Central European cuisine

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Central European cuisine consists of the culinary customs, traditions and cuisines of the nations of Central Europe.

The cuisines within each country in the region is strongly influenced by the local climate. For example, German, Austrian and Czech cuisines show many similarities, yet differ from the highlander cuisines in their respective countries, while in settlements closer to rivers or lakes, more fish and various seafood can be found more frequently. More mountainous areas near the Alps house dishes that contain cheese, milk and butter among other dairy products.^[1]

Polish, Slovak, Slovene, and Hungarian cuisines, while considered Central European cuisines are considerably dissimilar to the Czech and Austrian/German cuisines in the rest of the region. Polish and Slovak cuisine are more influenced by East Slavic cuisines, but still maintain some significant influence from the Germano-Czech cultural sphere. Slovene cuisine is also in a similar position, but is influenced by Balkan and Mediterranean cuisine as opposed to East Slavic. Hungarian cuisine is likely the most dissimilar, which while maintaining some considerable connections, is mostly influenced by East Slavic, Balkan, and Ottoman cuisine.