Strudel

Not to be confused with Nut roll or Streusel.
This article is about the food. For the feature found on sea ice, see Strudel (ice). For the typographic symbol "@" (strudel), see @.
Strudel

An apple strudel
Type Pastry
Place of origin Austria, Hungary, and Slavic Europe
Main ingredients Filo pastry
Cookbook:Strudel  Strudel
Strudel festival in Hungary

A strudel (/ˈstruːdəl/, German: [ˈʃtʁuːdəl]) is a type of layered pastry with a filling that is usually sweet. It became popular in the 18th century through the Habsburg Empire. Strudel is most often associated with Austrian cuisine but is also a traditional pastry in the whole area of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The oldest strudel recipes (a Millirahmstrudel and a turnip strudel) are from 1696, in a handwritten cookbook at the Vienna City Library (formerly Wiener Stadtbibliothek).[1] The pastry descends from similar Near Eastern pastries (see baklava and Turkish cuisine).[2]

Etymology

Strudel is an English loanword from German.[3] The word derives from the German word Strudel, which in Middle High German literally means "whirlpool" or "eddy".[4][5][6]

In Hungary, it is known as rétes, in Croatia as štrudel, štrudla or savijača, in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia as štrudla or savijača, in Slovenia as štrudelj or zavitek, in the Czech Republic as závin or štrůdl,[7] in Poland and Romania as ștrudel, and in Slovakia as štrúdľa or závin.

The pastry

The best-known strudels are Apfelstrudel (German for apple strudel) and Topfenstrudel (with sweet soft quark cheese, in Austrian German Topfen), followed by the Millirahmstrudel (Milk-cream strudel, Milchrahmstrudel). Other strudel types include sour cherry (Weichselstrudel), sweet cherry, nut filled (Nussstrudel), Apricot Strudel, Plum Strudel, poppy seed strudel (Mohnstrudel), and raisin strudel.[8] There are also savoury strudels incorporating spinach, cabbage, pumpkin, and sauerkraut,[9] and versions containing meat fillings like the (Lungenstrudel) or (Fleischstrudel).

Traditional Hungarian, Austrian, and Czech strudel pastry is different from strudels elsewhere, which are often made from puff pastry. The traditional strudel pastry dough is very elastic. It is made[10] from flour with a high gluten content, water, oil and salt, with no sugar added. The dough is worked vigorously, rested, and then rolled out and stretched by hand very thinly with the help of a clean linen tea towel[11] or kitchen paper.[12] Purists say that it should be so thin that you can read a newspaper through it. A legend has it that the Austrian Emperor's perfectionist cook decreed that it should be possible to read a love letter through it. The thin dough is laid out on a tea towel, and the filling is spread on it. The dough with the filling on top is rolled up carefully with the help of the tea towel and baked in the oven.

See also

References

  1. ↑ N.N.: Koch Puech. Ein Vortrefflich und Gerechtes Koch Puech, darinen bey 1350 Rahre und Kostbahre Speisen begreiffen Nemblichen vor aller Hand Pastetten und Dortten gebachenen Sulzen ... [!] Unterschudliche guete Suppen auch von Fischen Und dergleichen andrer Wahrmen Speisen mehr zu Kochen und zue Zurichten, 1696. Vienna City Library, Manuscript department, H.I.N. 18845
  2. ↑ Friederich Kunz: Die Strudelfamilie - eine Wiener Mehlspeisendynastie mit orientalisch-europäischem Stammbaum, in "backwaren aktuell", 2/11
  3. ↑ Loanwords in English
  4. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, second edition. 1989.
  5. ↑ From Old High German stredan "to bubble, boil, whirl, eddy", according to etymonline.
  6. ↑ Seebold, Elmar. 1999. Kluge Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 23rd edition. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, p. 803.
  7. ↑ recepty/závin
  8. ↑ June Meyers Authentic Hungarian Heirloom Recipes Cookbook
  9. ↑ Gundel, Karoly (1992). Gundel's Hungarian cookbook. Budapest: Corvina. p. 127. ISBN 963-13-3600-X. OCLC 32227400.
  10. ↑ Real Homemade Strudel Dough
  11. ↑ German Insider Facts: The Apple Strudel
  12. ↑ Cloake, Felicity (17 March 2011). "How to cook the perfect apple strudel". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 4 January 2015.