Out-Of-Place Ingredients: Möhrenauflauf Edition
Sometimes, when browsing a cookbook, you may wonder what the purpose of an ingredient in a recipe is. This recently happened when I was looking through "Belorussische Küche", a book published in 1988 by Verlag der Frau Leipzig that I acquired somewhat randomly over time. The recipe is for Möhrenauflauf (carrot casserole), but it looks more like a carrot cake. I was really surprised to see yeast in the ingredients list, as there isn't that much flour for it to hold the gas bubbles. The original recipe is as follows:
Zutaten: 500 bis 600 g Möhren, 10 bis 12 g Hefe, 1 bis 2 Eier, Salz, 1 bis 2 Esslöffel Mehl, 1 Esslöffel Zucker, 30 bis 40g Öl.
Beschreibung: In die rohe geriebene Möhrenmasse die in Wasser aufgelöste Hefe geben, dazu Eier, Salz, Mehl, Zucker und Öl. Alles vermischen und an einem warmen Ort zum Gehen abstellen. Danach den Teig in eine gefettete Metallform geben und 20 Minuten in der Röhre überbacken.
Which translates to:
Ingredients: 500 to 600g carrots, 10 to 12g yeast, 1 to 2 eggs, salt, 1 to 2 tablespoons flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 30 to 40g oil.
Description: Add the yeast dissolved in water to the raw grated carrot mixture, along with the eggs, salt, flour, sugar, and oil. Mix everything together and leave in a warm place to rise. Then place the dough in a greased metal pan and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Judging by the amount of yeast, I would guess it's fresh yeast, but there are many other unknowns. For example, how finely should the carrots be grated, to bake at what temperature, and how long should it rise for? Despite missing this information, I made the recipe, letting it rise for around 2 hours at around 20°C and using the fine side of the IKEA box grater. I baked it in an greased glass box, as I currently don't have that small metal pan. Baking it at 180°C for 20 minutes turned it into a carrot cake casserole hybrid that was still a little underdone. It wasn't great, but edible.
So, after taking a stab at it, I still don't know why this recipe calls for yeast.. Searching online did not help, as it only turned up this recipe on a website that republished it from the book. Looking at other carrot casserole recipes, I haven't seen yeast in any of them, only in cake or bread recipes. I therefore started to track down the original book, which is a German translation of a Russian book called Белорусская кухня (Belarusian Cuisine), published by Ураджай. The 1993 third edition is relatively easy to find. My issue is that I can't read or understand Russian, but luckily technology to the rescue. Lo and behold, on page 145, I found a recipe that looks similar to the German one!
Ingredients: 6 морковей, 2 ст. ложки муки, 2 ст. ложки масла, 1 яйцо, 15 г дрожжей, сахар, жир, со'ль.
Description: Морковь натереть на крупной терке, добавить разведенные в воде дрожжи, яй ца, со'ль, муку, сахар, масло, перемешать и поставить в теплое место для брожения. Затем массу выложить в мета.л.лическую форму, смазанную жиром, и поставить в печь или духовку на 20 минут.
Which translates to the following:
Ingredients: 6 carrots, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 egg, 15 g yeast, sugar, fat, salt.
Description: Grate the carrots using a coarse grater, add the yeast dissolved in water, egg, salt, flour, sugar, butter, mix and place in a warm place to ferment. Then place the mixture in a metal mould greased with fat and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
The quantities are different and it seems that we are dealing with coarsely grated carrots, but this does not solve the mystery of the yeast. The title, Бабка морковная, does not help much either. However, it seems that there are a decent number of carrot cake recipes that use yeast. They tend to have a lot more flour in them. Maybe the quantity of flour is just wrong in the recipe, or I'm missing something here. If anyone reading this has ever made a recipe similar to this one, please let me know. Have you ever found an out-of-place ingredient when going through a cookbook?