Gebackens (Raisin Twists)

What, Where, When:

• This is a cold doughnut/fritter made of yeast dough with raisins.
• It is based on a recipe found in Rumpolt, a German source dated to 1581.

Original Recipes and Translations: Rumpolt

(translated by Sharon Palmer)

Discussion:

• Fritters were a popular food in 15th century Germany – for instance, out of the 76 recipes in the Gebackens (pastry) section of Rumpolt, 42 were for some variant of fritter fried in hot butter. 
• From kitchenware descriptions, fritters were typically fried in iron pans deep enough for a few inches of fat – enough to qualify as “deep frying” by modern standards (Bach 71). Various other sources specify that the fat should be “as hot as possible” and that “not many should be fried at once” (Bach 168). Some dough recipes specify adding yeast, some include egg, some rely only on the steam produced while being fried. The liquids used vary as well, whether wine, water, or even wine with honey dissolved into it are used to create a thick or thin batter (Bach 168-170). 
• A literal translation of the word “backs” or “backen” in modern German is “baked”, leading some to believe these dishes are baked rather than fried. However, there is extensive evidence that “fried in fat” is the correct interpretation here.
  • In Food Culture in Germany, Heinzelmann references “backen” as the Austrian term for deep frying (94).
  • In private correspondence with Volker Bach, author of The Kitchen, Food, and Cooking in Reformation Germany, he states that “instructions like ‘back es in schmalz’ suggest frying, and linguistic survivals to this day support it”, and further  directed me to the Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm for more details.
  • The Deutsches Wörterbuch is the largest dictionary of High German in existence, and definitively states that frying is an acceptable meaning of the word bachen, especially when referring to something done in pans with fat (Wörterbuchnetz). 
• Butter was clarified before storage, which makes it have a higher smoke point suitable for deep frying (Bach 43).
• Since I do not have beer yeast available, I used a sourdough starter to make the dough.  I’ve baked with beer yeast in the past; in my opinion the flavor is similar to sourdough but the rise time and preferred temperature can be a bit different. My sourdough starter is not terribly active, so I added some modern commercial yeast to ensure it rises – the sourdough adds flavor.
• The instruction “form strutzel out of it” is somewhat unclear, but there is a pastry still made in Germany known as Allerheiligenstriezel – “All Saints Braid” – or Streitzel, which while not fried, has a similar ingredient list (flour, eggs, milk, yeast, raisins). The word strietzel is derived from strutzel (“Allerheiligenstriezel”), so I’m fairly confident that the dishes are related. Thus, I chose to form my fritters as small braided twists, similar to modern yeast doughnuts. 
• The “little black raisins” in this are what is modernly known as Zante currants, which are actually Black Corinth raisins, genus Vitus, rather than genus Ribes as other currants, red and black, are classified (Myers).

Sources: