Bragging post: My mother has been asked to make her strudel for Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck

M

marilynfl

Moderator
Next Wednesday, one of the Pittsburgh symphony boards is having a luncheon to welcome Mr. (Maestro?) Honeck and they wanted strudel for dessert. One of the members has tasted my mothers and said it was the best she's ever had. They contacted her and now she's making 32 14" strips for next Wednesday. The luncheon coordinator wanted them on Tuesday--to ensure they would have a dessert since they were buying it from a non-bakery. But my mom only sells freshly baked strudel, made that day. She's arranged for them to pick them up at one of her store vendors at 7:30 am.

On Wednesday.

Mom makes all her dough from scratch, stretches it by hand to 3 foot by 5 foot (you can read a newspaper through it) then lays on the sliced apples (from a local orchard) and rolls it up and up and up, then divides it into two strips. She'll do that 16 times.

The first words out of my mouth were: "He'll be expecting raisins, you know."

Mom is Serbian and she's 80 years old. Hers is the Serbian version, which doesn't use raisins. Maestro or Maestro-not, he's not getting raisins.

The last words out of my mouth were: "I'm real proud of you, Mom."

 
Aww..that's a great story! And what an honor, Marilyn!

Could you take a pic of your mom with the strudel? I'd love to see it!

I'm sure Maestro Honeck will be very pleased! Even without the raisins. smileys/smile.gif

 
That is so cool!!! What an honor to be asked; she obviously is very talented!! ((No Raisins!))

It sounds like my house when I make our Hungarian dishes and do not add dill.

Congrats to your Mom!!

 
Fantastic! You have every right to brag about your Mom Mar!! It's no wonder you're an

avid and talented baker yourself! From what I've read, fine strudel is tricky business at best! Hugs to your Mom from me!!

 
((((((((((Marinlyn))))))))))))))

First off, that raisin thing is so regional that you can't tell. I've had raisins in lower Austria, upper Austria, Salzburg, Carinthia, Styria, Vienna and the Vorarlberg, and enjoyed it very much. I've also had strudel in ALL of the above without raisins.

What I want to say, is WOW, I'm so happy that you have Mom who knows all that, preserving the old ways, knowing the difference, and damn, why aren't you sharing her recipes????????????????????? ( Pardon me if you have, I just don't have time to read everything).

My prognocis: If Mom makes homemade strudel, your new Austrian conducter will be amazed and very appreciative!

And congratulations for having such a well connected MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now: Get on those old family recipes! Now!!!!

 
Thank you kindly for your well-wishes. I'll send them along to Mom. Gayle...

Mom is in Pittsburgh and I'm in Florida and both of us are photo-phobic, so you'll just have to picture a tall babuska'd grandmother with a lot of strudels and apple peelings around her.

Richard (great hug, man!), my mom has "handed down" her business to my sister so I can't give out the recipe. And there's only one recipe because she only makes apple. That's it. However....Lidia Bastianich has a recipe for fresh strudel in one of her cookbooks (I honestly don't know which one it's in...I got all of them out of the library at the same time.) For the life of me, I would have NEVER put Lidia and strudel together in the same sentence, let along in an Italian cookbook. But that recipe is almost Mom's recipe to a tee with instructions on how to stretch and everything. Mom's filling is a basic apple pie filling recipe, but they have to be fresh apples...she won't even bake strudel from May thru September. Lots of butter and sugar...and it's "gotta be made fresh."

I haven't made her strudel in decades. You can't do it in Florida humidity...the layers get mushy and soggy instead of flakey. Mom has yet to write down her recipe, but luckily my sister Lynda knows how to turn them out. Just this week I found out she still measures the flour cup by cup, instead of weighing it out in bulk per batch.

 
wow, Wow, WOW...

What a great description!!!!!! (hug right back at ya' kid!)

Understand strudel secrets. Nothing more needs to be said. But I had no idea your Mom had the concession going!!! Can we buy them on mail order??? Please do tell...

What I will say: When I lived in Austria, and ate lots of strudel, I would talk to the large "babushka" women about the studel. They first off, scoffed that I would even ask. Then they would laugh since I was an "amerikaner". Totally weird for them.

Then, with a glint in their eye, they would spill the secret...

Anyone can stretch the dough (in the old country, that is); but these ladies guarded their apples!!!!!

CANNOT tell the apple! They all had secret apple trees.

Finally talked to grossmutter who was beyond that, and she said, you need to climb up into the mountains and pick the "Bergapfeln" for the proper strudel.

That literally translates into the crab apple in your back yard. That's it! The secret of Austrian Apfel Strudel! Gnarley old sour bitter crabapples!!!

And that, said Oma Hilda, is the secret to the proper Apfelstrudeln!

And do NOT forget that a proper Austrian apple strudel uses cinnamon, mace, lemon, and vanilla!

 
Not to worry! I can still see her in the pix you sent me from Israel a few years ago....

I'll picture her covered in dough and apples and cinnamon! ha thx

 
What a wonderful story, truly marvelous that they are honorinig her at her age to make

such a delicious pastry. I know that makes her heart full of joy and pride! Thanks for sharing this good news story!

 
Amazing! They don't grow 'em like that anymore! My aunt (91) says she doesn't want to hear

that I'm slowing down until I hit 80.

 
Ha...that read like a National Enquirer cover page: STRUDEL SECRETS REVEALED!!!

I grew up in a house where the kitchen cupboard contained only the Holy Trinity of spices: salt, pepper and cinnamon. That's it. No coriander, no cayenne pepper, no mace. Yah, Mom's version definitely isn't Austrian.

I honestly think Mom is making filo dough. When the stretched dough dries out, it looks like filo dough and tastes like filo dough. However I have yet to actually find a recipe for making "filo dough" from scratch, so I can't confirm.

 
Reading this thread gave me goose bumps! Please send many congrats to

your mom! How excited and honored she must be. I love stories like this, thanks for posting Marilyn--this started a dreaded day with a smile for me, just what I needed!!

 
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