Mutschel mehl and matzah / matzoh ball soup

We visited with my boyfriends parents last week who live in Rosenheim. For lunch his mother made, to my surprise, matzo ball soup! But she said it was an old Bavarian recipe...but it sure tasted like my Jewish grandma's matzo ball soup. It was nice to have such a familiar comfort food so far away from home. And then the other day in the supermarket I came across mutschel mehl and on its cover was a picture of matzo ball soup!..boy that sure sounds a lot like matzo meal which is used to make matzo ball soup! I became curious as to the word origin of mutschel but couldnt find much except that it is Swabian. I wonder if it came from matzo.. Does anyone have any ideas?

My parents freaked out a bit when I moved to Germany. As an American Jew you grow up extremely prejudiced of Germany, but its cool being here and finding out all that we have in common, like foods and language. Its a familiar feeling even when someone says geisundheit, thats what we say in our family, its also Yiddish.

What came first? The chicken or the egg? Isn't it likely that matsoball soup was German, or prussian or schwaibish or whatever, before it was Jewish? Anyway I think more interesting is to see that humans are humans and not plonk some label on them.

For the benefit of anyone else who was as bemused by this topic as I was...


Matzah balls - Wikipedia
Matzah - Wikipedia

I just think word origin is neat.

If anyone can find anything on Mutschel...Ill make you a bowl of mutschel-ball soup!

from:http://www.etymonline.com
matzoh:
flat piece of unleavened bread eaten by Jews during the Passover, 1846, from Heb. matztzah (pl. matztzoth) "unleavened bread," lit. "juiceless," from stem of matzatz "he sucked out, drained out."

meal:
"ground grain," O.E. melu, from W.Gmc. *melwan "grind" (cf. Ger. malen "to grind," Mehl "meal"), from PIE base *mel-/*mol-/*ml- "to grind, soft" (cf. Hittite mallanzi "they grind," Arm. malem "I crush, bruise," Gk. malakos "soft," Alb. miel "meal, flour," L. molere "to grind," O.C.S. meljo, Lith. malu "to grind;" see mill (1)).

Well it's quite simular! "Matzotmehl" is made out of Mazzot and "Mutschelmehl" is made out of white-bread or often Semmeln. A Mutsche used to be a small bread in the medieval times formed by the shape of a star. Mutschelmehl today is an old term for Paniermehl or Semmelbröseln and this mehl is widely used in the middle european-cuisine. So it's not exactly the same since the making of white-bread and Mazzot is a bit different, but you could use both for makin matzo balls (or "Matzeknaydel" as called here). You'll discover much more things in common, trust me!

wow thats awesome thanks!

You're welcome!

Technically I don't think you're correct, matzo balls are unleavened which makes them about the only bread substitute that can be consumed during passover. Making Matzo ball soup out of ordinary semmeln would go against the "no food made from the 5 grains (which grains I can't remember)" stipulation and forbidden for consumption during passover. Matzo is also Kosher whereas semmeln may not be.

Of course it's not kosher le pessach, but if you're not living kosher anyhow the taste is just about the same! And in this case it's the taste that counts, isn't it?

Of course you're right taste is what counts for us gentiles.

I have a Rabbi visiting me on Monday, he's very particular about these things

OK, one thing everybody needs to know about kosher and living in Munich: beer is always kosher! Not joking!

I thought this was an intersting comment so I did some "research"

Some beer is kosher, but not all beer is kosher. I'm not an expert on this topic, but for some reason stout is not kosher. I could post links, but a search will bring up the same results.

Normally kosher rules have some good reason from a food hygiene point of view (at least before fridges were invented and tapeworms were more or less eradicated) but i digress..some beers are purified by adding animal products..it may be this that stops them being kosher.

I know the feeling, I tried making matzoh balls (kneydlech by us) the other day using "Dinkel" (Spelt) flour...turned out really bad. I still have no idea what we are going to do for Passover. My 7 year old keeps asking me about it. We only moved here six months ago. Way too much stress.

you might be able to find some info here. They have a list of Kosher shops in Germany, 2 in Munich where you might be able to purchase matzo meal (listed under important addresses)
http://www.koshergermany.com
This site also says a few things about which alcoholic drinks are kosher or not. Vodka-kosher, martini-not

I used to pass by a place on Klenzestr between Gartnerpl and Frauendorferstr, it was a Jewish cafe and also had kosher products to purchase. If that helps you any.

Cool article in the NYtimes today about Passover and Matzo.
Speaking of Passover, any one want to invite me to their passover seder this week?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/05/dining/0...i=5070&emc=eta1