née Katharina Elisabeth Textor.
³ Whether they nursed the herbs in a protected area of the gardens, or whether they had to pick them at the wayside is unknown.

Written and researched by Bel, edited by The h2g2 Editors