# Sour lung with bread dumplings



## Michi (Oct 14, 2019)

Sour lung with bread dumplings is a traditional Bavarian dish. In German, it is called "Saure Lunge mit Semmelknödel" or simply "Lunge mit Knödel".

I can't for the life of me find lung in the Brisbane area. (If someone knows where to get it, please send me a PM!) So, every time I go to Germany, I usually bring back two or three tins of the ready-made dish (which is almost, if not completely, as good as the fresh version).





While I'm at it, I also bring back a packet or two of freeze-dried dumplings (but those are not as nice as fresh home-made ones).




This is what the finished dish looks like:




Here is the recipe, which is from one of the Bavarian standard textbooks on cooking (used by most home economics schools for nearly 90 years now).

Lung:

You need to make a brine for the lung. Ingredients:

3 l salty water
2 celery sticks
1 carrot
1 parsnip
2 onions
3 bay leaves
2 cloves
½ tsp black peppercorns
6 pimento berries
2 slices of lemon
125 ml red vinegar

Get hold of ½ kg calf, beef, or pork lung. Bring the brine to a boil. Add the washed lung and simmer for ¾–1 hour (for pork and calf lung), or 1.5–2 hours (for beef lung). Once done, remove the lung, put it on some baking paper, add another sheet of baking paper on top, and put a cutting board with a bit of weight on top to press the lung flat a little.

Once cold, cut the lung into fine strips, add enough of the cold brine to cover and add some more vinegar, if needed. The brine should taste pleasantly sour. Marinate overnight. Keep the remainder of the brine.

Next day, make a medium to dark roux (60 g flour, 60g beef drippings or ghee, ½ finely-chopped onion). Use the brine to make about 1.5 l of a thick soup/sauce. If in doubt, err on the thick side; you can always add water if it turns out too thick.

Add the marinated lung (including marinade) to the sauce. Add zest of a quarter lemon (in a single piece so you can fish it out again later). Simmer for 10–15 minutes.

Remove the zest, add juice from half a lemon, ½ teaspoon of sugar, 60 ml thick whipping creme, and 60 ml white wine. Add salt to taste.

The consistency should be that of a thick soup or runny paste; think of thick pea soup. Adjust consistency with water, if needed.

The dish freezes well and it's good to leave it in the fridge for a day or two. The flavours will mingle some more that way.

Bread dumplings:

You need stale white bread or bread rolls to make this, preferably ones with a bit of a crispy (but not thick) crust. White bread rolls or baguette will work fine. (In Bavaria, we use "Semmeln".)

8–10 stale Semmeln
salt
⅜ l lukewarm milk
3–4 eggs
1 small onion
parsley
butter

Cut the bread rolls into thin slices, put them into a shallow bowl, sprinkle with salt, pour over the warm milk, cover, and let stand for half an hour.

Lightly sautée the onion and parsley until the onion is translucent. Lightly mix the eggs (no foam) and add eggs, sautéed onion and parsley to the bread. Knead lightly into a dough. (You want the bread to retain some structure, as if it had been cut into cubes or strips. Don't knead the whole thing until it's one uniform mass.)

Bring a big pot of water to the boil and salt generously (as you would for pasta). Make a small test dumpling (with moistened hands) and cook it to see whether the dough has the right moisture content. If the dumpling falls apart, add some breadcrumbs and/or flour. You are shooting for something that holds together but is quite light and fluffy overall and can easily be pulled apart with a fork.

Form dumplings about 2 inches in diameter and drop into the boiling water. Once water is back to a boil, reduce heat to a gentle simmer, cover, and let the dumplings cook for 15–20 minutes. The dumplings will gradually rise to the surface.

Serve the lung with the dumplings and a sprinkle of parsley or chives for decoration.


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## Kristoffer (Oct 14, 2019)

Sounds amazing, and like something that needs to be served with a Weizen. Thanks for the recipe!


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## Michi (Oct 14, 2019)

Kristoffer Tyvik said:


> Sounds amazing, and like something that needs to be served with a Weizen.


That is most precisely the best possible beer to drink with that dish


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