Bratkartoffeln

BRATKARTOFFELN
Confessions of a Potato Eater II

A recent discussion of German food on the 'Eating out in Chicago' forum and the opening of the Christkindlmarkt (Christkindlmarket site) has prompted me finally to post something which I had intended to post for some time, namely, a paean to Bratkartoffeln, that is, German style fried potatoes.

As has been the case with other traditional German foods, Bratkartoffeln have been giving way even in Germany to flashier, more glamorous foreign imports, most especially the "French fried potato." To be sure, truly well made, twice fried frites or fritten are unsurpassable in deliciousness and yet I would argue that well made Bratkartoffeln can be no less delicious and, moreover, are both easier to produce at home than frites and allow for a considerable variety in options for preparation and flavouring.

For those who are unfamiliar with this humble but glorious approach to cooking potatoes, Bratkartoffeln are made in either of two basic ways: with raw potatoes or with potatoes previously boiled in their jackets and subsequently thoroughly cooled. The potatoes are either sliced thin (especially so if you're using raw ones) or diced and they are then fried in a pan with some additional flavourings. Since the number of options are too numerous for any one person to treat, I will just describe a few of my favourite (and rather traditional) ways to make this dish.

1) Fry the potatoes in goose fat; add coarsely chopped onion late in the frying process but early enough to allow the onions to cook and take on some colour.

2) Fry the potatoes in rendered bacon fat, add onions as described above, then the crisped and chopped bacon and some caraway seeds.*

3) Fry the potatoes, add onion, add sliced German sausages.†

4) Fry the potatoes, add onion, paprika (sweet and/or piquant) and chopped parsley.•

When not using goose fat (which I do only in the wake of roasting the Christmas Day goose, which renders enough for many weeks of deadly pleasure), I tend to use olive oil (plain) with or without some peanut oil mixed in. Butter can be used but needs to be mixed with oil.

*This preparation is the one used by the stands at the Christkindlmarkt. Their product tastes quite good but the demand often -- even usually -- exceeds the capacity of the stands and it is in my experience normal to get a plate of Bratkartoffeln which includes a number of pieces of potato which are very much undercooked and texturally very displeasing. Still, especially on a cold day with one of their excellent sausages, it's a damn good meal.

† In northeastern New Jersey, potatoes thus made with sliced frankfurters fried in olive oil are known as 'Italian hot dogs'; the mixture can be put into an Italian roll with catsup, mustard or both. This is a particular favourite of Lucantonius.

• I believe this style is the one used at Resi's Bierstube on Irving Park, just west of Damen. The one time I had them, they were very tasty but a little dry; perhaps just bad luck on that occasion but in any event, the German potato salad offered there is so delicious that I think that that is likely always the better option at Resi's: their potato salad is neither gloopy nor overly sweet nor sour; it is a beautifully balanced expression of all the requisite flavours with a nice degree of prominence given to the onion and the smoky Speck. Many thanks to JeffB for recommending their potato salad to me.

Antonius

Is it correct that caraway seed is more of a Bavarian tradition? My northern/central German relatives were horrified to find that much of the rye bread sold in the US has caraway seed.

We always used leftover cooked and peeled potatoes for Bratkartoffeln. You can also use Crisco for frying and it makes food brown nicely. Calories and cholesterol be damned!

Save the goose fat for red cabbage too. Just don't use Wolfgang Puck's recipe that was in the Tribune a couple of weeks ago. It's not the right way to make it.

Eat! You look so thin. wrote:Is it correct that caraway seed is more of a Bavarian tradition? My northern/central German relatives were horrified to find that much of the rye bread sold in the US has caraway seed.

I don't for a moment doubt what you say about your relatives' reaction to the seed-bearing bread, and I guess I might be inclined to say the south and Austria use caraway more than the north but there are lots of Central German and North German recipes with caraway.

Now, with regard to Bratkartoffeln, I confess that I don't know. I always thought of it as an option left to personal choice, though the caraway and Speck style certainly is popular in Bavaria. I take it then your folks don't use it? As a kid, I think we most often had it without caraway, whether there was bacon or not. But I think we also had it with both sometimes and that's a style I like very much and make fairly often at home.

We always used leftover cooked and peeled potatoes for Bratkartoffeln. You can also use Crisco for frying and it makes food brown nicely. Calories and cholesterol be damned!

