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German Filtzel

Subject: German Filtzel
From: Ginny 
Date: 6/15/2020, 10:02 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

On 6/14/2020 4:18 PM, Virginia wrote:

Hi Uncle Phaedrus.  
I am a huge fan and love your recipe finds. I have a tough request for you.  
When I was growing up my grandmother and grandfather on my father's 
side made a wonderful dish called "filtzel" or filtsel".. pronounced FILT-SIL

They were of German ancestry so I assume this is a German dish. We had 
it at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I tried to get the recipe from my aunt 
and mom after Grandma passed away but never got the full recipe.  I can 
tell you it is chopped (not mashed) potato, lots of parsley (giving a greenish hue), 
and bacon I believe.  Would love to find a real recipe and maybe some 
background info.,  I have never been able to find anything online nor anyone 
who ever heard of this.
-- 
Ginny 
PA

Hi Ginny,

What part of Germany were your grandparents from? Were they perhaps "Volga - Germans"? (Germans from Russia) Where in the US did they live? Were they Pennsylvania Dutch?

The dish sounds very similar to German Potato Salad.

I only found the dish spelled "filtzel", never "filtsel." I did not find it mentioned at all on any German food sites or in any German food dictionaries.

Absolutely the only mention of this dish that I can find on the web is in Google "hits" for a few sites that end in ".ru". The ".ru" is for "Russia". My malware detector tells me that all of those Google "hits" are malware sites and warns me NOT TO GO THERE. I always listen to my malware detector. In the brief text that Google displays about those sites they say that there is information about "filtzel" in a book called "The Best of My Grandmother's German Cookery" by Carmen Graves. If you click on one of those malware sites, you'll see that they want you to download a free electric copy of that cookbook in *.pdf format. A Google search on the book "The Best of My Grandmother's German Cookery" by Carmen Graves also brings up a dozen or so sites claiming free access to that e-book. However, they require that you set up an account in order to download the "free" *.pdf file. That's where I STOP. If it's a "free e-book", why would one need to set up an account? Besides, my malware detector warns me that those sites are fraudulent malware sites.

On the other hand, "The Best of My Grandmother's German Cookery" by Carmen Graves does appear to be a real book. You can buy it new or used on Amazon.com. You might want to buy a copy yourself - it might have more of your grandparents' recipes in it. I decided to get a used copy for myself to add to our collection.  When I get the cookbook, if the "filtzel" recipe is in there, I will post it for you.  I've no idea how long it will take for the cookbook to ship. Shipping times vary widely for used books.

Meanwhile, I will post your request.

Phaed

6/17/20

Hello Again Ginny,

Well, today I got a copy of "The Best of My Grandmother's Germany Cookery" by Carmen Graves that I had ordered. It's a good addition to our collection. However, there is no recipe in it for "filtzel" or "filtsel" or anything even similar to those names. I cannot find any German dish at all with a name similar to that in any source. Perhaps "filtzel" was an obscure local name or a family name for the dish. The German for potatoes is "kartoffeln" or "erdapfeln", nothing like "filtzel". Your dish, with ingredients of chopped potatoes, parsley and bacon, is too similar to German Potato Salad or "Kartoffelsalat" for me to find it by the ingredients alone.

Oddly enough, today I am finding your own posting of a recipe for "filtsel", which I could swear wasn't there yesterday. See: Recipe Circus. There's no date on it.

You didn't give me all of the ingredients that you list on "recipecircus". Onions? Two raw eggs?

If you can verify that your grandparents were "Volga German" (Germans from Russia) or "Pennsylvania Dutch" or if you can tell me what part of Germany they were from, then I will try those paths. Let me know.

I'll post this for reader input.

Phaed

Subject: Re: Recipe Request - German Filtzel
From: Ginny
Date: 7/8/2020, 12:02 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

Thanks Uncle Phaed.  Sorry for my delay in reply... emails went astray. 
I do not know where in Germany my grandparents were from. I do not think 
near Russia.  Both sides of my family were in the USA since 1800's or 
very early 1900's so hard for me to know.  I have no records.

This is a type of German potato salad but served warm.  The potatoes are 
chopped (not sliced nor mashed) and the dish is almost green from the 
parsley in it... I remember that as a child.  It was served as a side 
dish especially for holiday meals.  My spelling is phoenetic only as I 
never saw a written recipe.

I do not blame you for stopping at malware or account creation... I do 
the same.  thanks for your research and for a heads up on the book...  
I hunt up books so I will look too.  Thanks sooo much!  Ginny

Ginny 
Pa
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Subject: Re: Recipe Request - German Filtzel
From: Ginny
Date: 7/8/2020, 12:04 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

Thanks again.  Not sure how I can research the ancestry more.  Maybe thru 
Ancestry or the like but that will take time.  The book still sounds good 
but the "filszel" remains a mystery  :-)

I do have a recipe card from my Aunt but it was her best guess from seeing 
grandma make it.  Odd that there are no references to it.  

Ginny 
Pa
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Subject: Re: Recipe Request - German Filtzel
From: Ginny
Date: 7/8/2020, 12:09 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

Wow, that is weird.  I have never posted anything to recipe circus.  Wonder 
if someone grabbed it from a share to one of my recipe groups.

I just checked the link and sure enough this is MY recipe from my Aunt's recipe 
card I mentioned last email. This was her best remembrance. I had shared this 
with a yahoo recipe group years back (hoping someone would recognize it). 
Totally forgot I did this.  But  it is so odd that it would just pop up now.  
I never posted to this site.  Wow, thanks!  Ginny

Ginny  
Pa
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Subject: Re: Recipe Request - German Filtzel
From: Ginny
Date: 7/8/2020, 12:13 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

I have since lost or misplaced the card so I was going from my very old memory.  
I typed this up must be 10 years ago (really a long time back) and did not even 
remember doing this. Do not know how it got onto this site. Sorry I did not have 
better info now for you and I appreciate all your effort. Thanks so much. Yes, 
I do remember the raw egg now that I see it again. I was only about 5 to 7 years 
old the last time Grandma made this and I am almost 68 now.

Ginny 
Pa

Hi Ginny,

Ok. Thanks for the update.

Phaed

On 7/8/2020 2:03 PM, Ginny wrote: I feel badly Phaed, I really did not remember more than I said at first and could not find my Aunt's notes. Thanks for all your efforts. Most appreciated! Ginny Pa

Hi Ginny,

No problem. Don't feel bad. It was just a misunderstanding caused by the posting of that old post of yours on "Recipe Circus". In a way, even that was a good thing because it brought back to your memory some ingredients that you had forgotten. I'm still going to post your request to me on my site. Maybe one of my readers can help us figure this out.

Phaed

Has anyone heard of a German potato salad recipe called something like "filtsel" or "filtzel"? It's served warm, the potatoes are chopped (not mashed), it has lots of parsley, chopped onion, two raw eggs, and maybe chopped crisp bacon and maybe a little nutmeg? Looking for this particular recipe, not just any similar German potato salad recipe (of which there are many).

Phaed