In postwar Bavaria, potatoes were not a side dish
This cookbook was a 1956 wedding gift to my mother. She's gone now — but her recipes aren't. The Kartoffelgerichte chapter of Bayerisches Kochbuch has more recipes than any other in the book. That is not an accident. In a Bavarian kitchen in 1956, potatoes were the meal — fried, mashed, dumplinged, goulash'd, baked in milk, finished with horseradish cream.
I remember Bratkartoffeln more than almost anything else she cooked. Yesterday's boiled potatoes, sliced cold, put into a pan with fat until the edges caught. Hofmann treats that as a proper dish, not leftovers. She is right.
This 1956 Bavarian cookbook PDF translates ten potato dishes by hand from the Fraktur original, with historical headnotes, US-adapted measurements, and a week-of-meals grid for each one. Instant digital download on Etsy.
The ten recipes
- Potato Goulash (Kartoffelgulasch)
- Bavarian Fried Potatoes (Bratkartoffeln)
- Milk-Braised Potato Gratin (Aufgezogene Kartoffeln)
- Potato & Leek with Smoked Bacon (Lauchkartoffeln)
- Hungarian-Style Potatoes (Ungarische Kartoffeln)
- Bavarian Mashed Potato (Kartoffelbrei)
- Raw Potato Dumplings (Rohe Kartoffelknödel)
- Potato Pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer)
- Potatoes with Egg & Sour Cream (Niedernauer Kartoffeln)
- Potatoes in Horseradish Cream Sauce (Meerrettichkartoffeln)
Full recipes — ingredients, method, historical headnotes, and a week-of-meals grid — in the Potato Dishes, Vol. 2 PDF on Etsy. Instant PDF download. No physical book is shipped.
26th edition · Birken-Verlag, Munich · 1956
Originally given to Erna Paul as a wedding gift.
Written in printed Fraktur typeface. Translated by E. Paul.
