Central Europe · Volume 39, The Vinegar Cure, the Seven Herbs and the Butter Letter
Dibbelabbes
The Saar and the Palatinate
Illustration
- Time
- 2 hours
- Researched
- Researched from 1 source in the brief
The pot is the Dibbe and the mash is the Labbes, and two regions claim the dish, and it is attributed here to both. The oven method and time are Saarland's own; the weights are scaled to a kilo of potatoes from national recipe pages.
As tradition built it
Serves a family. About 2 hours in the oven.
Ingredients
- 1kg floury potatoes, grated fine and pressed dry
- 125g smoked bacon, in pieces
- 1 leek, sliced
- 2 eggs
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- as needed lard, for the pot
- to serve apple compote or green salad
Method
- Grate the raw potatoes fine, press them hard in a cloth, and pour off the water.
- Mix the potato with the bacon, the leek, the eggs, salt and pepper.
- Put it in a cast iron pot greased with lard, cover, and bake at 200 degrees for about 2 hours.
- Take the lid off for the last quarter of an hour so a crust forms. Serve it with apple compote or a salad.
What a modern chef changes
The crust everywhere, the leek sweated first
Rung 4
Method
- Keep the starch that settles from the pressed potato water and fold it back in; it binds the pot without egg doing all the work.
- Sweat the leek in the bacon fat before it goes in, so it is sweet and not raw in the middle of the cake.
- Bake it in a wide, shallow cast iron pan instead of a deep pot and turn it once, so both faces are crust; a deep Dibbe gives one crust and a soft heart, which is the tradition and the choice.
- The Big Green Egg at 200 degrees with the pot on the stone gives it a light smoke the oven does not.