A pickert is a flat, fried or baked

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

dish from

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It can be considered a kind of flattened dumpling or very nourishing pancake. It comes as a round ''Pfannenpickert'' the size of a pan, a rectangular ''Kastenpickert'', or a palm-sized regular ''Pickert''. The name is derived from Low German ''picken'', ''pecken'' ("to stick something onto something else"). The main ingredients are grated potatoes, flour,

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modula ...

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

, and (usually)

raisin A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word ''raisin'' is reserved for the ...

s, with a little

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...

, salt and sugar, and

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

for the baking. Three big potatoes produce 10–15 palm-sized pickerts, enough for 4–5 people. Pickerts are a specialty of the district of

Lippe Lippe () is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe. The ...

, where they developed from a traditional meal for the poorer people. In former times, Pickert was eaten as breakfast or lunch by poor farmers, being a cheap and very nourishing dish, as would be required of food for a day's work in the fields. They are now served spread with sugar beet syrup, butter or (plum) jam, or leberwurst. A related dish, ''Lappenpickert'', is found in the regions west of Lippe, towards

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

and the

Ruhr Area The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

. It does not usually contain raisins and yeast, but may have a dash of sweet cream added. ''Lappenpickert'' is usually baked in rather thin pancakes on a

griddle A griddle, in the UK also called a girdle, is a cooking device consisting mainly of a broad, usually flat cooking surface. Nowadays it can be either a movable metal pan- or plate-like utensil, a flat heated cooking surface built into a stove or ...

greased with a side of lard, and eaten with the same spreads as Pickerts from Lippe, or with smoked fish or

cold cut Lunch meats—also known as cold cuts, luncheon meats, cooked meats, sliced meats, cold meats, sandwich meats, and deli meats—are precooked or cured meats that are sliced and served cold or hot. They are typically served in sandwiches or on ...

External links

Recipe on FoodFamily.net

Recipe from Detmold-Brokhausen - German

Recipes and Stories around the Pickert on lippischer-pickert.de - German
Baked foods Dumplings Fried foods Potato dishes Westphalian cuisine {{Germany-cuisine-stub

See also

External links