German Delight: Bratkartoffeln (German Fries) - A Savory Recipe Worth Trying

Crispy fried, puree, with bacon, onions or parsley – Bratkartoffeln are a classic of German home cooking.

Bratkartoffeln are relatively easy to make. If you follow a few tips you can prepare a great and delicious recipe. They go super well with schnitzel, meatballs or fried eggs.

Ingredients

• 1 kg of hard-boiling potatoes
• 2 onions
• 2 tablespoons butter or oil
• 50 g smoked streaky bacon
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions

Wash the potatoes and cover them in boiling water and cook for about 20 minutes (for extra crisp potatoes follow Oma’s tips bellow). Drain the potatoes first, then quench with cold water. Remove the peel immediately with a kitchen knife and let the potatoes cool. Peel the onions and finely dice them. Cut the potatoes into 3 to 5 mm thick slices. Finely dice the bacon. Fry the bacon until crispy in a large pan. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper. Let the lard melt in the pan. Then fry the potato slices in it over high heat from the first side. Make sure that the slices do not overlap if possible, possibly use two pans. Only turn the potatoes slices when they are crisp on one side. When both sides are well browned, add the onion. Fry for a few minutes on high heat and turn occasionally. After about 5 minutes, when the onions are golden yellow and soft, fold in the bacon cubes and season well with salt and pepper.

Extra Tips from Oma

Which potato is best suited?

Floury? Mainly stuck? Cooking? There are still a few options when buying potatoes, but only hard-boiled potatoes promise a perfect crispy experience. All other varieties tend to fall apart in the pan and then soak up fat. That is the beginning of the end.

Since we want the fried potato slices stay in shape and leave the pan as a whole, the firm tubers are ideal for this potato dish. They contain less starch, which makes them more cut and moist. On the other hand, floury potatoes are suitable for purees, soups, fries, croquettes, gnocchi or dumplings.

How to prepare the potatoes:

In the first step, the potatoes are best washed the day before and barely boiled in salted water for 18 to 20 minutes. Drain the water and let the potatoes cool down briefly. Peel the potatoes warm and refrigerate them overnight so that they are drier the next day.

Oil, Butter, Lard – which fat should you use?

So that the potato slices do not soak up the fat, it must first be very hot when they get into the pan. Therefore, a tasteless oil with a high smoke point are the best, such as Peanut, sunflower, or refined rapeseed oil.

Pure butter contains a lot of water and proteins that burn on a high heat, it is less suitable and leaves an unpleasant taste.

Lard completes the taste of the fried potatoes and, unlike butter, can withstand very high temperatures without any problems.

Which pan should you use?

The perfect crust, leaves a well-baked iron pan. It can be heated up even more and thus ensures that a crisp layer is placed around the potato slices. If you don’t have one use an coated Teflon pan, because there is definitely nothing to burn here.

Allergens: Milk (if you use butter).