Fränkische Kartoffelklöße

Fränkische Kartoffelklöße belong beside the Sunday roast in Franconia, especially when there is a dark pan sauce that needs catching. They are also weeknight food if you've planned like a sensible person and boiled the cooked potatoes ahead. The plate isn't precious: a Kloß, a ladle of sauce, red cabbage if it's the season, and everyone knows why they sat down.

Germany argues about potato dumplings properly. In Bavaria you meet more cooked-potato Knödel, in Thuringia the raw-potato Klöße go pale and almost glassy, and in Franconia the useful middle holds strong: about two-thirds raw grated potato to one-third cooked. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. A German dumpling is not one national object with one rule.

The rule here is simple and it decides everything: press the raw grated potato until it feels almost too dry to become dough. Leave water in it and the Kloß goes grey, slack, and sour in the pot; press it dry and the starch can bind instead of swimming away. Keep the settled potato starch from the pressing water and put it back. Weggeworfen wird nichts.

Toast the bread cubes well, too. They sit in the center so the dumpling cooks evenly and gives you that little crisp, buttery middle. Das braucht seine Zeit. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.