The way my folks do them and what I've seen in cookbooks is boil them in the skin, cool them, then peel, slice and fry. Peeling then boiling can allow the outside layer of the spud to get too soft and tend to crumble when being handled during the frying stage.... At least that's what I think. But I certainly have turned previously peeled and boiled potatoes into Bratkartoffeln without any real problems, and if one sets out with that use in mind, one can just take care not to boil them too much.

As I said above, I often do them straight from raw stage, sliced thinner, when the need for a quick Bratkartoffeln fix comes up unexpectedly, and I very much like dong them that way too.

I haven't tried Crisco but it makes sense that it would work well.

Save the goose fat for red cabbage too. Just don't use Wolfgang Puck's recipe that was in the Tribune a couple of weeks ago. It's not the right way to make it.

I missed the Puck recipe; what did he do?

Goose fat is fabulous stuff and anything that ought to be or can be reasonably cooked in it tastes so much better when it is.

A

Wolfgangs ingredient list:
1/4 cup of peanut oil
1 medium red onion, sliced
1 cup of brown sugar
2 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar
2 cups of red wine
2 cups of orange juice
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon of dry ginger
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 pounds of red cabbage, cut into julienne

I think it would be way too sweet. Being more of a purist, I would not use the following:
red onion
brown sugar
orange juice
cinnamon
dry ginger
ground black pepper

i'll post my mom's recipe when I get a chance It's pretty much the following:
goose or duck fat
1 apple, cored, peeled, and sliced
not sure about red wine vinegar and/or wine
a few cloves
1 head of red cabbage, cut into julienne
Ther might be a few other ingredients, but I'd have to check. She always said things like beef fat, bacon fat or even pepper are a no-no.

The key that most chefs miss or don't bother with is that after the cabbage is done, remove it from the pot and reduce the remaining liquid until it is just starts to get syrupy. Then put the cabbage back in, stir it up, and you're done.

You should also pick the cloves out or you can leave them in as a surprise for your guests.

Lets see, Bratkartoffeln, Rotkohl...all we need is wurst or other meat dish and we have a fine dinner.

Wow. I agree: Puck's version would be much too sweet to my tastes and, while a preference for relatively less sweetness in many food items is a personal inclination of mine, I think a cup of sugar vastly exceeds what is normally done for Rotkohl or Blaukohl for the quantity of cabbage used in that recipe.

As with all such humble, basic standards, there are a lot of regional and subregional and family variants. Puck's recipe strikes me as odd in several ways but I'm willing to believe that some of the oddness has to do with regional preferences of his native part of Austria. But even so, this dish strikes me more as grand chef tinkering bordering on reinvention, which is all fine if the final product tastes really good and one isn't looking for or expecting something that tastes more like a traditional rendering.

Again, his is far too sweet for my tastes, between the massive amount of sugar (for a two pound head of cabbage, I think a tablespoon of two at the most is the norm in German renderings) and the apples and the large amount of orange juice; the cinnamon, ginger and orange juice are all alien to traditional recipes I've encountered, though a little red current jelly is often used.

In my own home-cooking I usually use a little vinegar and some red wine and just one ot two teaspoons of sugar. If there's goose fat (generally just for Christmas and the period following it), then there's no Speck, and if there's no goose fat, then bacon-drippings. The cloves can be ground up but I use whole. And I know of no prohibition against the use of pepper and include it here.

Again, though, this is the kind of dish that -- within certain parameters -- allows for lots of variation.


Thanks for the link to Laschet's website. I'm going to try to make it there on a Saturday for the Königsberger Klopse and a couple of half-liters vom Fass.

Mom's Rotkohl recipe as passed down from Oma, published for the first time.

Combine in 4 qt pot
1 head of red cabbage,
remove core, ribs and outer leaves, shred (julienne) and rinse
2 apples, cored, peeled, and sliced
4-5 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
A bit of salt to taste (you can always add this later if you want, salt will help draw the liquid out of the cabbage)
2 tbs of brown sugar
1 cup of rose wine (red wine is OK too)

Boil to crisp-tender. DO NOT OVERCOOK
10 minute for fresh cabbage, 20 minutes older cabbage
Boil with lid on unless it appear to be very watery.
Add red wine vinegar to taste. This also brings out the color of the red cabbage.
Add 2-3 tbs of duck or goose fat. This will make the cabbage appear shiny when the amount is right. Beef or pork fat can be used in a pinch, but isn't as good.
If there is too much liquid, remove the cabbage from the pot and reduce the remaining liquid until it is just starts to get syrupy.
Pick out the cloves and bay leaf, put the cabbage back in, stir it up, and you're done.

