My German ancestors used a potato ricer during their New Year’s Day dinner celebration to make kartoffelkloesse, a German potato dumpling. The New Year’s Day meal consisted of Sauerbraten (German pot roast), creamed spinach, braised red cabbage and kartoffelkloesse. This meal was first made by my maternal Great-Great Grandma Anna Weis. She and other family members would prepare this meal every year. My grandma (Barbara) grew up in a house with her grandmother Anna and several other family members and learned to prepare this meal. She passed the tradition down to my family and we continue to gather for the celebration every January.A key item still used in the preparation of the meal is Anna’s potato ricer.  The potato ricer is used to make one of my favorite dishes - kartoffelkloesse - or potato dumplings.   To make the dumplings, we boil ten pounds of potatoes and rice them into a pan. We then mix eggs, flour and nutmeg in and form them into small balls. We chill them overnight and just before dinner, we drop them into boiling water and wait for them to rise to the top. We serve them with melted butter and parsley on top - they are awesome!Although the potato ricer is very old and pretty rusty, it still works well. Each year, it reminds me of the traditions that my German ancestors passed down. My Grandma Barbara and her sister Ginny always reminisce about the old days and the way they watched their Grandmother Anna make the meal. The potato ricer represents a small part of my heritage, as it has been past down for many years and used for our special New Year’s celebration.

– JPC

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more