[Sca-cooks] Cinnamon in German cooking, esp knodeln

[wheezul at canby.com]

>>>  In particular, he claims that cinnamon appears
>>>in recipes where it doesn't belong, and offers
>>>the example of knodeln.
>>
>>Hopefully Ranvaig can chime in about German recipes - she's
>>immediately who comes to mind, with her work on Rumpolt. I personally
>>think that their tastes were somewhat different in period than in
>>modern times. The first dish I EVER tasted in the SCA was like
>>tortellini in a cinnamon flavored chicken broth. It was strange, yes,
>>but GOOD.
>
> Thank you, I've been traveling from Ohio, to
> Mississippi for a wedding, to Missouri for
> Thanksgiving, and home tonight, and I just saw
> this discussion.
>
> First, I wonder what he means by "knodeln".
> Modernly it means a steamed or boiled dumpling of
> bread or potato.  Potato is unlikely but I have
> yet to find a recipe for plain bread dumplings in
> Rumpolt or any other period German source.
>
> "Kno:del" or "Klo:ß" ("o:" means umlaut) seems to
> mean meatball, from any of a variety of meat,
> poultry, or fish.  Bread is often but not always
> mentioned, but may be implied in other recipes.
> Also two recipes from hard boiled egg, and one of
> flour and egg yolk fried in butter, that could be
> something like spaetzle.  But nothing like modern
> kno:del.
> Ranvaig

Anna Wecker has a recipe for cheese knodel on page 156.  Ingredients are
2/3 bread, 1/3 cheese, egg to the correct consistency (not too thin that
it runs), season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and saffron as desired, slow
cook in meat stock and then brown quickly by frying in hot fat.   An
option is given to also grate cheese into the stock after cooking and
serve it with the knodel for those that may be infirm. The cheese
recommended is specific - hard Italian, Swiss or Dutch cheese not ordinary
'farmer's cheese (bawrenkas).  These actually sound pretty good to me, but
I like dumplings with my meal!  No cinnamon is listed in this recipe, but
we could also check Kuchenmaistery, Staindl and Rontzier to see if there
were any recipes there that might be a source.

Katherine