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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Luxembourg
Simple dumplings made from a batter of flour, milk and eggs, cooked in water and served with fried bacon or melted butter. They are home-style, winter food, with recipes passed down through generations.
Traditional dish from Luxembourg
Also known as: Kniddel
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Kniddelen — Luxembourg
Kniddelen are dough dumplings: flour, eggs, milk and, in some recipes, fresh cheese (quark) or cream, mixed until a soft batter forms. Using two spoons dipped in hot water, portions of the batter are dropped into a pot of lightly salted simmering water. They are done when they rise and float.
They are then transferred to a warm serving dish and topped with cubed bacon fried until crispy, with the rendered fat, or with melted butter. Chopped parsley or chives finish the dish.
The Luxembourg tradition presents Kniddelen as comforting food for the cold seasons, tied to the country’s rural past, when dishes like this were the staple for much of the population. Many Luxembourgers associate them with their grandparents’ table, and recipes are often passed down through generations or come from Ketty Thull’s cookbooks.
Luxembourg city tourism also publishes a recipe, served with bacon sauce or melted butter. There are versions that accompany the dumplings with apple jam, and the government suggests a dry white wine from the Moselle.
Leftovers can be fried until golden in a skillet the next day.
Luxembourg
Home cooking found throughout the country.
Wheat flour, eggs, milk, salt; sometimes fresh cheese (quark) or cream; smoked bacon or butter for serving; parsley or chives.
Hot, on a serving dish, with fried bacon and its fat on top or with melted butter; sometimes served with apple jam.
Home-style dish, more common in the cold months.
Your questions
Portions of soft batter scooped with a spoon and cooked in salted water until they float, then covered with bacon.
Savory, served with bacon; some families put apple jam on the side.
Mainly in the cold months as home-style food.
Flavors of Luxembourg
Cake baked in thin layers around a rotating spit in front of a flame, forming rings like those of a tree trunk. It arrived in Luxembourg from another European tradition and became a sweet for weddings and large celebrations.
Thick green‑bean soup with potato, onion, bacon and sausage, served as a main course. It’s a traditional Luxembourgish home soup and is served at Buergbrennen bonfires after Carnival.
Small human-shaped brioche pastry, with raisins for eyes and sometimes a small white pipe. It is the sweet of Saint Nicholas and Advent in Luxembourg, sold in bakeries in the weeks before Christmas.
Sweet made from leavened laminated dough, covered with sugar icing and almonds, shaped into a loop that resembles two entwined arms. It is the gift of Bretzelsonndeg, the fourth Sunday of Lent, when men give it to the women they care for.
Cold salad of cooked beef cut into cubes, with hard‑boiled egg, pickled cucumber and a mustard‑and‑vinegar dressing. It originated as a way to use leftover boiled meat and has been made for generations in Luxembourgish homes.
Flat patties made from grated potato with onion, parsley and seasonings, fried until crispy. Official tourism presents them as a national dish, and they are traditional at fairs and Christmas markets.
Smoked pork neck, slow-cooked and served sliced with fava beans in a creamy sauce and boiled potatoes. It is the dish most often cited as Luxembourg’s national dish.
Open tart with a buttery crust topped with Quetschen plums arranged in circles, baked until the fruit releases its juices. It is Luxembourg’s autumn tart, made when the plums ripen, usually in September.
Sweet strips of dough tied into loose, irregular knots, fried until golden and dusted with powdered sugar. They are Luxembourg’s Carnival sweet and are still often made at home.
Pork sausages browned in a skillet and served in a creamy Luxembourgish mustard sauce, with mashed potatoes. The name means “wine sausage with mustard sauce.”
Meat pie in a golden crust, filled with a pork and veal ragù and finished with a Riesling wine jelly. It is a specialty of the capital’s pastry shop and, according to the family that sells it, was created in the city of Luxembourg in 1928.
