Leberknödelsuppe

The Bavarian and Austrian soup of large, soft liver dumplings made with stale rolls, onion, and marjoram, served in a clear beef broth with chives

Origin: Munich, Vienna & the Alpine South

From the journey of Marjoram.

The liver dumpling is the pride of the Bavarian and Austrian soup pot, and it is marjoram that gives it its taste. Liver, beef or pork, is minced with onion softened in butter and bound with stale white rolls soaked in milk, egg, and parsley, and then seasoned with marjoram, salt, pepper, and a scrape of lemon zest. Without the marjoram it is merely a bread and liver dumpling; with it, it is recognisably itself, and a Munich or Viennese cook will add more of it than a stranger would think wise. The dumplings are shaped large, one or two to a bowl, and simmered gently in a clear beef broth, and the soup is finished with a heap of chopped chives. It is the soup of the Bavarian Wirtshaus and of the Viennese beef restaurant, served before the boiled beef, and it is one of the dishes that reach across the border between the two countries, where the kitchens of the Alpine south are more alike than the frontier suggests. The Czech lands make the same dumplings, smaller, as játrové knedlíčky.

Ingredients

Dumplings

  • 250 g beef or pork liver, trimmed
  • 4 stale white bread rolls (about 200 g), thinly sliced
  • 150 ml warm milk
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 20 g butter
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp dried marjoram, rubbed
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 0.5 lemon, finely grated zest only
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 tbsp fine breadcrumbs, if needed

Soup

  • 1.5 l clear beef broth
  • 1 small bunch chives, finely chopped

Method

  1. Pour the warm milk over the sliced rolls and leave for 15 minutes. Soften the onion in the butter and cool.
  2. Mince the liver finely, or pulse it in a food processor, and mix with the soaked bread, onion, egg, marjoram, parsley, lemon zest, and salt. Rest for 15 minutes.
  3. With wet hands, shape 4 large dumplings.
  4. Bring the broth to a bare simmer, lower in the dumplings, and poach gently for 20 minutes without letting it boil.
  5. Serve one dumpling to a bowl in plenty of broth, scattered with chives.

Notes

Rubbing dried marjoram between the palms before it goes in doubles its aroma. The dumplings can also be served in sauerkraut with mashed potato as a main course.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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