Subject: German potato pancake
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
From: Ed Wagner (edwagner at earthlink.net)
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2003 08:09:57 GMT
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Hi all,
I am looking to make TRUE traditional German potato pancakes. Any TRUE germans out there with a good recipe?...smile
Thanks in advance for your help.
From: Jill McQuown
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 03:57:41 -0500
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I'm not German but I my father's mother was. IIRC it's pretty simple. Grate white potatoes; soak in water dashed with a little white vinegar to keep them from turning brown. Drain the grated potatoes. Add a little flour, salt & pepper and some minced onion. Press between your hands and form into pancakes.
Here I'm a bit fuzzy. Some say add 1 beaten egg to the mixture but I don't recall my grandmother doing that.
Melt some fat (bacon grease is good) in a cast iron skillet. Add the potato cakes, about 4 at a time, and cook until browned on both sides.
From: Rhonda Anderson (schumacher11 at bigpond.com)
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2003 13:14:50 GMT
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You want to get as much moisture out of the grated potatoes as possible. The best tip I've seen for that is to put the grated potatoes into a clean teatowel, gather the towel up so that you have a bundle, and twist the neck of the bundle, and keep twisting (so that you're squeezing the liquid out of the potatoes) until liquid stops coming out of the cloth bundle. Then tip the potatoes out of the teatowel, and throw the teatowel into the washing machine <g>.
From: hahabogus (not at applicable.com)
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2003 12:22:42 GMT
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Ed Wagner wrote:
> I am looking to make TRUE traditional German potato pancakes. Any TRUE
> germans out there with a good recipe?...smile
> Thanks in advance for your help.
Which style? Made from grated potatoes or from leftover mashed?
From: Jill McQuown
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 08:08:23 -0500
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hahabogus wrote:
> Which style? Made from grated potatoes or from leftover mashed?
Hi Alan, leftover mashed is Scottish/Irish. German potato pancakes are grated. Both are delicious but the texture is completely different.
From: Thierry Gerbault (ThierryGerbault at NOSPAM.att.net)
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 09:18:24 GMT
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Jill McQuown wrote:
> Hi Alan, leftover mashed is Scottish/Irish. German potato pancakes are
> grated. Both are delicious but the texture is completely different.
Jill, mashed potato and onion pancakes are common in German food, although I agree that those made with grated potatoes are what first comes to mind. I love both!
From: sf (sf at pipeline.com)
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 22:17:41 -0700
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Thierry Gerbault wrote:
> Jill, mashed potato and onion pancakes are common in German food,
> although I agree that those made with grated potatoes are what first
> comes to mind. I love both!
How do the grated kind compare with latke?
From: Thierry Gerbault (ThierryGerbault at NOSPAM.att.net)
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2003 06:27:18 GMT
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sf wrote:
> How do the grated kind compare with latke?
AFAIK, latke are made with grated potatos, as are potato pancakes. Potato patties are made with mashed potatoes.
From: Harry Demidavicius (harry.d at shaw.ca)
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2003 18:49:04 -0600
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Thierry Gerbault wrote:
>AFAIK, latke are made with grated potatos, as are potato pancakes.
>Potato patties are made with mashed potatoes.
Some latkes are made with shredded or "string" potatoes, Thierry, similar to some American hash browns. I personally find these very greasy.
From: Thierry Gerbault (ThierryGerbault at NOSPAM.att.net)
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 01:15:05 GMT
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Harry Demidavicius wrote:
> Some latkes are made with shredded or "string" potatoes, Thierry,
> similar to some American hash browns. I personally find these very
> greasy.
Thanks, Harry. I've not seen those, but I doubt I'd like them either. I don't care much for Ameriucan hash browns, but good home fries are a different story.
From: gregzywicki at cs.com (Greg Zywicki)
Date: 7 Apr 2003 06:01:32 -0700
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hahabogus wrote:
> Which style? Made from grated potatoes or from leftover mashed?
Or the third style - a potato and onion puree with egg and flour.
From: penmart01 at aol.como (Sheldon)
Date: 06 Apr 2003 13:50:05 GMT
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Ed Volks Wagner writes:
>I am looking to make TRUE traditional German potato pancakes.
http://www.recipecottage.com/german/potato-pancakes03.html
Reibekuchen (German Potato Pancake)
Yield: 1 servings
1.5 kg white potatoes
1 large onion
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
whole wheat flour
oil
Grate the potatoes over a sieve, so that the water can leave. Don't use a too fine grater, you don't want to make mashed potatoes.
