serviettenknödel — Austria

Serviettenknödel, literally "napkin dumpling," is a large bread dumpling shaped as a log rather than the small round balls more familiar as Semmelknödel, even though both are made from the same base of stale bread, milk and egg. The name comes from the cloth, once a table napkin, that the log is wrapped in for cooking. It is found across Austria as a side dish, most often set alongside a roast or a sauce that needs something to soak it up, though it can also carry a meal on its own or, less commonly, turn up as a dessert. Cubed stale rolls are soaked in warm milk until soft, then mixed with beaten egg, sautéed onion, parsley and a little flour into a dough firm enough to hold its shape. The dough is packed into a log, wrapped tightly in a cloth tied at both ends, and poached in gently simmering salted water until cooked through, then rested before being unwrapped and sliced into rounds. This dish is referenced on AllGastronomy in three countries — Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic — each with its own page, and none of the three is singled out as the point of reference; what changes between them is mainly the bread used and the seasoning, while the cloth-wrapped log shape and the poaching in water stay the same.