Kneophla Soup
Food History

Kneophla soup is probably my favorite soup. It’s a soup I grew up on, and something that is part of my heritage. My wife’s family also grew up on it, and when we married, we began combining our two family recipes into one, which I believe far exceeds the former ones. But I’m a bit biased. The soup is just delicious.

I also really enjoy cooking. However, I am also a bit obsessive, which can show in the manner in which I look at cooking something. I want to know the history of the dish, why I have to do the steps that I do, the science behind the whole process. When I decided to try a new dish, it may take me weeks or months before I feel comfortable cooking it just because I want all the background.

I also think that looking at a dish like kneophla soup, a dish so tied to a particular heritage, it can tell a lot about their history. So a few years ago I set off to find out everything I could about this delicious soup.

At the foundation, kneophla soup is a dumpling soup. This sort of soup is something that is enjoyed by people around the world. The first known recipe for dumpling appears in a Roman text called Apicius. The Chinese were probably the first to make stuffed dumplings. According to legend, the inventor was Zhang Zhongijan, who was living during the Han Dynasty (which existed between 206 BCE to 220 CE).

So dumpling soups have been around for thousands of years. We can zero in a bit more though in order to find where kneophla soup originated. Now, it can be mentioned that the parts of Germany where kneophla soup is most associated with was part of the Roman empire, and the use of dumplings appears to have continued through out the history of the region. What we are really looking at is southern Germany and France to a certain extent (specifically German lands within France, such as Alsace).

When talking about kneophla soup, there really are two types of dumplings used. One is a standard dough dumpling, the kneophla, which probably derives it name from the term button. The second is the Spatzle, which gets its name from it kind of looking like a sparrow. Spatzle is a bit easier to deal with historically, so we will start there.

The earliest records of Spatzle go back to the 18th century, but it most likely predates that. It really made its mark in more of the southern part of Europe, in places such as modern day southern Germany and Austria, Switzerland, Hungary and Alsace. Generally though, its associated with the Swabian culture, which is from the south western portion of Germany.

Less can be found about the kneophla, but by the mid 18th century, the two were often being seen almost as one. It very well could be that the kneophla existed first and then was modified into the Spatzle. The word itself comes from the same area, and that is the important part here.

Now to take a little side step to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Turks and the Germans (or citizens of the German states at that time) have been in contact since at least the 16th century. Beginning in the 16th century, the Ottomans were attempting to expand their territory further north into Europe. In 1529, and then 1683, the Ottomans held siege to the town of Vienna, but were unsuccessful. But this did accomplish two things that helped lead to my favorite soup. First, it brought the Ottomans into the area of southern German. Second, it really provided the circumstances in which many Ottoman Turks would migrate to Germany and permanently settle. And again, this was largely in southern Germany. Just as a note, these immigrants came in different ways. Some migrated to Germany. Others were captured during a series of battles and forcibly relocated to Germany. Others migrated to become mercenaries in various armies.

This is where it gets interesting. With the arrival of the Turks to the southern German area, which just so happens to be where kneophla and spatzle originated, Turkish foods also came. And for us in the Midwest, that was a great thing to happen. Important in this case, one of the foods they brought over were cream based soups that had the beginning foundation of kneophla soup. These soups had almost the look of kneophla soup, but the dumpling element, while there in a form, just lacked. But southern Germany had what the soup needed.

With the Turkish soup as a base, and the development of the kneophla/spatzle, all the elements of a great soup were there. But that’s not the end of the story. Everything comes together with Russia. As I mentioned before, spatzle first makes an appearance in the literature in the 18th century. Something else very important to this story also happened in the 18th century. Catherine II issued a manifesto on July 22, 1763, inviting foreigners to settle in Russia. And Germans, specifically southern Germans, took to the call. Just as a note, Germans had already started to settle in Russia prior to that. The history of Germans in Russia date hundreds of years prior to Catherine, but Catherine really pushed for foreigners to settle in the vast uninhabitable and unused land in the empire which had recently been expanding.

Now for the last aside. I have to mention the Tartar people, and in future food history posts, they will come up. It’s a bit ironic that the Tartar people pop up here though. So, the Tartar people were a nomadic group that had joined Genghis Khan’s army in the 13th century. And they were Turkish. At least in part. They mixed with the Mongolians, and were important to that empire; until it dissolved. They would then take some control over the western part of the former Mongolian empire, and then Russia comes into play again. Russia would expand and eventually the Tartar people would become intertwined with one area in Russia, the Volga region.

And guess what? Those southern Germans, who had Turkish influences and mingling, just happened to also settle largely in the Volga region. Another group of the Tartars settled in the Crimean area, where these Germans would also settle. Just to sum up, because I find this amazing, we have Germans, from southern Germany who have Turkish influences and intermarried with Turks moving to Russia where they just happen to settle in areas where the Tartar people live, who are Turkish individuals who intermarried with Mongolians. It’s a family reunion. Just a note as well. With the new DNA testing that people are doing, many Germans from Russia are finding out that they have Asian ancestry. That’s the Tartar people.

So Russia is really where this soup comes to life. We already have the base, but with the help of the Tartar people, who really helped the Germans while in Russia, we get the added components. Potatoes really begin to be added. In some cases you get what’s called smazhennya or zazharka, which is considered the Holy Trinity in Russian cooking: onion, celery, and carrots (sometimes beets or peppers are added as well). Now many will skip the carrots (I don’t), but this base really brought levels of flavor to the soup. And we begin seeing more poultry stock being added to the soup which brought everything together.

If we want to give kneophla soup a place of origin, I really think Russia would be it. The soup was developing already, but it was in Russia where it came together. And it was from Russia that it came to the United States.