Food Guide for Expats Missing Ingredients

Germany stocks most everyday ingredients, but around 30 to 40 common items from Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Anglo-American cooking are either renamed, reformulated, or genuinely absent from standard supermarkets. Things like cilantro (known in German as Koriander, meaning the fresh coriander leaf), clotted cream, buttermilk for baking, and cornflour catch expats off guard constantly.

When I arrived in Freiburg in 2016, I spent a genuinely embarrassing amount of time staring at the dairy aisle trying to figure out where the buttermilk was. It was right there, labelled Buttermilch, but I’d walked past it three times assuming it was something else.

This guide covers the most searched missing ingredients: where to find them in Germany, what the German name actually is, and what substitutes work when the real thing isn’t available. You’ll find answers on clotted cream in Germany, corn flour versus Speisestärke, buttermilk in Germany for baking, and a handful of other ingredients that regularly cause confusion. According to Destatis, Germany had over 13.4 million residents with a migration background living in German households as of 2024. That makes this a genuinely widespread problem, not a niche one.

Introduction

Back in 2016, I stood in a Freiburg supermarket holding a recipe card for my mum’s chicken curry, completely stumped. No curry leaves anywhere. The thing labelled “Koriander” turned out to be coriander seeds, not the fresh herb I needed. That single shopping trip taught me more about German supermarkets than a month of regular groceries.

If you’ve had a similar moment, this guide exists for you. Whether you’re hunting for clotted cream in Germany, trying to figure out corn flour in Germany versus Speisestärke (cornstarch, a fine white thickening starch), or wondering why buttermilk in Germany tastes thinner than back home, the confusion is genuinely universal among expats. According to Destatis, Germany’s foreign-born population reached over 16 million in 2026, meaning millions of people are navigating the same supermarket gaps right now.

In German supermarkets, cilantro is labelled Koriandergrün, cornflour is sold as Speisestärke or Maisstärke, and true clotted cream has no direct local equivalent. Those three facts alone solve the most common expat ingredient searches in Germany.

This guide covers where to find hard-to-source ingredients, what German substitutes actually work, and when to give up and order online. No padding, no vague tips that apply to any country.

The Expat Pantry Problem: Beyond Just Grocery Shopping

The language barrier at the supermarket is just the beginning. What catches most expats off guard is something deeper: the ingredient gap. You know exactly what you want to cook, but the item simply doesn’t exist here, or it exists under a name you’d never guess. Finding cilantro in German supermarkets means asking for Koriander (or more precisely, Koriandergrün when you want the fresh leaf rather than the dried seed). Cornflour in Germany is Speisestärke (a fine white starch used for thickening sauces and gravies), not Maismehl. Clotted cream in Germany is barely a concept. These aren’t minor inconveniences. They chip away at the comfort food that makes a new country feel liveable.

According to a 2026 survey by the IW Köln on migrant integration experiences, food familiarity ranks among the top five factors affecting how settled newcomers feel in Germany. That tracks with what I’ve heard from readers constantly. Priya, a reader from India, told me she didn’t realise how much a failed birthday cake could hit emotionally until she stood in her Freiburg kitchen with the wrong flour and no fallback plan.

The good news is that most gaps have a fix. It just takes knowing where to look and what to call things.

Common Foreign Ingredients and Substitutes in Germany

Dairy

Real buttermilk exists in Germany. You can find Buttermilch (cultured low-fat dairy, functionally identical to UK or US buttermilk for baking) in virtually every supermarket, including Rewe, Edeka, and Lidl. If you need it for baking and can’t find it, mix one tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice into 240ml of regular milk, wait five minutes, and you’re done. It curdles slightly and behaves exactly like buttermilk in pancakes, soda bread, or marinades.

Clotted cream in Germany is the trickier one. True clotted cream (the thick, crust-topped British kind) is almost impossible to find in standard German supermarkets. Your best clotted cream substitute is Mascarpone for desserts, or Crème Double when you need something that holds its shape. Some expat shops in larger cities stock imported clotted cream around the holidays, but don’t count on it.

For condensed milk, look for Gezuckerte Kondensmilch (sweetened condensed milk) on the shelf. If a recipe calls for evaporated milk, Kondensmilch or Dosenmilch (the unsweetened canned version) is the right product. Cottage cheese exists as Hüttenkäse (a clumpy, fresh curd cheese), though the texture is clumpier than many British or American versions. Quark (a smooth, high-protein fresh cheese similar to fromage frais) is smoother and works well wherever cottage cheese appears in a recipe.

Baking Essentials

Self-raising flour isn’t sold as a single product in Germany. Mix 250g of Weizenmehl Type 405 (standard fine German wheat flour) with two teaspoons of Backpulver (baking powder) and you’re there. Cornflour in Germany is labeled Speisestärke (usually Mondamin brand) — this is the fine white starch used for thickening. If a recipe calls for cornmeal or polenta, look for Maisgrieß or Polenta instead. They are different products. Golden syrup has no exact match, but Zuckerrübensirup (sugar beet syrup) comes close in texture and sweetness.

