Erzgebirgischer Buttermilchgetzen

Buttermilchgetzen belongs to the Erzgebirge, the Saxon mountain kitchen where potatoes carried whole winters and nobody pretended thrift was a flaw. This is lean food: raw and cooked potato bound with Buttermilch, buttermilk, a little bacon, caraway, and linseed oil, baked flat until the underside takes colour and the middle stays tender.

The regions split even on a potato cake. In the Rhineland you meet Reibekuchen from raw grated potato, fried crisp in the pan. In Swabia the potato is more likely to become Schupfnudeln or Knödel, dumplings. Up here in the Erzgebirge, the Getzen goes into a hot, oiled pan and finishes in the oven. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders.

The technique is simple and unforgiving: squeeze the raw grated potato hard, then bring moisture back with buttermilk. Leave the raw potato wet and the bake stews instead of crusting; squeeze it dry and season it properly, and the linseed oil can fry the bottom while the cooked potato keeps the body soft. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.

Use floury potatoes, the kind that fall apart when boiled. They bind without turning rubbery. Save the bacon fat, too. Weggeworfen wird nichts. A spoon of that fat in the pan helps the crust, and the crust is why everyone reaches for the edge piece first.