Noodle in Northern Europe, The

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NOODLE IN NORTHERN EUROPE, THE.

NOODLE IN NORTHERN EUROPE, THE. The word "noodle" is German in origin. By the mid-1400s, it appeared as Nudel in connection with composita, layered dishes employing cabbage, dried fruits, some form of meat (usually ham), and dumplings. There is no firm agreement among German food historians about the origin of the term Nudel even though it can be found in German-and Yiddish-speaking communities in Middle Europe by the 1500s. For example, in the 1581 cookbook of Hungarian-born Marcus Rumpolt, there is a recipe for Nudeln aus der Grafschaft Tyrol (Noodles from the county of Tyrol), evidence of the fact that, by the 1580s, there were already many regional variations in methods of preparation and serving contexts. Furthermore, the plural form of the word passed into French as nouilles, probably via Alsace. The original meaning, however, was Teigwerk, anything made of dough regardless of shape. Even to this day, the Nudel falls under the broad category of Teigwerk in most German-language cookbooks. The distinguishing difference between Teigwerk for pie crusts and doughs for noodles is that the latter are boiled or in some manner cooked with steam or water.

The most commonly accepted explanation for the origin of Nudel is that it derives from Knödel, or, as the word appeared in a number of old German dialects, Nutel, a dumpling (literally, a ball or turd). Recipes mentioning noodles appear in German as early as 1480, but at that time, the term applied to any sort of doughy addition to a boiled or baked dish, whether a shaped dumpling or thinly sliced noodles. The dough could be rolled, pressed, shredded, cut, chopped, stretched, or shaped into small "buttons"—all of this was included in the word Nudel. The oldest German lexicons define Nudelas a dough dish composed of wheat flour, butter, and milk. This paste is then boiled in water. There is no mention of eggs—eggs do not appear in noodle recipes until the 1600s. However, because the dough was made with white wheat flour (a luxury), the Nudel was at one time a food denoting high economic status.

Conceptually, the Nudel of Northern Europe differs from Italian pasta in that the enriched dough is not dried for later use, but rather cooked the same day it is made. The high fat content would probably preclude long storage because noodles are generally made with egg yolks, butter, and other unstable ingredients. Because of these rich ingredients, the German Nudel was not viewed as appropriate fasting food by strict Roman Catholics, although noodles of all sorts were indeed treated as meat substitutes. The cost of the ingredients alone set noodle dishes apart as special occasion or festive fare even in the late eighteenth century.

Earlier medieval sources are consistently clear in categorizing this type of food as something found in the invalid cookery of hospices operated by nunneries or monasteries. As a branch of invalid cookery, noodles were generally served with hot milk or cream depending on the patient's condition. Otherwise, noodles were a special-occasion food eaten only by the well-to-do as part of a larger menu, such as a side dish with a roast of meat. The concept of the noodle as health food survived in the once popular recipe for Nürnberger Nudlen, one of the most commonly cited sickroom recipes in old German medical literature.

By the seventeenth century, the noodle had evolved into three broad types in German cookery: flat noodles rolled thin and cut into various shapes (most often thin strips), shaped noodles or dumplings, and yeast-raised noodles as in the case of South German Dampfnudeln. This last dish is prepared by steam-baking balls of yeast-leavened dough in a heavy iron skillet.

There are also a large number of specialized terms associated with noodle making. Among these are Nudelteig (the dough from which any sort of noodle is made), Nudelholz (a special rolling pin for cutting the dough into strips), and Nudelspritze (a press for squeezing noodle dough into strips or strands, especially for Nürnberger Nudeln ). Cristoforo Messisbugo illustrated a Nudelholz under the rubric ferro da maccaroni in his 1549 work on Italian Renaissance cookery. This tool was widespread in Europe, and its origin cannot be pinpointed.

The general presumption among German food scholars is that noodles (under a wide variety of names) were present in northern Europe during the early Middle Ages. Various methods of preparation, such as serving them with fried bread crumbs, may also be quite old. There is no evidence suggesting that the idea came from medieval Italy. In fact, the German noodle can be traced to the pre-Christian era, since pastry wheels and rolling pins for making noodles have been found in numerous Roman archeological sites north of the Alps. Yet the question remains whether these tools were used for making dried pasta as known to the Italians, or the richer noodle known later to German-speaking countries. It is quite possible that the Romans knew both types.

The Nudel appears to have entered English during the Georgian period, perhaps owing to the fact that the Hanoverian monarchs were German. The word was transliterated into English as newdel and noodle. The latter spelling is now the accepted form. In eighteenth-century England and America, the noodle was associated primarily with one dish: noodle soup. This is a preparation in which strands of freshly made noodles are boiled in meat stock, sometimes with the addition of small meat dumplings. This became a ubiquitous working-class dish by the nineteenth century.

The center of noodle cookery in America was the region settled by the Pennsylvania Dutch and the thickly settled German districts of the upper Midwest. In the German-American community, noodle dishes were generally reserved for Sunday dinners due to the amount of work required to make the dough. Additionally, the egg whites left over from noodle making were normally turned into sponge cakes—another special occasion dish. The Pennsylvania Dutch developed a number of interesting noodle recipes, including saffron noodles for boiled Sunday chicken, and a noodle dessert made with walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon.

By the mid-nineteenth century, noodle cookery became associated with regional peasant fare in Germany. German Romanticism elevated the noodle to an icon of German ethnicity, with the result that we see it everywhere today as a symbol of German cooking.

See also Compote; Noodle in Asia; Pasta; United States: Pennsylvania Dutch Food.