Amongst the cookbooks in the Fenyes Mansion and the family papers in the Archives are handwritten vintage recipes from a century ago. Some of Eva Scott Fenyes’ hand-written dishes include Hungarian recipes, no doubt for her Hungarian husband Adalbert Fenyes.
In honor of Adalbert’s birthday on November 17, we have transcribed two of Eva’s Hungarian recipes. We encourage you to try to replicate these vintage recipes and let us know how they turn out.
Milk Dumplings
Take 1 pint cream and 6 whole eggs stir well together –
Then a little more than ½ lb flour –
Salt and make a dumpling dough –
Put into a saucepan 3 pints milk and bring to a boil.
Make small dumplings and drop into the boiling milk from a spoon –
When cooked lift them out so that they remain whole.
Grease a dish with butter & strew it with fine crumbs, place the dumplings on it & strew them with crumbs.
Pour over them a little melted butter bake until yellow
Then powder them with sugar.
For the sauce – Take some of the milk thicken very slightly with arrowroot add a little sugar & cinnamon & serve in a small tureen.
Strudel Paste
Take 1 lb fine flour & mix with it 1 spoonful (tablespoon) of lard or butter on a moulding board.
Make a hole with your hand in the middle of the mass & put in 2 eggs 2 large spoons of cream and a little salt and luke-warm water – and work till bubbles come in the dough.
Put it on a floured board, clean your hands from dough & knead it up into a loaf – Then cover with a warm cloth or a warmed bowl & let stand ½ hour.
Then cover a table with a clean tablecloth sprinkle or dust this with flour.
Roll out your paste as thin as possible after without making it liable to break when lifted.
Smear with butter and lay it on the table cover – spread it out from underneath, by placing the upper surface of the hand under the dough and gradually pulling it, working from the middle to the edges, taking care that the fingers do not tear a hole. When nearly as thin as paper cut the rough edges off with a pair of scissors. Then let it dry ¼ of an hour, then strew over it the filling, roll together, turn up & pinch the ends
Wind it around in a buttered pan – smear a little yolk of egg mixed with cream over it and bake a crisp brown.
Filling for above.
Pound up some walnuts, spread over the dough, then sprinkle over this some sugar, ground cinnamon & cloves, preserved lemon skin or citron, cut fine, and raisins.
Smear the edges of the dough with melted butter, pinch together.
When baked done cut into pieces & strew with sugar or serve with fruit sauce.
Please note that no one has made these recipes in 100 years. If you make one or both of them, please post a picture on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and tag us @pasadenahistory.
– Julie Stires & Michelle L. Turner
For more vintage recipes, check out the blog, Cooking with Eva: Vintage Recipes from the Archives.