I told to not use the following: Pepper, bacon fat, chicken fat, butter, plain vinegar. But if you like pepper, why not?

As you see it's pretty simple to make and will come out great without being overly sweet. Our ancestors in Europe didn't have ingredients like orange juice, nor did they put sugar in vegetables. The excessive sweetness might be Puck's "over the top" attempt to cater to American tastes. I've had Rotkohl at the Gasthaus in Elgin when Fritz was still alive (he was originally from Graz, Austria) and his was normal, and not overly sweet.

At home I see we have the ingredients for Bratkartofeln. I will suggest this to my wife, as she likes them too, but I'll probably end up making them.

I like your signature "Wenn ick 'n Schnaps jetrunken habe, bin ick 'n andrer Mensch, und der andre Mensch will ooch 'n Schnaps ham"
I finally took the time to read the Plattdeutsch. I'll plan to use that line in the near future.

Bratkartoffeln mit Litauischer Wurst

In my post on Lithuanian Plaza Bakery and Deli in Marquette Park...
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=10975
... I illustrate various satisfying ways to consume the fine Lithuanian smoked sausage available at said establishment. Here I'll show a way to stretch a small amount of sausage that remains after a meal with a more sizeable portion of meat. In the old days, Bratkartoffeln, augmented with a little meat of whatever sort -- bacon, sausage, ham -- was a common meal among working folks. This version, with a smallish piece of leftover Lithuanian sausage, was really tasty.

This dish I made starting with raw potatoes: oil (I used peanut), potatoes, sausage, onion, salt, pepper, caraway seeds:


The finished product:


Dabei ein bißchen vom Mostrich aus Litauen... Dit hat uns jeschmeckt:


Antonius


Links to other recipes and cooking notes by this writer: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=55649#55649

Wonderful stuff!

My only excursions from Antonius' straight line are:

1. I simmer the potatoes in their skins until a sharp knife point easily penetrates, then leave them to cool on the sideboard for an hour or two. Then they go into the fridge at least overnight. The fridge time tightens up the grain. And, oh yes: I use red potatoes only.

2. I fry in a mixture of 3/4 olive oil, 1/4 butter.

3. I use a stainless pan only, at smoking heat, with constant surveillance.

Yum!

One of God's simple pleasures, these potatoes!

Geo

HI,

While this post originated almost seven years ago and was last responded to over four years ago, it still has influence. Looking for something to do with leftover ham, I borrowed ideas from this thread to make Bratkartoffelm:


4-25-11-Bratkartoffeln by cal222, on Flickr

Thank you!

Regards,

Oh, C2! You're killing me! I've been doing Atkins since New Year's [successfully: I've lost 20 kg!], but oh! damn! do I ever miss those Bratkartoffeln!! And yours look most excellent. At least I can eat the Schinken.

Reason for the weight-loss: going to get a knew knee on 10th May. Maybe later I'll eat something all carbo-ish...

Meanwhile, enjoy your taters.

Geo

Man, those potatoes that Antonius posted look exactly like the ones my grandmother made all the time. I recall coming home from school when it was cold outside and approaching the house and smelling these. I nearly went nuts when I went to the Christkindlmarkt with all the smells there!! And they taste so good...lo carb diets be damned.

Cathy -- I'm delighted you remembered this older (or is that 'experienced'?) thread and that it came in handy!

Toria -- To have a dish I made look like one that a grandmother used to make... that makes me feel really good!... Many thanks for the comment!... (P.S. Do you remember any of the particularly favourite combinations of things your grandmother used for her Bratkartoffeln?)...

Geo -- Congrats on the successful Atkinisation and best of luck with the new knee! How 'bout the Habs and the Hawks in the Cup Finals this year?

A

Antonius my grandmother would make such dishes as sauerbrauten, or pot roast and also she would make hamburgers, not the kind we would eat with buns today but ground beef, onions, bread crumbs and spices she would make into patties and fry. She also would make many other things but these were what I can remember the potatoes were served with.

Bratkatoffeln, frikadellen and rotkohl, it's what for dinner tonight!

Antonius, so *great* to hear from you again! And tnx for the good words. I'm sure hoping that all this Atkinsization will help the re-hab; can't see how it wouldn't. Oh, those Habs: so near yet so far. But, like Price said, they can be proud of how they played, no matter what.

So when are you coming up to Montréal??!

Geo

Hi,

Made some Bratkartoffeln in a searing hot pan tonight with some rotkohl on the side. Delicious!

Regards,