Squeeze the potatoes - so that more water is going out of it.
Grate the onions fine on the grater and put them to the potatoes, like the other ingredients and mix them carefully.
Depending on how wet the dough is, put some flour or oat flakes to it, so that you get a not to solid dough.
Put oil into a pan and when it is really hot, take with a spoon a bit from the dough and put it into the pan and push it to a flat cake.
They have to be "golden" from both sides (you have to turm them after awhile) - the border of that pancake has to be real crisp.
Eat them hot on a slice of bread (Schwarzbrot (that is dark bread)) with butter and put Ruebenkraut (sugar-root syrup) or Apfelkraut (apple syrup) on it.
_______
http://www.lysator.liu.se/etexts/recept/us/potato-pancake.html
POTATO PANCAKE
German "Kartoffel Puffer
A traditional German potato recipe. Not for people with weight problems.
(serves 4)
2 1/2 lb potatoes, peeled
2 onions, chopped fine
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup oil (or lard)
Grate the peeled raw potatoes with a fine grater. Squeeze dry in a towel. Mix the potatoes with all other ingredients (except the oil). Leave it for a while.
Heat the oil or lard in a frying pan. Form pancakes from 2 Tbsp of batter, press flat, and fry until both sides are golden brown.
Notes:
Serve the hot pancakes with any kind of stewed fruit.
Be sure you make enough pancakes. They have the same effect as salted peanuts: you can't stop eating!
Rating
Difficulty: easy.
Time: 15 minutes preparation, 5 minutes cooking.
Precision: approximate measurement OK.
Contributor: Heinz Kindlimann
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Electronics Dept., Zurich, Switzerland
From: Janet Bostwick (nospam at cableone.net)
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 09:11:49 -0600
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Ed Wagner wrote:
> I am looking to make TRUE traditional German potato pancakes. Any TRUE
> germans out there with a good recipe?...smile
> Thanks in advance for your help.
My mother never gave me a recipe for potato pancakes--it was just something that I learned to do at home. We never put onions in ours, nor did anyone else in my hometown(Wisconsin Germanic community formed by emigrants in the late 1800's). Because I don't make them often any more I have lost the ability to construct in the bowl so I use the following recipe from "German Cookery" by Elizabeth Schuler.
Potato Puffs (Kartoffelpuffer, Reibekuchen)
4 large potatoes
2 eggs
1 cup milk
3 Tablespoons flour
salt
1 Tablespoon fat
sugar, if desired
Pare and grate raw potatoes. Drain off liquid. Mix with eggs, milk, flour and salt to form a firm dough. Heat fat in skillet. Put dough in skillet, 2 tablespoons at a time, and spread out thinly to form small pancakes. Fry on both sides to a rich golden brown. Sprinkle with either salt or sugar and serve hot.
Serves 4
My father always sprinkled his potato pancakes with sugar; my mother sprinkled hers with salt--I eat them either way but prefer the salt. We always served both applesauce and sour cream cucumber salad as side dishes. Father liked the applesauce, mother the sour cream cucumbers. That was the entire meal. The potato pancakes need to be crispy and lacy at the outside edges.
_______
Sour Cream Cucumber salad
Peel and thinly slice desired amount of cucumbers. Sprinkle the cucumbers with salt and set aside in the refrigerator for an hour or so. Remove excess liquid from the cucumbers by either wringing them in batches in your hands or squeeze them in a cloth of some kind. Do not salt the cucumbers again until you have added all ingredients and are doing the final taste test.
I'm guessing I usually have about one quart of the wilted cucumbers to work with. If I am using regular onions for the salad I will coarsely chop about 1/4-1/2 cup of onions and mix with the cucumbers during salting and refrigeration. If I am using green onions, they get added during the final preparation.
Sprinkle the cucumbers with a scant eating teaspoon of sugar, some freshly ground black pepper and about 2 soup spoons of white vinegar. Stir to mix. Add a large dollop(1/3-1/2 cup?--it is up to you) of sour cream and stir to mix. You are looking for a more liquid, creamy, slightly bubbly mixture. The sprinkling of sugar breaks the tartness of the vinegar, but does not make this a sweet and sour dish. This is not like the Scandinavian sour cream cucumber salad.
From: cathy wells (cwells21 at NOSSPAMhotmail.com)
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2003 15:58:26 GMT
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Ed Wagner wrote:
>I am looking to make TRUE traditional German potato pancakes. Any TRUE
>germans out there with a good recipe?...smile
>Thanks in advance for your help.
