Cologne's potato pancakes: grated potato fried crisp in hot fat and eaten with apple sauce or black bread. Brauhaus Sion lists them fresh on Thursdays.

Reibekuchen are the Rhenish potato pancakes, called Rievkooche in Kölsch. Brauhaus Sion lists three Reibekuchen with black bread, butter and apple compote at €11.40 as a Thursday dish. The Cologne Christmas market on Roncalliplatz names Reibekuchen with apple sauce among its stall specialities, and the Rievkoochbud kiosk is listed by koeln.de as selling only Reibekuchen.

Where to eat Reibekuchen (Rievkooche) in Cologne

3 editor picks for Reibekuchen (Rievkooche) in Cologne, ranked by editorial score. All Cologne signature dishes · Reibekuchen (Rievkooche) across every city.

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Make it at home

Serves 1245 minEasy

Ingredients

  • 1kg floury potatoes, peeled
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt, black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon caraway seeds (optional)
  • 500g lard or 500ml sunflower oil for frying
  • Apple sauce (unsweetened) and Rhenish Rübenkraut (turnip syrup) to serve

Method

  1. Grate the potatoes and onion finely on a box grater into a sieve over a bowl. Press to squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
  2. Let the squeezed liquid stand 3 minutes so the starch settles. Pour off the water, scrape the starch back into the potato.
  3. Mix the potato with eggs, flour, salt, pepper and caraway to a thick batter.
  4. Heat 1cm of lard in a heavy cast-iron pan to 185C (a drop of batter should bubble immediately).
  5. Drop heaped tablespoons of batter into the pan, flatten with the back of the spoon to roughly 10cm wide and 1cm thick.
  6. Fry 3 minutes per side until deep golden and crisp at the edges. Lift to paper towels.
  7. Plate while still very hot. Serve with apple sauce on one side and Rübenkraut on the other.

Editor tip. Hot fat is essential: the batter should sizzle at once, or the pancakes turn soggy. Lard gives the traditional flavour; sunflower oil also works.

Common allergens: Gluten, Eggs.