Dumpling Day!

     Today was DUMPLING DAY!  Making dumplings is MY thing to do.  It is a meal that I learned from my mother-in-law 46 years ago.  It is a German meal and was a staple of life for Louie's mom's generation.  (She talks of making them everyday as a teenager for the farm workers.  Forty or more dumplings and grating the potatoes by hand.)

dumplings at the Millers

     When I started making them for my family I grated potatoes by hand but have since advanced to a blender.  The complete meal consists of bread/potato dumplings, sauerkraut, pork steak and gravy.  Traditionally I have made the pork steak and a thin pork gravy with garlic and caraway seed.  There is, however, another gravy called "sour gravy".  The Miller family of Vancouver, WA are connoisseurs of sour gravy!

      The origin of sour gravy came when the "old timers" (of northern Wisconsin) would shoot a deer--- venison.  After the meat was home processed, often the ribs would be boiled and then the broth thickened with flour browned in lard. The thick gravy was then seasoned with allspice and cider vinegar.  The result was a spicy-tangy flavor. 

    I used beef bone and continued with the rest.  In time I discovered that using already prepared canned beef broth worked just as well and was much quicker.   

 SOUR GRAVY  

 2 cans Campbell's Beef Broth             

 1&1/2 cans of water   

4 TBS lard                                           

 3/4 cup flour                                       

 1&1/2 Tsp Allspice

 4 Tbs cider vinegar

melt lard in large heavy pan

slowly stir in flour, stirring over medium heat until well brown

slowly stir in broth and water until smooth    it will be very thick to start

add and stir Allspice and vinegar    add more to taste

DUMPLINGS

2 loaves of white bread   dried out

approx. 4 medium potatoes pealed and cut small

1/2 Tsp salt

break bread into small pieces

blend potatoes until thick liquid

sprinkle salt into bread

mix in potatoes by hand until consistency of playdoh

shape into softball size balls

drop into boiling salted water in large kettle

boil 30 minutes after water returns to boil  stir occasionally

makes approx 10-15 depending on size

serve with sour gravy or pork gravy, meat and sauerkraut

have folks guess how many dumplings you made and give prize to the one most accurate 

      This is a meal that was born out of necessity and frugality.  The people ate what they were able to grow and make on their farms and what woud keep through the long cold winters of the north--flour (home baked bread), cabbage (home made into kraut), potatoes, frozen or fresh venison, spices, lard.

     Today it has become a tradition and taste of home to my family.  It is a "stick to your ribs" meal, but one they keep expecting when Grandma G comes to visit.

   This was a busy, good dumpling making day in the life of Grandma G.

"Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man (or woman) to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor." (Ecclesiastes 5:18)