The recipe is basic, but the most critical thing about potato pancakes is the type of potato and the type of grater. I always use baking potatoes - the boiling kind (red rose, white) have too much water and startch (I think that's the problem) to make a good pancake.
The size and shape of the shred is most important. Some people use the food processor. OK for them, I guess, but it doesn't work for me. The best grater, in my opinion, is a sort of screen grater. It looks like a square wire tennis racquet. The spaces are about the same size as in a tennis racquet, and each wire is sort of rippled. I don't even know fi these are even being made any more, I haven't seen one in several years. For me, this produces the perfect shred. I drain the water from the shredded potatoes, but I don't squeeze them.
Then, to about 3 potatoes I add 1 grated onion (be careful not to use too much onion! I have a friend who insists on one whole onion to each potato! Yuck!). Beat in 1 to 2 eggs, and a couple spoonfuls of flour. It's a sort of touchy-feely kind of thing. It's never the same because the amount of potato is never the same and the weather conditions are never the same (more humid day, more flour, etc.) Add salt and pepper to taste (probably more salt than you think, because potatoes absorb a lot of salt), Stir mixture together.
Heat a cast iron pan and add a good layer of oil. Drop potato mixture by large spoonfuls into pan, flattening slightly with back of spoon. Don't crowd the pan. Cook until golden brown on bottom, turn and cook other side. Remove from pan and place on warmed plate lined with paper towels, and keep warm while continuing to make rest of potato batter.
Traditional topping is applesauce, but some people like sour cream on their potato pancakes. They're also great with braised red cabbage.
From: sf (sf at pipeline.com)
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 20:01:23 -0700
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cathy wells wrote:
> The
> best grater, in my opinion, is a sort of screen grater. It looks like
> a square wire tennis racquet. The spaces are about the same size as in
> a tennis racquet, and each wire is sort of rippled. I don't even know
> fi these are even being made any more, I haven't seen one in several
> years. For me, this produces the perfect shred.
That's a grater, huh? I've always wondered what the heck they were! How do you manage to grate with them? They look better suited for making fries. <G>
From: Arri London (biotech at ic.ac.uk)
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2003 10:04:22 -0600
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Ed Wagner wrote:
> I am looking to make TRUE traditional German potato pancakes. Any TRUE
> germans out there with a good recipe?...smile
> Thanks in advance for your help.
Here's one sort:
500 g potatoes
1 onion finely minced
1 tbs flour
2 eggs beaten
oil for frying
Grate the potatoes and squeeze out as much moisture as possible.
Mix with the flour, onion and eggs.
Drop by spoonfuls into the hot oil and fry until brown.
Can make a different sort by using only one egg and leaving out the flour.
Another sort (Swiss roesti)
Boil slightly waxy potatoes in their skins, peel while warm and leave to cool.
Grate roughly.
Heat butter or oil in a heavy pan. Press the potatoes into a cake in the pan and fry for a few minutes, covered, on medium heat.
Add a little milk or cream, dropwise all over the cake.
When the underside is brown, turn the roesti by inverting the pan onto a plate, then sliding the cake back into the pan onto the unbrowned side. Brown the second side.
From: sackv at uni-duesseldorf.de (Victor Sack)
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 15:46:55 +0200
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Ed Wagner wrote:
> I am looking to make TRUE traditional German potato pancakes. Any TRUE
> germans out there with a good recipe?...smile
There is no such thing as one true German potato pancake; there are numerous versions, regional and otherwise. Potatoes can grated raw or after having been boiled. Or they are not grated at all and just cut into small pieces or strips instead. For example, here in the Rhineland, there is Rievkooke (Reibekuchen), which is very similar to a typical American-Jewish potato latke, and there is Pillekuchen, which is rather different.
Here is a recipe for Pillekuchen, adapted from _Kulinarische Streifzüge durch das Rheinland_ by Hannes Schmitz.
Bergischer Pillekuchen
1 kg (2 pounds) potatoes
about 125 g (4.4 ounces) streaky bacon (in a piece, not in thin slices)
2 onions
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground nutmeg
3 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons sour cream
Peel and rinse the potatoes and cut them in thin sticks, (as for matchstick or shoestring potatoes). Cube the streaky bacon and fry it in a large pan until it gives off some fat. Mince the onions, add them to the bacon and fry until soft. Add the potatoes and continue to fry, turning them over often, until golden brown. Add the seasoning. Mix the eggs, flour and sour cream, with a bit of salt and pepper, pour the mixture over the potatoes and let it thicken. Serve with green salad.