Bread & Spread | Ask the Sandwich Experts

Expert Advice: Cold Cuts

Lutz Albrecht is continuing the business his grandfather founded in 1927. For Albrecht, regional and organic fare is key, especially when it comes to beef and lamb. A hunter from Brandenburg delivers fresh venison meat. Albrecht recommends stag salami or venison ham on dark, pungent bread for the holiday season. Smoked goose and duck breast tastes the same on dark and white bread, says the expert. Pair up white baguette with Mousse de Canard or Rillettes of goose or duck, and choose any type of bread to accompany Calabrian specialties like prosciutto crudo (air dried, raw ham) or salsiccia (spicy salami).

Wild & Geflügel Albrecht Akazienstraße 4, Berlin-Schöneberg, Tel. +49-30-782 13 81, Mon 10am-6pm, Tue-Fri 10am-7pm, Sat 10am-2pm

Sandra Wildeboer/ HiPi

Sandra Wildeboer/ HiPi

Good Butter

You can count the delicatessen stores that sell good butter – like French raw milk butter or butter made at the Hüttental dairy at Odenwald - on the fingers of one hand in this town. One of the few shops that do it right would be Lindner, formerly known as butter Lindner, where you can still actually buy butter by weight. The act of cutting butter from a big block and beating it into shape has become almost instinct, but it's still done here. “It has nothing to do with show effects,” explains Claudia Mehr, a manager at Lindner, “it only makes the butter smoother and creamier.”

Lindner Reichsstraße 81, Berlin-Charlottenburg, Tel. +49-30-304 75 56, Mon-Fri 8am-6.30pm, Sat 8am-1.30pm, branches: www.lindner-esskultur.de

Fruitful Experiment

Georg Weißhäupl has brought high quality cheese from Austria to Neukölln. He's an advocate of thicker slices of cheese on bread and leaving out butter alltogether. Weißhäuptl recommends a matured alpine cheese on sourdough and gray bread types because of its nutty and fruity taste, and soft cheeses for white bread and baguette. One specialty is the “Blauer Hirni”, a blue cheese that developed coincidentally when a blue mold mixed with a cream cheese and brought forth surprisingly tasty results.

Peppis Käseladen Weichselstraße 65, Berlin-Neukölln, Tel. +49-176 50 30 76 56, www.peppikaese.de, Tue-Sat ab from 5pm; markets: Arkonaplatz Fri 12pm-7pm, Schillermarkt Sat 10am-4pm