I'm not form Pa....but my great grandmother was....
They are called rivvels,
Linda c

Here is a link that might be useful: Rivvels

rivels - yep, same as spaetzle.

Not really....spatzles are more structured.....like pushed through a colander....rivvels are just sort of broken up and stirred into the soup.
There there's rubbins. But maybe that was just a family thing....you beat up an egg and dipped your hands into it then into a pie plate full of seasoned flour and rubbed your hands together over the simmering broth.

Rivvels involve rubbing. (It's a general term. You can have rivvels of skin when you rub with a towel. I heard that as a kid and didn't hear it used for a food.)

I've never actually eaten this, but here is the recipe for Rivvel Soup from the Kutztown Folk Festival. No link to the recipe because I got it from a GoogleDocs quick look at a pdf I didn't open. www.kutztownfestival.com

Rivvel Soup

2 cups unsifted flour, 1 egg, well beaten, ý tsp. salt, 4 qts of chicken broth, 2 cups corn.

Combine the flour, salt and beaten egg and mix together with your fingers until the mixture
is crmbly⦠Drop these rivvels into the broth⦠Add corn and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

The word âÂÂRivvelâ means âÂÂlumpâ and this soup is full of lumps that look like rice. In its simplest version the rivvels are dropped into hot milk that is seasoned with salt and pepper.

By the way, I think that recipe is wrong about the word's meaning "lump." "To rub" is "reiben" in German, and "rivvel" seems related to that.

Thanks all for a prompt response! And thank you lindac and christine for posting recipes. The dumpling thread and the cooler weather have me craving soups and carbs!

Teresa

Rivvels were a mandatory add in to chicken corn soup in my area of Pennsylvania, and some people also put them in ham and bean soup.

Oddly enough, my Mother, who grew up in Mifflin County's Pennsylvania German community (my Grandfather still spoke German in the home as a child, over 100 years after his family came over), didn't put them in her chicken corn soup.

My parents also were from Dutch country and I grew up eating Chicken Pot Pie (made with pot pie noodles in broth), Shoo Fly Pie (wet bottom), chicken corn chowder, Chow Chow, funnel cake, hot bacon dressing over greens and loads of potatoes and noodles.

Rivvels are simply butter, flour and egg rubbed together and dropped into hot broth or milk.

I found a picture of a chicken rivel soup online. Wow! What is not to like about these delightful looking dumplings made of flower/eggs/butter? This will be on my menu this winter. This is snow shoveling food!

Here is a link that might be useful:

Hmmmm....those look more like dumplings to me. My rivels are small, like fat crumbs.

Teresa

I thought the same thing Teresa. But I've dropped way too much weight since I had a gall stone two months ago. When I googled for pictures, bigger just looked better.

I'm wondering if the larger ones wouldn't be a bit gummy inside. When I do make it, I will shoot for ones that are perhaps the thickness of a pencil.

Teresa

More flour makes crumbly rivvel "dough"....which makes smaller bits of rivvel in the soup. and the excess flour thickens the soup.

Hmm.. the way I've seen it done is rubbing it until you get the size you want and then putting them in a coarse sieve or colander to take off the excess flour.

I thought Spaetzle dough was like Pasta dough..
Cut in strips or pushed thru something with holes.
I make mini Ravioli's, for Chicken Soup.
Lou

Lou - spaetzle dough has milk in addition to the flour and egg. And yes it does get put thru a sieve or collander. And the rivvels have flour, egg and salt - and sometimes butter in the dough.

The rivvels sound better to me. And the thought of using my hands and having one less thing to wash sounds great!

Teresa

Yummers!! I have never heard of rivvels before. I am thinking that will be a part of a meal soon. I was going to make beef and noodles with homemade noodles, maybe I will just try making some Rivvels instead. I know most of these recipes are with Chicken, but left over pot roast and it's juices should be good too.

I am curious about the pot pie with pot pie noodles though??

Stacie

Teresa mn:
You don't wash your hands ??? For shame !
Lou

Stacie, for anyone familiar with PA Dutch cooking, Chicken Pot Pie is a stew with large doughy square noodles.

A Chicken Pie or Chicken Dinner Pie is chicken, veggies, etc., cooked with a crust. When people say Chicken Pot Pie for a Chicken Pie it makes me crazy because Chicken Pie is not cooked in a pot! I think I am fighting a losing battle. Of course, Chicken Pot Pie isn't a pie either, so who knows. Call it whatever you like as long as you call me to have some.

