This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Strudel is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
- For the typographical character nicknamed 'strudel', see At sign.
A strudel is a type of pastry that originated in the Habsburg Empire.citation needed It is most often associated with Austrian cuisine, but is also traditional in the whole area formerly belonging to the Austro-Hungarian empire (for example, in Hungary known as Rétes, in Slovenia as štrudelj and Slovakia known as štrúdľa or závin). The best-known kinds are Apfelstrudel (with apple) and Topfenstrudel (with Topfen soft cheese), while others include Weichselstrudel (sour cherry strudel) and Mohnstrudel (poppy seed strudel); there are also savoury strudels incorporating spinach, sauerkraut and so on.
Strudel pastry is very elastic. It is made from flour with a high gluten content, little fat (butter) and no sugar. The pastry is rolled out and stretched very thinly over the back of the hand. Purists say it should be so thin that a newspaper can be read through it. The tale is told that the Emperor's cook decreed that it should be possible to read a love letter through itcitation needed. Then the pastry is laid out on a tea towel and filled. Then it is rolled with the help of the towel and baked in an oven.
Traditional strudel pastry is different from strudels served in other parts of the world that are often made from filo or puff pastry. It probably had its origins in Byzantine Empire or Middle Eastern pastries (see baklava and Turkish cuisine),citation needed and is related to Balkan Burek.
The American company Pillsbury markets a version of strudel called Toaster Strudels. These are somewhat similar to Pop Tarts.
The word itself derives from the German word Strudel, which literally means "eddy" or "whirlpool".[1]
In 2003, the strudel was named an official pastry of Texas (along with the sopaipilla).[2]
References
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, second edition. 1989.
- ^ Official pastry of Texas
Gundel's Hungarian Cookbook Gundel, Corvina, Budapest 1996
External links
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 28 August 2008, at 01:59.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Strudel".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.