Recipe for German Sausage-Stuffed Pancakes Will Feed a Crowd: NPR

Left: Erin Rhode’s mother, Kathy Rhode (left); Erin’s maternal grandmother, Velma Freisleben Thein; and Erin’s uncle, Bob Freisleben. Right: Bob Freisleben prepares specken dicken.

Erin Rhode/Collage by NPR

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Erin Rhode/Collage by NPR

Left: Erin Rhode’s mother, Kathy Rhode (left); Erin’s maternal grandmother, Velma Freisleben Thein; and Erin’s uncle, Bob Freisleben. Right: Bob Freisleben prepares specken dicken.

Erin Rhode/Collage by NPR

All Things We’re Cooking is a series starring family recipes of you, our readers and listeners, and the special stories behind them. We’ll continue to share more of your kitchen gems throughout the holidays.

When Erin Rhode’s grandmother Velma passed away in August, she was tasked with creating a remembrance video. Grandmother Velma lived to be 93 years old. There were countless photos taken throughout his life in Minnesota, but not as many videos.

Still, Rhode unearthed a favorite family memory from 2010. It was the year his Uncle Bob, who wasn’t known to spend much time in the kitchen, decided he wanted to learn how to make specken dicken. , the thick German sausage. pancakes that the family eats every day of the year.

“I took a video of this for some reason, as I think I knew at the time that it was a big family tradition and we want more than just the note card,” Rhode said. “I used so many clips in the video for her memorial because – her description of the dough, for example – ‘She has to be very thin’. Not thin, not thick.”

The video also showed Uncle Bob’s mishap as he tried to thin the batter and ended up spilling it on the counter just as Grandma Velma returned to the kitchen to find the botched scene.

Rhode is pretty sure Uncle Bob hasn’t tried making the graham flour pancakes since then, but the same can’t be said for the rest of the family.

Large gatherings aren’t as common these days, but Grandma Velma’s kids are still making specken dicken for their families and sending photos of the final product to the family group chat.

Rhode, who lives in Plymouth, Minnesota, just west of Minneapolis, said it’s helpful to have a few extra pairs of hands in the kitchen to help slice kielbasa sausage, form small patties with the ground sausage, make it “thick thin”. batter and flip the pancakes onto the hot plate.

The extra mouths are also useful because the recipe does a lot of them.

“It’s never something I made myself because I couldn’t eat them [all]”, Rhode said, although they freeze well. “In fact, even when we make them just for the four of us…my mom and dad, my sister and I, we end up having to freeze them.”

If you’re making specken dicken and want to eat them like Grandma Velma, you’ll need to have a bottle of Karo Dark Corn Syrup on the table, although Rhode said she (and many other family members) prefer maple syrup.

“In a very logical and abstract sense, it just tastes like putting the sausage in the pancakes, but in a way it tastes better than that because it’s all mixed together – and the syrup is on it,” a- she declared. “And the smell kinda reminds me of grandma’s cooking, even though we’re going to, you know, my mom’s house.”

Specken’s dick

Recipe submitted by Erin Rhodes
Plymouth, Minn.

Ingredients

• 3 cups graham or rye flour
• 6 cups white flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• buttermilk, until thickened (about 1.5 litres)
• 16 oz pork sausage roll (Jimmy Dean or similar)
• 1 smoked rope sausage or kielbasa (about 14 ounces, precooked)

directions

Slice the rope/kielbasa sausage into 1/2-inch-thick discs. Cook the sausage roll into a single large thin patty. Cut the cooked sausage roll into 1-inch squares (about the same size as the kielbasa slices). Reserve the meat.

Mix the flours, brown sugar, salt and baking soda in a bowl. Mix the eggs.

Add the buttermilk while stirring until the batter has the correct “thick-thin” consistency where it pours smoothly but does not run. If you run out of buttermilk, you can finish with plain milk.

Once the dough and meat are ready, it’s time to prepare the specken dicken on the griddle. First, oil the pan. Next, arrange three or four slices of rope sausage/kielbasa in a group on the griddle, leaving space between them. Repeat until your griddle is full, leaving enough space between groups – each group of sausages will be a pancake. Spoon about 1 cup pancake batter centered over each group so sausage is completely covered. (Pancakes are about 4 inches in diameter, but use your best judgment.)

While the crepe and rope/kielbasa sausage is frying together on one side, take three or four pieces of pork roll sausage and arrange them evenly on the crepe. When they are cooked on the first side, flip them over and cook the second side, cooking both sets of sausages in the pancake.

Serve hot with syrup (Karo extra dark or maple syrup, according to your preference). If you don’t have any willing eaters right away, the pancakes can be kept warm in the oven (set to low heat) until ready to eat. Uneaten pancakes go to the fridge or freezer to be eaten cold later.