Far more than sausage and sauerkraut. Marianna Olszewska Heberle put more than 200 recipes into this book and split them evenly between the classics people expect and the lighter cooking Germans actually eat now, which is the part most German cookbooks miss.

Wiener Schnitzel is here. So is Black Forest Cherry Cake. So are Quick Marinated Beef and a chilled peach and pear soup that will surprise anyone who thinks they know the cuisine. Soups, salads, mains and desserts each get proper coverage, and every recipe has been adapted for American kitchens, which means American measurements and ingredients you can actually buy.

Threaded through it are the historical and cultural notes on where each dish came from, so it reads as well as it cooks. Three hundred and twenty pages, and one of those cookbooks that ends up permanently open on the counter.