Anyway, here's a link to real Chicken Pot Pie with "Bott Boi Noodles" as they are known.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken Pot Pie

Pam, when I am in Philly, Lancaster, or other wilds of PA, I know what I will get if I ask for Chicken Pot Pie or Bott Boi. When I am at home in NC, I know that Chicken Pot Pie will be with a crust, chicken, and gravy, with veggies, and in my family it will have chopped hard boiled eggs in it too!

Here Chicken Pie is probably a Moravian chicken pie with two crusts, just chicken and gravy - no veggies, no HB eggs. Yummmm...... I think it is time to make one of these.

Teresa

Rivel soup is just pure comfort food to me. My german mother made a simple soup, nothing but rivels & cubed potatoes in a cream based broth. At the table we would add a few drops of apple cider vinegar. Really good, and every time I make it, it takes me back in time.
The recipe for the rivels are a couple of cups of flour and an egg and a teaspoon of salt. Her method of making the rivels was to take the dough and form it into a few long "cigars" and with kitchen shears, snip off small bits and let fall into simmering water. Dipping the shears into the water as she goes if it gets sticky.
I think I will make some tonight! The weather is chilly and it will be an easy comforting supper after spending the afternoon raking my yard.

Pennsylvania has THREE dishes that are called pot pie, depending on where you are on with whom you're speaking.

To some, pot pie is basically a chicken stew with a top crust of either pie dough or biscuit dough. (Think those little frozen Swanson's pot pies you can buy in the freezer section).

To others, chicken pot pie is made with something similar to Mueller's Bot Boi noodles, chicken, vegetables, and broth. It's more like a chicken noodle soup with a LOT of noodles and not so much broth. To my friend Dave, who grew up in the same town as me, this dish is pot pie.

Finally, to others, pot pie is made with a very hearty chicken stock into which are dropped cut squares of dough made of flour, egg, milk, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. These are mixed, rolled to about 1/4" thick, left to dry on the counter for at least 30 minutes, and then dropped into the boiling liquid. They're cooked covered for about 20 minutes, and then cooked uncovered for another 10 to 15 minutes. If you've done it correctly, you have puffy, light, tender pot pie.

To me and my family, that is pot pie. My family's recipe is at least 100 years old, and came from my Great Grandmother, if not even farther back than that. Although a lot of people would consider that recipe to be chicken and dumplings, to me it is, and always will be, chicken pot pie.

Finally, there's chicken, turkey, beef, or other meat pie.

A meat pie, unlike a pot pie, has both an upper AND bottom crust, and is always made with pie dough, never with biscuit dough.

They all sound delicious! Detired - the photo in the link you provided looks like the third item kframe described. Except his dough lists baking powder and soda which probably contributes to the lightness.

All this talk of noodles, dumplings and rivvels. There is going to be a carb filled dinner in the near future for me!

Where does the terminology Bott Boi come from?

Teresa

I forgot about another type of chicken pot pie I make, which is chicken, veggies, and gravy with a poured on batter of self-rising flour, melted butter, milk, and pepper to form the top crust. Makes an easy and fast pot pie - just different. I think of this as my Rowan County, NC recipe as that is the place that I first learned of this type of pie, in our local volunteer fire department cookbook.

Please pass the cranberry sauce! I always like cranberry sauce with my chicken (pot) pie.

Teresa

I'm not sure but I think "bott boi" is PA German (Dutch=Deutsch) for pot pie. At least they sound similar.

I can just picture those noddles laying out on a towel waiting to dry. They were light and chewy at the same time, when cooked.

Yes, the pot pie squares in my family's recipe are probably descended from baking powder dumplings.

The "dumplings" that have no leavening are, to my knowledge, more a Southern dumpling and are very similar to what Cracker Barrel serves. I've had Cracker Barrel's chicken and dumplings, and I know so many people rave about them, but when I try to eat them, I naturally compare them to the pot pie dumplings that I'm familiar with and they're just nasty, chewy, tough, and far too starchy.

I watched an episode of Good Eats recently about Chix and Dumplings where Alton discusses the history of same. I had thought it was an American north/south thing similar to cornbread. And it partly is but goes back further. I thought it was interesting since I love all the varieties.

