Everyone who vacationed in Lithuania probably tasted or at least heard about Zeppelins. Cepelinai or Didžkukuliai is a national traditional Lithuanian dish often served during family celebrations. Every chef in Lithuania makes zeppelins a little differently. So that’s why you can find various fillings in Cepelinai – meat, cottage cheese, dried mushrooms, or other fillers.
History of Lithuanian Cepelinai
During the interwar period, when bacon was grown for “export”, potato cultivation in Lithuania became massive. At the same time, potato dishes, as well as zeppelins, spread. Their “appearance” is still remembered by Vilnius writer and screenwriter (born in 1926) Tadeušas Konvickis, who notes: “…the name of cepelinai <…> was new, but the dish was old…”. Thus, we can assume that zeppelins appeared in Lithuania 100-150 years ago.
But, let’s dive into this question a little deeper. It is known that potatoes began to be used for food production quite recently, as an example, in the first Lithuanian book of gastronomy of Liudvika Didžulienė-Žmona from 1893 in the Lithuanian language (“Lietuvos gaspadinė…”) we will not find a recipe for zeppelins. Which means that until then the zeppelin recipe was not really common in Lithuania. Lithuanian cuisine could have been influenced by German culinary traditions during the First World War. There is one hypothesis that the origin of the Zeppelins may have originated from German contacts with communities in America, as the Zeppelins are very similar in composition and appearance to the Canadian Poutine râpée.
History of the name
Yes, it is quite obvious that Lithuanian zeppelins in their shape resemble airships that flew in the past. Ferdinand von Zeppelin, In 1900, built a rigid frame airship (the volume of the first airship was 11.3 thousand m3, flight speed 28 km/h). During World War I, airships were used for bombing, reconnaissance, submarine, and mine search. The name zeppelins in Lithuania came from the airship manufacturer.
Next, I will share with you the Cepelinai recipe. At first glance, the recipe may seem difficult, but it isn’t, if you have something to grate the potatoes with.
Cepelinai recipe
Lithuanian Cepelinai potato dumplings with pork meat
Equipment
- Meat grinder/grater
- Gauze
Ingredients
Potato dough
- 9 lb Potatoes (4 kg)
- 2-3 tbsp Potato starch
Meat filling
- 14.1 ounces ground pork (400 g)
- 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
For the sauce
- 0.2 lb pound bacon, diced (100 g)
- 1 cup sour cream
- a pinch of ground black pepper
Instructions
Preparation of potatoes
- Peel the potatoes and soak them in a water bowl to prevent them from turning black.
- Lithuanians use a special grater to grate potatoes. If you don't have such a tool for grating potatoes, you can grate them by hand or use a food grinder. Keep in mind that if you grate by hand, it will take time (Use a grater with smaller holes).
- But this is not the first my rodeo in making Zeppelins, so I use a potato grater left over from my grand mother.
- After grating all the potatoes, you need to drain the water from them. I used gauze for this.
- A pot with holes is not necessary. I use it to make it more convenient to put the grated potatoes.
- Roll it up and squeeze the water into the pot when you put a reasonable amount of potato grater in the gauze.
- Drain all the grated potatoes, do not pour the remaining brown water. Wait 10 minutes for the potato starch to settle in the bowl with water. If the potato starch does not settle after ten minutes, the potatoes are not starchy, so you will have to add 2-3 tablespoons of dried potato starch to the potato mass.
- This is how potato starch will be formed from dried potatoes.
- Add potato starch to the potato mass, pour boiling water over it, and mix well.
- Do not pour too much water. You must get a sticky mass with which you can form zeppelins.
Preparation of the meat filling
- Add chopped onion, garlic, ground pepper, and salt to the minced pork and mix everything well.
- You can boil a kettle with water. Then, add a spoonful of salt to the water. There must be enough water to cover the formed zeppelins.
Forming the shape of a zeppelin
- Make a pancake shape from the potato mass and prepare a place for the meat.
- Put the meat filling in the center of the potato pancake.
- Make a zeppelin shape.
- Place the formed zeppelin in boiling water. And so each one is shaped and placed in a cauldron with boiling water. Not putting them all at once is important because the water must be boiling.
- After putting all the zeppelins in the pot, wait until they rise and cook them for another 35-40 minutes. While the zeppelins are boiling, they can be very carefully stirred by a spoon or by swirling the pot.
Making sauce
- Fry onions and bacon in a pan.
Bon appetite!
- Serve the cooked zeppelins by placing them on a plate. Next, put sour cream on the zeppelin, and put a spoonful of bacon and onions on top of the sour cream.
I hope you managed to make impressive, zeppelins. However, eat them in moderation as they are very filling.
If you made too many Cepelinai
I have good news for you. I even purposely always try to make more of them so that there are some left over for the next day. For me personally, the zeppelins of the second day are even tastier than the traditional zeppelins.
Cepelins of the second day
Remove the remaining zeppelins from the pot and cut them exactly in half. Use a larger knife for that. Then, heat the pan well and brown well around the sides of the zeppelins (use the lid of the pan as there will be a lot of fat splattering), then take out the cooked zeppelins and serve with sour cream and spices on top of the sour cream.
If the zeppelins have lost their shape and cannot be cut evenly, just cut them into cubes. Fry them in a pan, but do not use a lot of oil. When baking the zeppelins, add a splash of milk and a little sour cream. Fry everything while mixing well.
That’s it for now, if you have any observations or questions, please write them in the comments section.
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So good love you very much thanks for the ceppelinas.