Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by eru | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

eru

Spätzle are great, but calling them dumplings would really stretch the definition past breaking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A4tzle

View on HN

There are things called dumplings that don't have a filling. Both sweet and savoury.

Eg Golden Syrup Dumplings, and what we call a British or Irish Dumpling served atop a stew.

We also called Spätzle 'dumplings', too, and usually served with a Austrian/Hungarian style goulash.

I think the key differentiator from pasta is that they're a thicker item rather than thin-walled tubes/shapes or strands.

If Spätzle are dumplings, then so are gnocchi. Fight me!

TFA has gnocchi and matzo balls, so I think spätzle ought to be admissible as 0-dumplings (where a filled dumpling is a 1-dumpling). Proper dumplings would then be those dumplings with at least one layer of filling. Are there any 2-dumplings or higher, the dumpling equivalent of turducken?

(future work: classification of dumplings with handles, immersions of Klein Dumplings in cooking oil, ...)

In the North of the Netherlands, there exists the _eierbal_ - a hard boiled egg, with a layer of ragout, and then a crust. Then deep fried.

I love that I can mention it and be on topic on HN. I now live in the middle of the country and miss it.

Both are dumplings.

How about lasagne?

Oh for sure. Lasagnas are deconstructed dumplings in disguise.

How thick does the breading have to be before fried chicken is a dumpling?

That’s an amazing concept. If samosa is a dumpling we can make fried chicken dumplings work

Yes, dumplings don't need a fillings. But Spätzle are usually too thin to be called dumplings in my understanding. I'd call them a kind of noodle or pasta.

Wikipedia, the final arbiter of all truth, agrees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A4tzle

They are generally defined as dumplings. The Typology of Dumplings clearly acknowledges that dumplings are not necessarily filled.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com