Hoppel Poppel

Hoppel Poppel belongs to Berlin and Saxony first, a leftover pan for a late supper, a quick lunch, or the morning after a roast. It isn't feast food. It's the dish that proves a German kitchen can feed you well from the bowl of cold potatoes and the heel of sausage left in the larder. Weggeworfen wird nichts.

Berlin keeps it direct: fried potato, onion, ham or sausage, egg over the top, sometimes a sour pickle beside it. Saxon cooks may add more onion or smoked meat, and farther north you start seeing sharper pickles and rye on the table with it. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. This one stays in the middle of the country, quick and useful.

The technique is simple and often ruined. Fry the potatoes first, in a wide pan, until their cut faces are crisp before the egg goes in. Add the egg too soon and you make a soft potato omelette. Good Hoppel Poppel has browned potatoes under the egg, not potatoes boiled twice by impatience.

Beat the eggs only enough to break them, pour them over, then lower the heat. The egg should bind the pan, not bury it. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss, because ham and sausage already carry salt, and the pan will tell you at the end what it needs.