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German Dumplings
Take two or three small rolls, remove the crusts and cut the crumb into small pieces; put these into a basin, pour over boiling milk and let them soak; press so as to draw off the milk, put them into a saucepan and beat over the fire with a spoon until hot; then move to the side and season with salt and pepper. Cut half a pound of bacon into small pieces and fry them with some of the crusts of the bread cut into small pieces. Mix the fried crusts and bacon with the soaked bread; add in small lumps five ounces of butter and sufficient beaten egg to bind the mixture without making it too soft; then divide it into small equal sized masses, and roll them evenly around. Plunge the dumplings into a saucepan of boiling water, salted, and boil for ten minutes, keeping the saucepan covered. When cooked, drain them and pour over them brown clarified butter.
This is Semmelknödel — bread dumplings — written for a cook who already knew what the dough should feel like. The whole recipe hinges on that texture: a mixture stiff enough to hold, loose enough to stay tender.
- The rolls"Small rolls" means plain white wheat rolls, ideally a day or two stale — the Austrian Semmel or a French petit pain. Two or three of them is perhaps 4–6 oz of bread, depending on the roll. Soft supermarket dinner rolls collapse into paste; use something with a firm crumb.
- The milk is not measuredPour on just enough boiling milk to wet the crumb through, then squeeze it out firmly. Around a cup for that quantity of bread is a reasonable starting point, but the instruction to "press so as to draw off the milk" is the real measure — the bread should be damp, not swimming.
- BaconHalf a pound of bacon for that quantity of bread is a lot by modern taste, and the bacon of the period was likely fattier and saltier than most rashers sold now. Slab bacon or pancetta cut into small dice is closest in character; consider halving the quantity if you want the bread to read at all.
- Five ounces of butterAdded to already-fatty bacon this makes a very rich dumpling. Four ounces or less still binds and enriches. Work it in while the bread is warm so it disappears into the mixture rather than melting out in the water.
- Binding"Sufficient beaten egg" is usually one to two eggs. Add the beaten egg a spoonful at a time and stop as soon as a squeezed handful holds its shape without weeping. Overegged dough goes rubbery; underbound dough disintegrates.
- Cook one firstBefore shaping the batch, poach a single small dumpling. If it breaks up, work in a spoonful of fine dry breadcrumbs; if it is dense and springy, loosen with a little of the reserved milk.
- Simmer, do not boilDespite the wording, a hard rolling boil tears bread dumplings apart. Bring the salted water to the boil, drop them in, then hold it at a bare shiver. Ten minutes suits dumplings of about 1½ inches; larger ones need 15–20, and they will float and feel set when done.
- Yield and servingExpect eight to ten small dumplings, enough for four as a side. The brown clarified butter is not optional garnish — it is the sauce. Traditionally these go alongside roast pork, goulash or sauerbraten, and any left over are sliced and fried in butter the next day.
Bread dumplings are the classic thrift dish of the German-speaking kitchen: stale rolls, milk, egg and whatever fat was to hand, boiled into something substantial enough to carry gravy. Regional versions run from the Bavarian and Austrian Semmelknödel to Bohemian Houskový knedlík, which is steamed as a loaf and sliced. Oscar Tschirky's presence in the Waldorf's kitchens coincided with a period when German and Austrian cooking was thoroughly at home on American hotel menus — Oscar himself was Swiss-born, and much of his enormous 1896 compilation records the continental repertoire a New York hotel cook was expected to produce on demand. The addition of half a pound of bacon and five ounces of butter to a peasant dish of soaked bread is a fair sketch of what hotel cooking did to home recipes: the frame stays, the fat multiplies.