Scroll down to Scene Two for the history...

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Dumplings

Have you posted the recipe here in the past?

Here is one I found online that sounds like yours, except it does not have the soda.

2 c. flour
1 tsp. butter (cut into flour)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
Milk (enough to moisten, about 1/4 c.)

Mix all ingredients. Knead dough several times, not too often! Roll out dough on floured surface. Cut into square noodles (about 1 1/2 to 2 inch square). Drop into broth.

How much soda do you think I should add?

Teresa

I donâÂÂt know if anyone do what I have been doing.

When I make Spaetzle , dumplings or rivvels, I always steam cook them first before I add them to the soup. This way they come out firmer (al dente), less starchy and I donâÂÂt have to overcook the soup.

dcarch

Teresa, were you asking me if I posted my family pot pie recipe here in the past?

Yes, I think I have.

It's very similar to what you have posted. I should have mentioned that baking soda is not entirely necessary, and is no more really than 1/8th of a teaspoonful.

I've left it out before without appreciable difference in the recipe.

I would suspect that were I to make these with buttermilk it would be necessary to make sure the recipe is balanced acid to base wise.

The pot pie my family made had no leavening. It was a thick, rolled-out egg-noodle. That's the only kind I know, here in Berks County. The packaged pot pie noodles don't come close to how delicious it was cooked in thick broth with a stewing hen.
Chicken and dumplings was a different dish, with light, leavened drop dumplings. I usually make that, because it's so much easier.
These are things my Irish grandmother picked up from living in PA Dutch country. She knew something good when she saw it!

Oh for goodness sake! Now I not only want chicken pie, but I'm feeling the need for chicken and dumplings AND chicken corn soup with rivels! Guess I'm getting over my cold?

So......has anyone in the PA delegation ever had chicken stoltzfus with little baked pastry squares under a creamy chicken and gravy? I had this at the Groff's Farm Restaurant in Mt. Joy and I've made it myself from Betty Groff's cookbook that I bought. Different! and delicious!

Teresa

teresa nc7,

Yes, we love chicken stoltzfus & have it quite often. My recipe comes from a BH&G colonial-type cookbook. Sorry, can't remember the exact name. Actually, I like it better than chix pot pie or chix & dumplings. Well, I don't know...I love chix & dumplings! :)

/tricia

Chicken stoltzfus is just what my family called creamed chicken on biscuits, only squares of baked pie crust are used instead of biscuits. About the only difference is more fat and less milk!! LOL!

Thanks for all of your help. But PLEEEEAASE make it stop! LOL

I am in carb overload and I haven't even made anything yet. (grin)

Teresa

Well, if I'm going to have something like that, I'd much rather it be chicken on waffles, thank you.

Nope....not enough fat in the waffles!

Ah, chicken and waffles! Sunday dinner when I was very little. My father made castles for me out of waffles and mashed potatoes, with gravy in the moat. I'll have to do that for Callie soon.

Dcarch: Were you spying on me?

Dedtired:
I've had that when I was up around " Bird in Hand " and
" Paradise ".

Also the Pot Pie with the Dough on top and

Apple Pie about 4 inches high, with the soft Vanilla
" Pudding "? poured over the top.
Sometimes with Vanilla on top.

How about Apple Pan Dowdy. ( to sweetfor me ).

Many other kinds of goodies.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I think you are right about the " Bot Boi " just the way the say " Pot Pie ".
I'll ask at the PA Dutch Farmers Market. They will be here on Friday.
They have a lot of baked items.

Lou

"Nope....not enough fat in the waffles!"

That's why you ALWAYS have a mug of warm lard on the side for sipping.

Thought I would revive this thread...

I boiled the turkey carcass to make a nice stock, and the day after Thanksgiving Mom made my family's version of pot pie.

Holy crap was it good!

I am from Lancaster and my mother always made rivels with chicken corn soup. She also made her own pot pie noodles. Yum! I, on the other hand, buy them at the local farmer's market. (There's been a market on the site since the 1700's.) I go to market every Friday and get my fresh vegetables and other goodies there.

I also make sand tarts every Christmas. They are a thin, butter cookie that is rolled and cut out in various shapes. I have tons of cookie cutters.

Hey, Lou, where is the PA Dutch Farmer's Market you mentioned?