In Wittenberg, in the former Augustinian monastery given to Luther, the meal bears no resemblance to the starter/main/dessert grid. No "courses" are served but a robust table where everything coexists: a porridge or base soup, always rye bread, fish or meat, sauerkraut from the barrel, and beer at all hours. The true heart of the meal is the *Tischreden*, the "table talk": one eats at length, argues, laughs, quotes Scripture between tankards. The food is simple, nourishing, without the monastic asceticism that Luther rejected.

The small caraway seed, fragrant and slightly aniseed, marks Saxon cuisine: it goes into rye bread, sauerkraut, and vegetables. With the dark rye grain — the daily bread of the Holy Roman Empire — it gives that earthy, warm flavor that reappears throughout Luther's table.