Obazda / Obatzter / Obatzda

Description

Obazda (Obatzter/Obatzda) is a cheese preparation from Bavaria, where ripe or overripe Camembert and/or Brie, optionally also Romadur and/or Limburger and/or cream cheese is mixed with butter as well as with red paprika powder and other spices and eaten as a spread. Obazda takes its name from the Bavarian word obatzn (to crush, mix, blend). Obazda is a spreadable, creamy mass in which individual pieces of soft cheese are still clearly visible. Due to the paprika powder used, the Obazda has a bright red color. Obazda has an aromatic, spicy cheese taste that can vary depending on the ingredients used. By using Limburger or Romadur you get a stronger, by adding curd cheese or cream cheese a milder Obazda. The history of Obazda is closely linked to the emergence of Bavarian beer garden culture about 150 years ago. At the same time as the first beer gardens appeared, the first soft cheeses such as Camembert, Brie, Romadur and Limburger were produced in Bavaria and the Allgäu. As these ripened and overripe particularly quickly in the hot summer months and there were not yet adequate cooling facilities, resourceful Bavarian innkeepers came up with the idea of mixing the overripe soft cheeses with butter, adding salt, paprika powder, onions, caraway seeds and beer to make them fit for consumption again.

They served the so-called Obazda to their guests in the beer gardens, where it soon became a popular accompaniment to beer as a spread on bread or on a pretzel. Katharina Eisenreich, who was the landlady of the Bräustüberl in Weihenstephan, the seat of the oldest brewery in the world, from 1920 to 1958, played no small part in making Obazda famous outside the borders of Bavaria. Since Weihenstephan was and is also the destination of many local and foreign tourists, they carried the name Obazda all over the world.