diff --git a/tests/spoof/tesseract_cache.py b/tests/spoof/tesseract_cache.py
index db06aa8e..528e5a1e 100755
--- a/tests/spoof/tesseract_cache.py
+++ b/tests/spoof/tesseract_cache.py
@@ -100,6 +100,8 @@ def main():
     # Convert non-standard but supported -psm to --psm
     sys.argv = ['--psm' if arg == '-psm' else arg for arg in sys.argv]
 
+    if '_OCRMYPDF_TEST_INFILE' not in os.environ:
+        real_tesseract()  # test not properly set up
     source = os.environ['_OCRMYPDF_TEST_INFILE']  # required
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
diff --git a/tests/test_main.py b/tests/test_main.py
index 11e02993..e87e5163 100644
--- a/tests/test_main.py
+++ b/tests/test_main.py
@@ -349,10 +349,9 @@ def test_german(spoof_tesseract_cache, resources, outdir):
         sidecar,
         env=spoof_tesseract_cache,
     )
-    print(os.environ)
-    assert (
-        p.returncode == ExitCode.ok
-    ), "This test may fail if Tesseract language packs are missing"
+    if 'deu' not in tesseract.languages():
+        pytest.xfail(reason="tesseract-deu language pack not installed")
+    assert p.returncode == ExitCode.ok, "Requires tesseract deu language pack"
 
 
 def test_klingon(resources, outpdf):