By Emily Crennen, Museum Education Specialist
Fall is all around us here in Windsor. As the temperature slowly drops, our cooking turns towards warm and hearty meals. With this change in weather, I think about what the Germans from Russia would have eaten as they finished harvest season and prepared for the winter months. Here is an easy recipe to add to your holiday spread to remember the legacy of the people that settled long ago in Colorado.
A favorite and common breakfast in the German farmhouse was fried potatoes. They are slightly trickier to make compared to our modern French fries but are still an easy feat. They were often served as a very early breakfast on days put aside for butchering and threshing, or separating grains from their stalks.
German Fried (Raw) Potatoes (Deutsche rohe Bratkartoffeln)
- 8 medium “old” potatoes
- 2-4 tablespoons lard, bacon fat, or part butter
Use firm potatoes like russets. Do not use soft, boiling potatoes. Use “old” potatoes. The higher starch and lower water content of older potatoes makes them easier to fry to a crispy, golden brown. Wash and peel potatoes. Slice about 1/8-inch or thinner. Heat 2 tablespoons of the fat in a large cast iron frying pan over moderate heat until sizzling and hot, add potatoes to fry, carefully scraping browned ones up from bottom with a spatula. Fry 25 minutes or until tender and browned throughout, adding salt and pepper to taste. Use additional fat if needed. Serve very hot.
After butchering was finished, all the meat pieces would be stuffed into casings for Wurst, which was usually served with fried potatoes. The sausages would be boiled in a wash boiler where bits and pieces would get left behind, thus creating a rich stock. Knöpfle, a soft egg pasta, would be added and then shared as a meal of thanksgiving to celebrate the successes of the harvest, butchering, and fellowship of the community.
To learn more about Germans from Russia and our local history, join us at the Halfway Homestead for Halfway Home: Shared History at the Dickey House. Join us on November 9th with the Windsor-Severance Historical Society for their annual Legends and Lessons event, recognizing important community members who have helped preserve Windsor and Severance History. On December 14th, we will learn how Windsorites celebrated the holiday season in the past as well as make a traditional German from Russia holiday treat.
Recipes were sourced from German Food & Folkways: Heirloom Memories from Europe, South Russia, & the Great Plains by R.M.H. Gueldner.
Image 1: Photo of men and women standing in a field as they harvest a crop of potatoes or onions, date unknown.
Image 2: Bratkartoffeln.
Image 3: Knöpfle.