CRYSPES ANYONE?

No, it’s not Rice Krispies.

How about Dribble or Funny Cake? Mincebek, Nysebek, or Zalabia? There are so many names for this humble, popular treat most of us call funnel cake.

Basically, it’s fried dough – a sweet that’s been around for thousands of years. Jeff Barto reported in Timonium that “some sources [believe] that fried cakes were consumed in China and Egypt” up to 10,000 years ago. It evolved with the invention of pottery and the stone grinder that led to “primitive forms of frying and the grinding of grain.”

By the second century BC, ancient Romans were making their own version called scribilita; spooning sourdough-leavened dough into hot fat.

It was down-to-earth, easy-to-make, and sweet.

The recipe made it into the Middle Ages.

Medieval cookbooks offered insights into the way they organized their meals. Unlike today, the banquets served sweets between main courses known as sweet entremets. They were often funnel-cake-like treats with names like cryspes and meshabek.

Wouldn’t it be nice to start a meal with dessert?

Cookbooks described using sourdough or yeast batter, and according to author Tori Avey, they were “doused with sugar syrup and sprinkled with salt.” They were made by pouring batter through a hole in the bottom of a bowl. In the 1390 cookbook, The Forme of Cury, Middle English referred to them as nysebeck.

Yum . . . sweet and salty.

For better or worse, most modern meals start off with appetizers, salads, or soups. Funnel cakes evolved into a snack food at fairs, festivals, ball games, and other happy events. Their modern history and popularity in North America began back in the 1700s and 1800s.

Many Germans immigrated to America, settling in Pennsylvania and what is today the Ohio Amish Country. They were known as Pennsylvania Germans or Pennsylvania Dutch. According to Wikipedia, the “Dutch” in Medieval times referred to people who spoke German. Others say that it’s an anglicization of the word deutsch.

The Pennsylvania Dutch were Germans not Dutch.

They were looking for a safe environment, an escape from religious persecution, and the freedom to pursue their skills as farmers and craftsmen. Like today, many Americans were suspicious of the newcomers. Benjamin Franklin asked why they should “swarm into our settlements, and by herding together establish their language and manners to the exclusion of ours?”

Sadly, the same xenophobic question is still asked today.

The new immigrants formed communities to preserve their culture, religion, and lifestyle. They enriched American cuisine with foods like shoo-fly pie (below), soft pretzels, scrapple, fastnachts (fried potato doughnuts), and funnel cake. They originally called funnel cake drechter kuche – the name was later changed to the device used to pour it into hot oil.

Most of us never heard of funnel cakes until the summer of 1950.

Patrick Donmoyer wrote in Pennsylvania Heritage that “The Kutztown Folk Festival is a milestone among American community celebrations . . . the first and longest-running folklife festival in the history of the United States.”

The festival is fun, busy, filled with food, demonstrations, and a peek into Pennsylvania Dutch life. There are bakers, barn decorators, farmers, soapmakers, weavers, woodworkers, blacksmiths, basketmakers, and beekeepers. Music, dance, comedy, and theater are everywhere, as well as “experts in folk medicine, vernacular architecture, folk art, beliefs from cradle to the grave, and the distinctive traditional dress of Pennsylvania’s unique religious communities.”

In the first year (1950), roughly 30,000 people attended the festival. The next year 45,000 people showed up. These days people come from all over the country and world, with numbers over 100,000, to experience the rich history and, of course, funnel cakes.

Author Tori Avey reported that three women, Grace Henninger, Stella Heinly, and Emma Miller, made funnel cakes from old family recipes, in the back of their festival concession stand. They sold them for 25 cents each. Thousands were sold. Funnel cakes became a feature at not only Pennsylvania Dutch festivals but across the country and the world. Avey wrote that “Before the 50s they were made occasionally . . . it is clear that the cakes became more firmly rooted in Pennsylvania Dutch food lore thanks to the Kutztown Festival.”

Whether you’re at a Pennsylvania Dutch Festival, state fair, ballgame, or local event, it’s likely you’ll find someone selling funnel cakes. These days they are often served with whipped cream, bananas, berries, cola, Nutella . . . just about anything a creative cook can imagine.

Try the original, with powdered sugar, or the fancier versions. You won’t regret it. When you’re munching on a funnel cake, think of the people who made them. It tastes even better!