Kreplach
Also: Jewish Dumplings, Kreplekh
Ashkenazi Jewish filled dumplings of thin egg-noodle dough wrapped around seasoned minced meat, traditionally served in chicken broth on feast days.
Identity criteria
- 1Thin egg-and-flour dough, like fresh pasta
- 2Filled with seasoned cooked minced meat (or potato/cheese in dairy versions)
- 3Folded into triangles or filled half-moons
- 4Boiled and served in clear chicken broth
- 5A feast-day dish (Yom Kippur eve, Purim, Hoshana Rabbah)
Components
Egg-noodle dough (flour, egg, water)essential
Minced cooked beef or chickenessentialDairy meals use potato or cheese filling
Onionessential
Chicken broth (for serving)essentialSometimes fried instead of served in soup
Salt, pepperoptional
Technique
- Rolling thin dough
- A thin wrapper keeps the dumpling delicate in the broth
- Folding and sealing
- A tight triangle seal keeps the filling in during boiling
Form & serving
- Served
- Floating in clear soup
- Temperature
- hot
- Portion
- several dumplings in a bowl of broth
- Pairs with
- chicken soup · fried onions (when pan-fried)
Character
Flavour
Texture
tender noodle wrapper around a soft savory filling
Eaten
Made for Jewish feast days, especially the eve of Yom Kippur, Purim and Hoshana Rabbah, served in soup.
When
year-round
Variations & related
Regional variations
- Soup kreplach · Ashkenazi diaspora
Meat-filled, served in chicken broth
- Fried kreplach · Ashkenazi diaspora
Boiled then pan-fried, eaten as a side
- Dairy kreplach · Ashkenazi diaspora
Cheese or potato filling for dairy meals
Related dishes
- sibling Pelmeni
Eastern European meat dumpling relative
- sibling Wonton
Comparable thin-wrapped soup dumpling
- pairs-with Chicken soup
The classic serving broth
Substitutions
Beef filling → Chicken or potato fillingadmissible
Acceptable per kosher meal type
Egg-noodle dough → Bread-dough wrapperinadmissible
Loses the delicate noodle character; no longer kreplach
Common mistakes
- Rolling the dough too thick so it turns gummy in the soup
- Overfilling and bursting the seal
- Mixing meat and dairy fillings against kosher meal rules
- Overboiling until the wrapper disintegrates
Provenance
An Ashkenazi Jewish dumpling within the broad Eurasian filled-dough family, tied to specific Jewish feast days.
References
- 1.Ashkenazi Jewish culinary tradition
Confidence: high