Shlishkes (the plural form is standard) is a
potato
The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...
-based small
dumpling
Dumplings are a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of cooked dough (made from a variety of starchy sources), often wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, wheat or other flours, or potatoes, and it may be filled wi ...
of
Hungarian Jewish origin, and are a popular part of the
Jewish cuisine
Jewish cuisine refers to the worldwide cooking traditions of the Jewish people. During its evolution over the course of many centuries, it has been shaped by Jewish dietary laws (''kashrut''), Jewish festivals and holidays, and traditions cen ...
of the
Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...
community. They can be sweet or savory.
Overview
It is formed from a soft dough of cooked
mashed potato
Mashed potato or mashed potatoes ( American, Canadian, and Australian English), colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled or steamed potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt, and pepper. It is general ...
es,
egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...
,
flour
Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...
and water; the dumplings are boiled and rolled in
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
and hot buttered caramelized
breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are a culinary ingredient consisting of flour or crumbled bread of varying dryness, sometimes with seasonings added. They are used for a variety of purposes, including breading or crumbing foods before frying (such as breaded cutlet ...
(
streusel
In baking and pastry making, streusel () is a crumbly topping of flour, butter, and sugar that is baked on top of muffins, breads, pies, and cakes. ),
or in browned breadcrumbs as a savory preparation. The dough is first rolled into a rope, and then cut into pieces, which are then twisted, before boiling.
It can also be filled with prune
lekvar or with a sweet
poppy seed
Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the poppy plant (''Papaver somniferum''). The tiny, kidney-shaped seeds have been harvested from dried seed pods by various civilizations for thousands of years. It is still widely used in many countries, ...
filling; this version is commonly eaten during
Hanukkah
Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...
, alongside
latkes and
sufganiyot
( or , ; : , Hebrew: , , or in Yiddish ) is a round jelly doughnut eaten around the world during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The doughnut is deep-fried, injected with jam or custard, and then topped with powdered sugar. The doughnut rec ...
.
The dish is a version of
Kartoffelklösse, and is comparable to
gnocchi, but is firmer and lacks ridges. There is a baked or pan-fried variant of it called bilkas or bilkhalekh. It can include sauteed
onion
An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...
s, and during
Passover
Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt.
According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...
,
matzah
Matzah, matzo, or maẓẓah ('','' : matzot or Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashk. matzos) is an Unleavened bread, unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine and forms an integral element of the Passover festival, during which ''chametz'' (lea ...
cake meal is used instead of flour.
History
Shlishkes began as a way for using remaining potato dough from making
gombóc. It became a Friday-night treat amongst some Hungarians during the 1800s, and during the 1930s, it became popular amongst eastern European Jews in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
and
Queens
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
as a side dish on Friday nights and during holidays; the dish can still be found in
Kosher
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...
stores and at some weddings and
bar mitzvah
A ''bar mitzvah'' () or ''bat mitzvah'' () is a coming of age ritual in Judaism. According to Halakha, Jewish law, before children reach a certain age, the parents are responsible for their child's actions. Once Jewish children reach that age ...
s in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
today.
Etymology
The name "shlishkes" comes from the German word schulterstuck, which means "twisted knot", because the dumplings are twisted while being made.
See also
*
Gnocchi
*
Matzo ball
The Matzo Ball is an annual Christmas Eve nightlife event and party held in a number of major cities in the United States targeted primarily at young Jewish singles and organized by Mazel Events, LLC (previously the Society of Young Jewish Profe ...
*
Kreplach
Kreplach (from ) are small dumplings in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine filled with ground meat, mashed potatoes or another filling, usually boiled and served in chicken soup, though they may also be served fried. They are similar to other types of du ...
References
{{Dumplings
Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine
Dumplings
Hungarian-American cuisine
Hungarian cuisine
Jews and Judaism in Hungary
Potato dishes