Leipziger Lerche (pastries)
The Leipziger Lerche is a pastry specialty from Leipzig , the name of which is reminiscent of the songbirds that used to be a culinary delicacy in Leipzig, especially on festive days. The pastry was invented in the form of a pie after the official ban on bird trapping in the city in 1876. It is a variant of the macaroon tart , which consists of shortcrust pastry and is filled with a mixture of marzipan and jam . It is decorated with two crossed strips of dough. The term Leipziger Lerche has been protected by the Saxonia regional guild association since 2004 .
history
Today protected songbirds have been caught and prepared for consumption in Europe since the Middle Ages until the 20th century. Larks were considered a delicacy and the Leipzig region was a main fishing area for them for centuries. In 1720 alone, over 400,000 larks were sold at the Leipzig city gates. During the Leipzig trade fair , they were prepared in large numbers by the local bakers every year. Recipes for Leipzig larks were found in every well-known cookbook in the 18th and 19th centuries. The birds were roasted in households and inns, trained with a thread and baked with herbs and eggs or prepared as pies . However, a large part was sent abroad. For this purpose, the birds were plucked immediately after they were caught, individually wrapped in paper and packed in special boxes. In Leipzig, lark women traded with it in Salzgäßchen .
In the 19th century the animal welfare movement grew in importance and influence and the consumption of songbirds was increasingly criticized. Animal welfare associations demanded that songbirds should generally be removed from the list of huntable animals. Finally, in 1876, King Albert of Saxony officially banned lark hunting. At this point, larks became a rarity. The reason for this was on the one hand overhunting in recent years, on the other hand a severe storm that caused the death of numerous birds.
According to tradition, the pastry was created as a substitute for the no longer prepared songbirds. “It is not clearly proven, but there are many indications that the first impetus for such a sweet pastry came from the Leipzig bakers, who had previously baked the larks for the freighters in their ovens. (…) Even if the shape has been increasingly simplified over the years, the name and pastry are said to have been preserved for over 100 years. ”The crossed strips of dough imitate the ribbons with which the stuffed birds were tied back then.
Small larks are now a typical part of a Leipzig coffee bowl .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sächsische Schmeckerchen - the Saxon bakers understand their craft at www.baeckersachsen.de. Select Leipziger Lerche, accessed on February 13, 2017
- ↑ a b Irene Krauß : Chronicle of beautiful Backwerke , Matthaes, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 978-3875162929 , p. 261 f.
- ↑ a b Kleinert bakery
- ↑ Information from the Leipzig City Museum
- ↑ Leipzig specialties, part 2. In: Leipzig insider tip. January 20, 2018, accessed December 21, 2019 .
