Proper German dishes with sauce also include a decent dumpling! Here 40 old German original dumpling recipes as they were cooked by housewives in Germany over 100 years ago.
I have translated the recipes from Old German into an understandable language. I tried some recipes myself, these I have specially marked.
1. Schwemmklöße
Whisk 6 tablespoons of fine flour with 3 whole eggs and a medium cup of milk until quite clear. Then melt 70g of butter in a frying pan, add the flour and stir constantly over low heat until it thickens and separates from the pan.
After the mixture has cooled down, stirring repeatedly, add 3 whole eggs and a little salt.
The mixture is now spread into a shallow bowl to the thickness of a finger.
Just before use, form small dumplings with a spoon and boil them in salted water for 5 minutes. The dumplings cooked on low heat are removed with the skimmer.
Another way of preparation for Schwemmklöße:
Boil 250ml of cream or milk with 70g of butter and a little salt and pour in 130g of flour while stirring quickly.
The dough remains on the fire for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour the mixture into a bowl and stir in 3 whole eggs before it cools down.
2. Bread dumplings
Stir 125g of butter to a foam and gradually add 3 whole beaten eggs, salt and nutmeg while continuing to stir.
Add enough white breadcrumbs to make a not too stiff dough (+- 200g).
Form small dumplings from the dough and boil them in meat broth or water.
Dumplings that are too firm can be left to soak in the broth for a while, which will soften them.
The dumpling mass should not stand too long, otherwise the dumplings become too hard.
3. Egg dumplings (egg jelly)
Mix 6 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks with half a liter of cold cream, milk or meat broth, adding a little salt and nutmeg.
Pour the mixture through a sieve into a buttered mold.
The mold is now carefully heated in a water bath until the dumpling mass reaches a delicate firmness. The water must not boil, otherwise the mass becomes porous and therefore inedible.
With a spoon, cut small dumplings and put them into the soup. You can also turn the bowl upside down and cut the whole thing with a knife or cut it out with molds.
These dumplings are added to both broth and milk soup. In the case of milk soup, the mixture is mixed with cream or milk and a little sugar is added.
4. Dumplings with fruit
Soak about 6(250g) thinly peeled dried bread in water and squeeze it out again.
125g butter is stirred to foam. Gradually add 4-5 eggs, the squeezed bread and a little salt.
Now mix in enough flour to make a fairly stiff dough.
Put the dumplings formed from the dough into salted water and boil them. In order to become loose, they must lie loosely together in the kettle, not too crowded.
The dough can also be mixed with bread cubes roasted in butter.
You can also mix some milk, sugar, cleaned currants, grated lemon peel and some skinned, finely crushed bitter almonds into the dough just described and serve the dumplings with a fruit or milk sauce.
5. Sour dumplings
Toast about 250g of diced bread in butter and a little beef fat until yellowish, pour it into a bowl and let it cool. Pour about 300 ml of milk over it.
Now add a little salt, 5-6 eggs and enough flour to make a stiff dough.
Boil the dumplings in salted water for 7-8 minutes and serve them with a sour sauce.
6. Dumplings with thyme
From softened, purely squeezed bread, eggs, butter, flour, a little salt and a little cream or milk, prepare in the manner mentioned in No. 5 “Dumplings with fruit”. The dough is mixed with dried, powdered and sifted thyme.
Serve the dumplings cooked in salted water with fried bacon and roasted onion slices.
7. Potato dumplings
Cook good floury potatoes in their skins until done, but not too soft. The cold potatoes are peeled and grated on the grating iron.
Since the potatoes do not grate well before they are completely cold, it is advisable to boil them at least 12 hours before use.
Put 750g of these grated potatoes in a pot and mix them lightly with 200g of flour.
Then roast 130g of peeled and diced bread in butter, bacon or good beef fat until golden brown, let it cool down a bit and pour it over the potatoes.
Now add 3-4 beaten eggs, a little salt and mix everything together.
From this dough form round dumplings with a flour-covered hand, put them into boiling, salted water and boil them for 10-15min, depending on their size.
If you add a spoonful of flour dissolved in cold water to the boiling water and let it boil again before you put the dumplings in, they will stay nice and smooth and will not crumble easily on the surface.
These dumplings are served with butter in which grated bread has been toasted until golden brown, or with fried bacon and onions. If you want to serve them with a milk or fruit sauce, you can also mix some sugar and grated lemon peel into the dough.
8. Thuringian or Vogtland potato dumplings from raw potatoes
The potatoes are washed, peeled and rinsed again. Now they are grated with an English-hole grater into a large bowl and poured over with water. Carefully drain the water, and the starch rinsed in it, water again and leave overnight.
The next morning, the water is drained and fresh water is poured over it again, so that the dumplings become nice and white. The more often you rinse the dumpling mass, the more beautiful they will look.
The watered dumpling mixture is squeezed with a cloth. Boil the potato pieces left over from the grating in salted water until soft and then whisk them as thin as soup. Then put the grated potatoes in a large bowl, spread them out, add the cooked and mashed potato pieces, and if you like, add hot milk with a few beaten eggs or thin millet or semolina porridge.
The whole is well worked and mixed with bread cut into cubes and roasted in butter or bacon. Now add the appropriate amount of salt, quickly form the dumplings and boil them for half an hour in plenty of water until they float to the top.
To these dumplings fit all fat gravy and as a side dish the roast of such sauces, fruit sauces but not at all.
9. Baked potato dumplings
Stir 200g of butter to a foam, mix it gradually with 3 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks while stirring constantly, add some grated lemon peel, sugar, salt, some grated bread and so much boiled and grated potato that a stiff dough is formed.
From this form dumplings the size of a small Borsdorf apple, dip them in well-beaten eggs, turn them over in grated white breadcrumbs and bake them in hot butter or shortening until nice and yellow-brown. Now sprinkle them with sugar and arrange them in a pyramid shape on a dish.
A fruit or milk sauce is added to the dish in a sauce pan.