00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - What makes these dishes so German?
00:05 - Ah, potatoes.
00:07 Why potatoes?
00:09 Well, Germans simply love them.
00:12 They crop up in many traditional dishes.
00:14 And weirdly enough, potatoes often used as a slang term
00:18 to describe Germans themselves.
00:20 Although some do take this as a bit of an insult.
00:23 But when it comes to the ways that potatoes are grown,
00:26 cooked and eaten, there are certain rules.
00:28 This is Germany after all.
00:29 So let me give you the lowdown.
00:31 First things first, we have to clear something up.
00:34 Even though Germany sees itself as the land of the potato,
00:38 the potato did not in fact originate here,
00:41 but rather in the Andes in South America.
00:44 The potato came to Europe in the 16th century,
00:47 but it took some time before there was
00:48 large scale cultivation in Germany.
00:50 Some 270 potato varieties of about 5,000 known worldwide
00:56 are approved for planting in Germany.
00:58 Most of them have feminine names,
01:00 like Bellana, Gala and Linda.
01:02 Some people say they were named
01:03 after the farmer's daughters.
01:05 If you're ever visiting Germany,
01:07 here are some potato dishes you need to try.
01:10 Roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato fritters,
01:16 and of course, potato salad.
01:20 Potato salad with Vienna sausages.
01:23 It hardly gets any more German than that.
01:25 To some, it's even the obligatory dish
01:27 for Christmas Eve dinner.
01:29 The average German eats around 56 kilos
01:32 of potatoes every year.
01:34 That's about 280 servings, a lot of potatoes.
01:39 To give you an example of just how much
01:42 Germans love potatoes, my German grandmother
01:45 sent me a whole package of them
01:46 in the post from her own garden.
01:49 Germany harvests the highest number of potatoes in the EU,
01:52 and even ranks sixth in the whole world.
01:56 Not bad, right?
01:57 Let's take a closer look.
01:58 Every year on his family farm near Berlin,
02:01 Sebastian Klass harvests loads of potatoes
02:04 and sells them in his own farm store.
02:06 So he knows which potatoes the Germans like best.
02:12 - General speaking, in Germany,
02:15 they love the very dark yellowish potato.
02:19 In other countries, they want,
02:21 or they have them in white or very pale color.
02:25 We've got one sort, it's actually red on the outside,
02:28 and it's dark yellow on the inside, and that's Laura.
02:32 - And what's your personal relationship to potatoes?
02:36 - I really enjoyed farming with potatoes.
02:41 It's a lot of fun.
02:42 And also, this, digging them out,
02:45 is like chasing gold nuggets.
02:49 - That sounds like something everyone should try once.
02:52 - My first one.
02:54 (laughs)
02:56 - Normally, a machine would do the work,
02:58 but here, the first ripe potatoes
03:00 are painstakingly harvested by hand in early summer.
03:03 Then they're sorted and packed into boxes.
03:05 In case you find yourself invited
03:09 to a German household for dinner,
03:10 here are some very important potato-related words for you.
03:15 Kapu or Kartoffelpu.
03:19 This is the shortened version for mashed potatoes,
03:22 which is very often used by children.
03:24 Mehlig und festkochend.
03:26 Floury and firm.
03:28 This refers to the different types of potatoes,
03:31 because you can't use every potato for every dish.
03:34 Pommes or Fritten.
03:36 Short form for Pommes frites, which is French fries.
03:39 Now that we've learned so much about them,
03:42 it's time to finally eat some potatoes.
03:45 I'm meeting someone who knows how to prepare them
03:47 in the most delicious way.
03:51 As a head chef, Nico Blümel knows potatoes.
03:54 So how do Germans prefer them?
03:56 - Simply the classic boiled potatoes,
04:00 tossed in butter and sprinkled with herbs and salt,
04:02 and that's all, mostly.
04:03 After that comes the mashed potatoes and whipped potatoes.
04:06 - What should you watch out for when preparing potatoes?
04:10 - It's very important to steep them in cold water.
04:14 Don't toss them in boiling water,
04:16 because then they'll get mushy.
04:18 Floury potatoes get soft when boiled,
04:20 and low starch potatoes get firm.
04:22 Those are the ones used for fried potatoes or soups.
04:24 The floury ones are for mashed potatoes.
04:26 - Well, there you have it.
04:32 The world of the potato in Germany.
04:35 I had so much fun harvesting them for the first time today,
04:39 and now I have even more respect
04:40 for the hard work that goes into them.
04:42 (upbeat music)
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