A puck of sour-milk cheese marinated in onion vinaigrette, eaten with dark bread and butter in Frankfurt's apfelwein taverns. The Musik, the music, is the onions, and what they do to you later.
Handkäs is a hand-formed sour-milk cheese from the Hessen countryside, low in fat and high in pungency. Sachsenhausen's taverns made it their standard apfelwein companion by the 19th century, marinating the cheese in vinegar, oil and raw onions, the mixture locals call Musik. Tradition says you eat it with a knife on bread, never a fork, and the caraway on top is a dividing line between families. It survives because it does one job perfectly: it makes the next Schoppen of sharp cider taste sweeter than the last.
4 editor picks for Handkäs mit Musik in Frankfurt, ranked by editorial score. All Frankfurt signature dishes · Handkäs mit Musik across every city.
Apfelwein Wagner ★ 4.6
sachsenhausen · Schweizer Strasse 71, 60594 Frankfurt am Main
Apfelwein Wagner is the Sachsenhausen tavern Frankfurt sends first-timers to, pouring its own Ebbelwoi beside Grüne Soße plates daily since 1931.
Lorsbacher Thal ★ 4.6
sachsenhausen · Große Rittergasse 49, 60594 Frankfurt am Main
Lorsbacher Thal treats apfelwein like a cellar wine in Frankfurt's Große Rittergasse, 300-plus bottlings deep in a tavern running since 1803.
Fichtekränzi ★ 4.5
sachsenhausen · Wallstraße 5, 60594 Frankfurt am Main
Fichtekränzi has poured apfelwein under a braided spruce wreath on Frankfurt's Wallstraße since 1849, one of Sachsenhausen's oldest tavern rooms.
Zur Buchscheer ★ 4.5
sachsenhausen · Schwarzsteinkautweg 17, 60598 Frankfurt am Main
Zur Buchscheer is the Frankfurt tavern purists name first: apfelwein pressed on the premises since 1876, out in quiet leafy Sachsenhausen-Süd.