What is Ilbesheimer Kunschdhäwwelflääsch?

This slightly mad-looking mouthful of a name requires a bit of translation even in German. The slow-cooked pork dish from Ilbesheim in the Palatinate (Pfalz), a municipality home to less than 1200 people. Kunschdhäwwelflääsch is local dialect for “Kunsttopffleisch“, literally “artificial pot meat”, referring to the fact that some kind of makeshift pot plays a role its preparation. This pot used to be made from parchment; today, foil or an oven bag is used.

And what goes into the bag? Cured pork neck, heavily seasoned with pepper and allspice and a little more frugally so with cloves and nutmeg, plus thickly sliced onions, bay leaves, white wine and sometimes garlic. The parcel is boiled in a pot of water for up to two hours and the meat served sliced thinly with the onions and thickened cooking liquid. On the side are usually plain boiled potatoes, known in local dialect as Quellgrumbeere. Ilbesheimer Kunschdhäwwelflääsch doesn’t look particularly tempting – the meat rather pale and the sauce rather grey – but given its appearance, it’s surprisingly tasty, and very comforting to eat.

Where to eat Ilbesheimer Kunschtdhäwweflääsch

Ilbesheim is situated southwest of the university town of Landau in der Pfalz, on the slopes of a small hill just east of the Palatinate Forest called Kleine Kalmit. I tried the dish, however, 10km north of Ilbesheim in the municipality of Hainfeld. At Pfälzer Genuss Fraktion, a modest, casual counter-order restaurant on the edge of town, Ilbesheimer Kunschtdhäwweflääsch is served with potato salad as well as a green salad alongside (14,50€).

Pfälzer Genuss Fraktion, Weinstraße 68, 76835 Hainfeld (Website)

My meal was paid for by Deutsche Weinstraße e.V. – Mittelhaardt -and Südliche Weinstrasse e.V., but all opinons are my own.