Chef Klaus
Allgäuer Kaspressknödel
Pressed bread dumplings from the Alpine south, fried until the cheese catches at the edges and the middle stays soft enough for broth, kraut, or a weekday plate.
Culinary Explorer
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Westfälischer Pickert
Created by
Lippe's winter potato pancake lives by one job: squeeze the raw grated potatoes dry, keep the settled starch, and fry the batter slowly until the middle cooks through.
Side Dishes
German
Comfort Food
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
30 min
Active Time
30 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
Yield4 servings
Westfälischer Pickert belongs to Lippe and East Westphalia, potato country with a winter cupboard. Grated raw potato, flour, yeast, egg, and milk make a thick batter that cooks into a sturdy pancake, pale gold at the edge and soft inside. You eat it with salted butter and Rübenkraut, the dark sugar beet syrup, or with a slice of Leberwurst, liver sausage, if you grew up on the savoury side of the argument.
The regions split even inside Westphalia. Lippe likes the thick yeast Pickert, often with raisins in the batter; the broader Westphalian Lappenpickert is thinner and spread like a cloth in the pan. Some families sweeten it, some put liver sausage on it, and everyone thinks their grandmother settled the matter. She didn't. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders, and here it's even one valley different from the next.
The step that decides it is squeezing the raw potato and saving the starch. If the grated potato goes in wet, the batter turns heavy and grey before the middle cooks. If you squeeze it, pour off the watery liquid, and scrape the white starch back in, you keep the potato body without drowning the dough. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.
Cook it slower than your impatience wants. The outside browns before the raw potato inside has finished, so runter mit der Temperatur and let the pan do its work. This is not a thin Reibekuchen. Das braucht seine Zeit.
Pickert is documented as a poor-house and farm kitchen dish of Lippe and East Westphalia, where potatoes became central after their wider German adoption in the eighteenth century under state pressure and practical hunger. Frederick II of Prussia's potato orders of the 1740s and 1750s did not invent the potato pancake, but they helped push the tuber into northern and western German fields, where dishes like Pickert could feed a household cheaply through winter. The local dispute still holds: Lippischer Pickert is the thick yeast version, while Westphalian Lappenpickert is flatter and thinner, a regional split carried in the pan.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
floury potatoes
Quantity
750g
peeled
plain flour
Quantity
250g
lukewarm milk
Quantity
150ml
fresh yeast or instant yeast
Quantity
15g fresh / 5g instant
eggs
Quantity
2 large
salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon
sugar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
raisins (optional)
Quantity
60g
clarified butter or lard
Quantity
3 tablespoons
for frying
salted butter
Quantity
to serve
Rübenkraut, sugar beet syrup
Quantity
to serve
Leberwurst, liver sausage (optional)
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| floury potatoespeeled | 750g |
| plain flour | 250g |
| lukewarm milk | 150ml |
| fresh yeast or instant yeast | 15g fresh / 5g instant |
| eggs | 2 large |
| salt | 1 teaspoon |
| sugar | 1 teaspoon |
| raisins (optional) | 60g |
| clarified butter or lardfor frying | 3 tablespoons |
| salted butter | to serve |
| Rübenkraut, sugar beet syrup | to serve |
| Leberwurst, liver sausage (optional) | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Box grater
- •Clean kitchen cloth
- •Heavy frying pan or cast-iron skillet
Instructions
- 1
Wake the yeast
Stir the yeast and sugar into the lukewarm milk and leave it for 10 minutes, until it looks creamy and alive. Keep the milk warm, not hot, because heat kills yeast before it has done a day's work.
- 2
Grate and squeeze
Grate the potatoes on the fine side of a box grater into a clean cloth, then squeeze hard over a bowl until the potato feels damp, not dripping. Let the liquid stand for 5 minutes, pour off the brownish water, and scrape the white starch from the bottom back into the potato. That starch is structure, and Weggeworfen wird nichts.
Use floury potatoes, not waxy ones. A floury potato gives starch back to the batter; a waxy potato stays slippery and makes the middle gummy. - 3
Mix the batter
Put the squeezed potato and saved starch in a bowl with the flour, eggs, salt, and yeast milk, then beat it into a thick, spoonable batter. Stir in the raisins if you're using them. The batter should drop heavily from the spoon; if it runs, the potatoes were too wet and the pan will tell on you.
- 4
Let it rise
Cover the bowl and leave it in a warm place for 45 minutes, until the batter looks slightly puffed and loose around the edges. It won't rise like bread because raw potato weighs it down, but the yeast gives lift and a faint sourness that keeps the Pickert from eating like a brick.
- 5
Fry slowly
Heat a heavy pan over medium-low heat and melt in a little clarified butter or lard. Spoon in thick rounds of batter, about 10cm wide, and cook 5 to 6 minutes per side until deep golden and set through. Runter mit der Temperatur if they darken too fast; the crust can lie to you while the raw potato inside is still working.
- 6
Serve at once
Serve the Pickert hot from the pan with salted butter melting into the surface and Rübenkraut alongside, or put Leberwurst on the table for the savoury camp. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Chef Tips
- •Squeeze the potatoes harder than feels polite. Raw potato carries more water than you think, and that water is why a Pickert turns grey, flat, and undercooked in the middle.
- •Keep the settled starch. Pour off the liquid, not the white paste at the bottom of the bowl. That paste is the potato holding itself together.
- •Use clarified butter or lard for the pan. Whole butter burns before the thick pancake cooks through, and Pickert needs time, not smoke.
- •Raisins are a Lippe family argument, not a law. Put them in if you're serving with butter and Rübenkraut; leave them out if the liver sausage is coming to the table.
Advance Preparation
- •The batter is best fried after its first rise. If it sits too long, the raw potato darkens and the yeast weakens.
- •Leftover Pickert keeps one day in the refrigerator. Reheat it slowly in a dry pan, then add a little butter at the end so the surface crisps without burning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 320g)
Calories
710 calories
Total Fat
23 g
Saturated Fat
13 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
9 g
Cholesterol
145 mg
Sodium
725 mg
Total Carbohydrates
110 g
Dietary Fiber
7 g
Sugars
27 g
Protein
16 g
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