Chef Klaus
Altmärkische Hochzeitssuppe
The Altmark wedding broth is a clear soup with no tricks: bones for depth, patient skimming for clarity, and small semolina dumplings that make it festive.
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Schmorgurken
Created by
The cucumber glut made into dinner: peeled, seeded cucumbers braised soft with dill and a little mince, then soured and thickened so the pan liquor carries the plate.
Soups & Stews
German
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
Batch Cooking
25 min
Active Time
35 min cook•1 hr total
Yield4 servings
Schmorgurken belong to high summer, especially Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, and the old eastern home kitchens, when the garden gives you cucumbers faster than you can pickle them. This is weeknight Hausmannskost, honest home cooking: a pan, a little mince, dill, sour cream, and the cucumber turned from salad into supper.
The regions split over the fat and the souring. Around Berlin and Brandenburg you often see bacon or pork mince, dill, and sour cream; in Saxony the pan may go a little sweeter-sourer, with vinegar and sugar speaking louder. Further north, cucumber goes more often into pickling jars or cold salads. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. This one is eastern and practical.
The technique is simple and unforgiving: peel the cucumbers, scrape out the wet seeds, salt the flesh, and drain it before it hits the pan. Skip that and the cucumber floods the braise, the sour cream turns thin, and you get warm salad water. Salt first, drain, then braise just until the pieces are glassy and tender but still hold their shape.
Use the liquor. Weggeworfen wird nichts. The cucumber gives water, the mince gives fat, the dill gives its green edge, and a spoon of flour and sour cream bind the lot into a light stew. Nicht aus dem Glas. No packet sauce belongs here.
Schmorgurken are tied to the market-garden country around Berlin and Brandenburg, especially the Spreewald, where cucumber growing became a regional trade from the 18th and 19th centuries and supplied Berlin with fresh and pickled cucumbers. The dish shows the other side of that cucumber economy: not the famous Spreewald gherkin in the jar, but the larger garden cucumber cooked fresh when summer harvests came in too quickly. In East German home cooking, a small amount of mince or bacon often stretched the dish into a full meal, a thrift pattern shared with cabbage, potatoes, and beans across the eastern table.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
braising cucumbers or large firm cucumbers
Quantity
1.2kg
peeled, halved, seeded, cut into thick crescents
fine salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
onion
Quantity
1 large
finely chopped
neutral oil or lard
Quantity
2 tablespoons
mixed pork and beef mince
Quantity
250g
plain flour
Quantity
1 tablespoon
vegetable stock or light meat stock
Quantity
250ml
mild German mustard
Quantity
1 tablespoon
sugar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
white wine vinegar or cucumber pickle brine
Quantity
1 tablespoon
sour cream
Quantity
150g
dill
Quantity
1 small bunch
chopped
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
boiled potatoes
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| braising cucumbers or large firm cucumberspeeled, halved, seeded, cut into thick crescents | 1.2kg |
| fine salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| onionfinely chopped | 1 large |
| neutral oil or lard | 2 tablespoons |
| mixed pork and beef mince | 250g |
| plain flour | 1 tablespoon |
| vegetable stock or light meat stock | 250ml |
| mild German mustard | 1 tablespoon |
| sugar | 1 teaspoon |
| white wine vinegar or cucumber pickle brine | 1 tablespoon |
| sour cream | 150g |
| dillchopped | 1 small bunch |
| black pepper | to taste |
| boiled potatoes | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide lidded saute pan or shallow braiser, 28cm
- •Colander
- •Small spoon for scraping cucumber seeds
Instructions
- 1
Salt the cucumbers
Peel the cucumbers, halve them lengthways, and scrape out the watery seeds with a spoon, then cut the flesh into thick crescents. Toss with the teaspoon of salt and leave in a colander for 15 minutes. The salt pulls out the loose water now, so the cucumbers braise later instead of boiling the sauce thin.
Use real Schmorgurken if you find them, the short, thick braising cucumbers. If you use salad cucumbers, choose firm ones and seed them well; the watery middle is what ruins the pan. - 2
Brown the mince
Heat the oil or lard in a wide lidded pan, add the onion, and cook until it turns soft and pale gold. Add the mince and fry it until the raw colour is gone and a little browning catches on the bottom. That browned layer is your sauce base, not dirt on the pan.
- 3
Build the sauce
Stir the flour through the mince and cook it for one minute, because raw flour tastes pasty and never quite disappears later. Pour in the stock a little at a time, scraping the bottom clean, then stir in the mustard, sugar, and vinegar. The sauce should taste lightly sharp before the cream goes in, because cucumber needs an edge or it goes flat.
- 4
Braise the cucumbers
Pat the salted cucumbers dry and fold them into the pan. Cover and cook gently for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the pieces turn glassy at the edges and give to a spoon but don't collapse. Runter mit der Temperatur. Hard boiling breaks the cucumber and drives the cream sauce rough.
- 5
Finish with dill
Take the pan off the hard heat and stir in the sour cream and most of the dill. Keep it below a boil now, because sour cream tightens and splits when bullied. Taste for salt, pepper, vinegar, and sugar: Wuerzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss. Serve with boiled potatoes and the last dill scattered over the top.
Chef Tips
- •Do not skip the salting and draining. Cucumber is mostly water, and if that water lands in the sauce all at once, you get a pale soup instead of Schmorgurken.
- •Dill goes in at the end. Cook it hard for twenty minutes and you've killed the green taste you bought it for.
- •Pickle brine can stand in for vinegar if it is clean and sharp, not sweet syrup. That is the larder doing its job, not a shortcut.
- •For a meatless version, leave out the mince and brown the onion in butter, then add a few diced boiled potatoes to make the pan carry itself. Don't pretend it's the same dish with mince. Cook the version that works.
Advance Preparation
- •The cucumbers can be peeled, seeded, salted, and drained up to 2 hours ahead; keep them chilled and pat them dry before they go into the pan.
- •The finished stew keeps 2 days in the refrigerator. Reheat gently and do not boil it, because the sour cream sauce can split under hard heat.
- •Boil the potatoes ahead if you like, then warm them in a little butter and parsley while the cucumbers braise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 460g)
Calories
545 calories
Total Fat
31 g
Saturated Fat
10 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
18 g
Cholesterol
75 mg
Sodium
1030 mg
Total Carbohydrates
49 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
20 g
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