(serves 4): 8 waxy potatoes, 4 shallots, 50 g jerky, 2 tbsp clarified butter ("Butaris"), dried thyme, salt, pepper.
This is a gratin without cream, overturned baked potatoes, so to speak. (Named after Anna Déslion, demi-monde and regular at the Café Anglais in Paris). Here's a slightly more sumptuous version:
Peel, wash, and slice or slice the potatoes very thinly (2 mm thick); dice the shallots. Preheat the oven to 250°. First, however, work on the stove. Heat a heavy, flat dish (preferably enamelled cast iron). Melt the clarified butter in it and let the finely diced dried meat ooze a little, then take it out. Place the potato slices in a circle in the dish, sprinkle each layer with diced dried meat and shallots; salt, pepper and sprinkle with the crushed thyme. And so on, keeping the potatoes sizzling briskly on the stove.
Finally, when all the potatoes are used up, put butter flakes on top and off with the dish/pan high in the oven. Let cook for about 10 minutes, then turn on the top heat to brown the fries anna, pretty and appetizing. The thin slices won't take much time.
Turn them out and serve with a fresh salad.
Top-class dried meat
What the Hessians have their dried meat, the Bavarians have their Wammerl or the Lower Saxons have their Gestreiftes. Meaning the same thing: lean smoked bacon.
Dried meat is indispensable in the kitchen, providing the necessary fat for many dishes and giving them their characteristic flavour: roast pigeons, for example, hare pepper; many soups (minestrone); salads (frisée or lamb's lettuce with bacon and crôutons), sauerkraut and a number of potato dishes.
Of course, the quality of the jerky is of great importance: "Kernig"it must be, i.e. firm and well-marbled; concisely seasoned, not too salty and strong in the smoke. That of the butchery Hoos belongs to the top class (23,80/kg). Even better: the black smoked pork, which Hoos gets from the Black Forest (23,80/kg). In the pan it develops an almost unbelievable aroma.
"Landjuwel" pigs, a breed of German Edelschwein, Yorkshire and Schwäbisch-Hällisch, Horst Hoos has slaughtered weekly in Aschaffenburg. The sides of the bacon are rubbed vigorously with a special mixture of natural spices: juniper, coriander, cardamom, black pepper, a trace of garlic (the recipe is of course secret) and the necessary portion of salt. Wrapped in foil, all this has an effect on the bacon: it is dry-cured in its own juices and seasoned at the same time. Then the meat dries in the air and finally matures in the cold smoke of beech shavings to become jerky.
It is available at the Bornheimer Metzgerei and in the Kleinmarkthalle. In addition to a variety of meats, sausages and other smoked specialties, appreciated by customers from all over the world. Southeast Europeans love the smoked ladder sausages and the Hungarian-style "Kolbasz" paprika sausages; Africans buy smoked pig's feet and pig's tails, which give many dishes a truly local taste; Brazilians are delighted with smoked oxtail for "Feijoada", the fiery bean stew that is not to be trifled with. Hoos is also the only one in Frankfurt to make beef ham himself.
A good 20 years ago, Horst and Karin Hoos came to the Main from the Alsfeld area. Today, their butcher's shop in Berger Straße is an indispensable address for the residents of the district; but the stand in the market hall is also known in Japan: as a shopping source for special beef qualities and cuts. Japan Airlines specifically draws attention to this service, which is rare in this country.
Success motivates, and family cohesion possibly even more so. The house of the Hoos family is well ordered, the continuity of the family business secured. Son Andy follows in his father's footsteps as a master butcher, his future wife is also a specialist.
Butchery
Horst, Karin and Andy Hoos
Berger Str. 56 and Kleinmarkthalle, Stand 28/29
60316 Frankfurt am Main
Phone: 069-433442; Kleinmarkthalle: 285490
Opening hours: 7.30-18, 7.30-16 Kleinmarkthalle: 7.30-18.30, Sat 7.30-13
from Waldemar Thomas