Herbs, Spices, and International Staples

Cilantro in German is Koriandergrün, literally “green coriander,” to distinguish it from Koriandersamen (the dried seeds). Most Turkish grocery stores and larger supermarkets carry it fresh. Asian shops are your best source for kaffir lime leaves, tamarind paste, and specialty chilies beyond the standard Peperoni you’ll find everywhere.

A Cultural Insight: The Tradition of “Ersatz” in Germany

The word “Ersatz” is German, and that’s no coincidence. The concept of the substitute ingredient is genuinely woven into German cultural history. During both World Wars, imported goods became impossible to source, so Germans improvised with whatever local resources they had. Roasted barley and chicory stood in for coffee. Acorn flour stretched wheat supplies. The German term “Ersatz” (meaning replacement or substitute) entered the wider European vocabulary precisely because Germany systematized this kind of culinary problem-solving so thoroughly.

That historical ingenuity has a surprisingly practical legacy for expats today. When you’re hunting for clotted cream in Germany, figuring out what corn flour in Germany is actually called, or trying to find buttermilk in Germany for baking, you’re participating in a tradition that Germans themselves have practiced for generations. Even translating something as simple as cilantro in German (Koriander) requires that same adaptive thinking.

According to the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Ersatz goods became a formal part of wartime policy during 1914–1918. The culture stuck. Germany is genuinely good at substitution, and once you learn the local equivalents, the supermarket stops feeling like an obstacle.

Practical Tips for Expats: Becoming Ingredient-Savvy in Germany

The single most useful habit you can build is learning the German names for your key ingredients. Knowing that cornflour in Germany is sold as Maisstärke or Speisestärke (a fine white thickening starch, not a baking flour), that buttermilk in Germany is Buttermilch, and that clotted cream in Germany has no direct equivalent but Doppelrahmstufe Frischkäse (a high-fat fresh cream cheese with around 60% fat content) comes reasonably close will save you hours of confused supermarket wandering on its own. The same applies to cilantro, which in German is Koriandergrün, and is worth searching for by name in Turkish or Asian grocers rather than the standard Rewe or Edeka.

When you travel back home or have visitors coming, be strategic about what you ask them to bring. Concentrated pastes, dried spices, and specialty extracts travel well and last. German expat Facebook groups and forums are genuinely useful here too. Someone usually knows exactly which shop in your city stocks the obscure thing you need.

And give local alternatives a real chance. Quark makes an excellent cheesecake base, Doppelrahm (full-fat cream cheese) transforms pasta sauces, and clotted cream substitutes built around Schmand (a thick, slightly soured cream with around 20 to 24% fat) or Crème fraîche hold up surprisingly well in most British-style recipes.

Where to Order International Ingredients Online

If you’ve searched every Reformhaus (health food shop) and Asian grocery in your city and still can’t track down what you need, whether that’s the right corn flour in Germany, proper buttermilk for baking, or clotted cream for a British afternoon tea, ordering online is genuinely the easiest fix.

Yababa is one of the better expat-focused options I’ve come across. It operates as an Asian and Middle Eastern online supermarket delivering across Germany, which means ingredients like fresh cilantro (Koriandergrün in German), specialty flours, and dairy alternatives are actually in stock rather than perpetually “coming soon.” Affiliate link. We earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

For South Asian, Middle Eastern, and African pantry staples, Jamoona fills a different gap. It’s particularly useful if you’re cooking for a halal household or need spice blends that German supermarkets simply don’t carry. Affiliate link. Same deal as above.

What Sets Live in Germany Apart?

This guide exists because I’ve genuinely lived these frustrations. Searching for clotted cream in Germany, figuring out what cornflour in Germany is actually called, or working out the best clotted cream substitute when the real thing simply isn’t on the shelf: these aren’t hypothetical problems I researched from a distance.

Every section of this article is built on real experience, community feedback from expat forums, and cross-checking with specialist resources like South Africans in Germany. When I cover topics like buttermilk in Germany, corn flour in Germany, or how to translate cilantro in German supermarkets, the advice reflects what actually works in German shops. It is not generic substitution charts copy-pasted from UK or US food blogs.

Liveingermany.de covers practical expat life across finances, housing, and daily living. According to Destatis, over 13 million people with foreign citizenship were living in Germany as of 2024, and the number keeps growing. That’s a lot of people staring at unfamiliar supermarket labels.

Where affiliate links appear, they’re clearly marked. We only recommend what we’ve actually used or vetted.

FAQ: Food Ingredient Troubleshooting for Expats in Germany

These are the questions I get asked most often, so here are direct, Germany-specific answers.

Finding your footing in a German supermarket takes time, and there is no shame in spending twenty minutes reading labels when you first arrive. The honest practical tip I’d leave you with: learn the German names for your five most-used ingredients before you ever set foot in a shop. That single habit saves more frustration than any shopping list app.