In 1875 the young cook Karl Schmid was doing his training in the village of Nidden (now Nida) on the Curonian Spit, at Karl Flossner's "Village Inn". There he met 18-year-old Adelheid Rumert and fell in love with her at first sight. A romance began between the young couple, which they kept carefully hidden. Even so, the lovers were seen strolling along the shore several times... Rumours of Adelheid's improper conduct reached her common-law husband, Paul Flossner, the innkeeper's son.
The showdown took place on the deck of the steamer "Cranz". In this "unequal battle" with his beloved's jealous husband – a strapping, broad-shouldered fisherman – the scrawny Schmid naturally suffered a crushing defeat. It might have ended with a fight, but no. After the scuffle the young trainee was simply thrown overboard. The cold waters of the Baltic instantly cooled his love for the beautiful Adelheid. Schmid had to leave Nidden in disgrace.
The lesson did not pass without leaving its mark on the young cook. Whether out of resentment and helplessness, or thanks to the refreshing power of Baltic water, Karl had a flash of inspiration: in memory of his brief stay on the Curonian Spit he came up with an original recipe for salmon.
Later the grilled steak Schmid-Lachs ("Schmid's Salmon") graced the traditional cuisine of Königsberg. At one of Zurich's famous restaurants, where Karl Schmid was head chef in 1911, his dish was enormously popular with customers.
And what of Adelheid? She went on working for her "common-law" father-in-law, Karl Flossner, who valued his reputation very highly. His ancestors had been innkeepers for centuries and were greatly respected. Naturally, he could not forgive Adelheid's frivolous behaviour, so unworthy of his family. In fact, he had taken a dislike to his unofficial daughter-in-law even earlier, when she refused to become his son Paul's lawful wife (she probably had her reasons). So unlike his three other, "lawful" daughters-in-law, who only helped a little around the house, Adel had to slave away at the inn from dawn to dusk, doing the hard work. But fate rewarded her patience: the girl learned to cook salmon dishes superbly and later became a famous recipe collector.
Incidentally, despite that curious episode, Schmid's new dish did make it into the Flossner family cookbook.
The Traditional Königsberg Dish Schmid-Lachs
(From the Flossner family cookbook)
Cut the salmon into steaks, remove the innards, rinse and dry well. Rub with lemon juice, salt and drizzle with vegetable oil. Grill the steaks (the heat should not be fierce; the coals should be covered with white ash).
Finely chop shallots and a few cloves of garlic, brown them in butter and add a few drops of wine vinegar. Cover the pan with a lid and let it simmer briefly. Then pour in 3 tbsp of water and 3 egg yolks, mix well and set aside somewhere warm. Transfer the cooked salmon steaks from the grill rack to a warmed dish and pour the sauce over them. Do not rub the sauce through a sieve!
And here are a few more recipes from the Flossner family cookbook.
Raw Nidden Salmon
– 800 g fillet of freshly caught salmon
– Ground paprika
– 1 tbsp lemon juice
– 1 drop of liquid hot sauce
– Birch charcoal
Lightly pound the tender pink salmon fillet, rub it with lemon juice, coat it in paprika and sprinkle with the hot sauce. Put the fillet somewhere cool for 1 hour.
Place the salmon fillet on a wire rack of the kind used for smoking and hang it over the smouldering coals, high enough up but so that the heat still reaches the fish. (The coals should burn for 1 hour before the rack is hung.)
The fillet is done when it is heated right through.
Raw salmon was one of the favourite dishes of the German writer, poet and playwright Carl Zuckmayer, who rented a small summer house near the resort village of Nidden.
Salmon with Turnips and Macaroni
– 1 kg salmon (middle cut, skinned and boned)
– 1 carrot (100 g)
– 2 onions (approx. 150 g)
– 1 leek (approx. 100 g)
– 100 g butter
– 2 egg yolks
– 100 ml dry white wine
– 150 g macaroni
– 250 g turnips
– 1 bunch of parsley
– 600 g potatoes
– 100 g ground mustard seeds
– 50 g Parmesan
– 1 tbsp olive oil
Cut the carrot, leek and onions into cherry-sized pieces and cook them in one litre of salted water. Add the pieces of salmon to the vegetable broth and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Slice the peeled turnips and potatoes into rounds with a bread knife.
Cook the macaroni in salted water, drain and keep warm. To stop it sticking together, add the oil and stir. Remove the pan with the salmon from the heat and keep it warm as well.
Strain the broth in which the vegetables and fish were cooked and use half of it to cook the turnips and potatoes. Use the other half to make a hollandaise sauce. To do this, slowly melt the butter in a sauté pan and carefully stir in the egg yolks (so that they thicken without cooking), then add the broth. It is best to keep the sauce warm until serving.
Place portions of salmon on a bed of macaroni, pour plenty of the hollandaise over them, surround with the potato and turnip slices and garnish with fresh parsley.
The German writer Thomas Mann adored salmon with turnips and macaroni.
Salmon Fillet with Potatoes
– 4 large pieces of salmon fillet (600 g)
– 1 l fish stock
– 50 g butter
– 250 g sour cream
– 2 tbsp olive oil
– 750 g potatoes
Make a stock from the salmon bones, head and skin, and add butter and flour to make a white fish sauce. Season with salt and pepper and mix with the sour cream.
Fry the 4 steaks in the olive oil, transfer them to an oval baking dish and surround them with the potatoes cut into wedges. Pour the fish sauce over everything. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at a medium heat.
Harald Saul recorded all these recipes during personal meetings with former residents of Königsberg. Thanks to handwritten recipe notebooks passed down from generation to generation and still carefully kept in families, it has been possible to restore many traditional East Prussian dishes.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
