Re: [Cz-L] "treatise on Fluden recipes"

happynew year to all! i too have a cookery question. both my grandmother
and mother used to make what they called "czernowitzer kaiserschmarren" . it
was certainly similar to what i have had in vienna....at least in
appearance,but the taste was very lemony and had an almost spicy undertone.
if anybody has this recipe i would be most grateful, even though it would
probably totally ruin my attempts at losing weight!!!!!!
in hope, cornel. p.s. re the cookbook, i seem to remember that
madelon fleminger was compiling that???
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Taylor" <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
To: "Czernowitz" <czernowitz-l_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 6:15 PM
Subject: [Cz-L] "treatise on Fluden recipes"

> Because of the variety of Fluden recipes I received,
> I decided to do some further research. This is what I found:
>
> The Yiddish word "Fluden" comes from the German "Fladen".
> This in turn is associated with the French "flan".
> Both of these refer to a flat cake, or rather a tart.
> According to the Larousse Gastronomique, the Latin poet Fortunatus
> (530 - 609) already mentions the word flan.
> Some of you wrote me that Jewish "Fluden" is derived from Hungarian
> cooking. And indeed, the best Fluden I ever ate was made by my great-aunt
> Rivka Steinmetz of Radautz, who was born as Rivka Rosenberg in the
> district
> of Maramures (a Hungarian speaking part of Romania).
> Tante Rivka's Fluden was made with a thin strudel like dough and rolled
> like
> a strudel. I do not know whether it was her own idea, or a general
> Hungarian custom to make the Fluden as a roll rather than a flat cake.
> Many of the recipes I received from members of this list, are for a flat
> layered cake.
>
> But my cookbook "The cuisine of Hungary" by George Lang, does not contain
> a recipe for Fluden.
>
> The cookbook of "Transylvanian Cuisine" by Paul Kovis calls Fladen or
> "Fladni" a Jewish multilayered pastry, considered the symbol of an annual
> abundant yield. According to this book, Honey, the basic sweetener, also
> symbolizes abundance. The recipe in this book for Flodni or fladni bears
> no
> resemblance to the Fluden I remember, but is similar to one of the recipes
> I
> was sent.
>
> My own conclusion is that if one made "milchidike" fluden, one made a
> layered flat cake using "Muerbteig" which contains butter. If one made a
> cake which could be eaten right after eating meat, a thin pulled dough was
> used. Considering various middle eastern pastries, this may also be a
> recipe
> going back to biblical times. The advantage of making a rolled cake, was
> that it could be eaten with your fingers and the filling would not fall
> out.
> After bleaching the stains out of a 3 meter long tablecloth, this is
> definitely a consideration.
>
> Some of the recipes I received are taken verbatim from various cookbooks.
> So as not to infringe on copyright laws, I cannot send the recipes I
> received to the list at large. After this long "megillah" you may not want
> them anyhow. But I will send the recipes to all who requested them.
>
> Mimi
>
Received on 2006-09-25 14:55:17