Skalický trdelník

Appearance & taste

Skalický trdelník is a hollow roll with an inside diameter of 3 to 5 cm and an outside diameter of 6 to 10 cm. Inside it is golden yellow, outside golden brown and sprinkled with icing sugar and vanilla sugar. The consistency is soft and short, not hard. It smells and tastes pleasantly of pastry, crushed nuts, apricot kernels and vanilla; it must not taste of yeast, be too dry or taste smoky.

It is sold individually in food film, if necessary also wrapped in paper, at 500 g or 250 g with the same diameter. The label highlights the name “Skalický trdelník” and also states the topping (nut mixture, walnuts, almonds or apricot kernels) and the baking method.

Production

For 1 kg of wheat flour there are 5 to 8 eggs, plus yeast, milk, granulated sugar, salt, nutmeg, flavourings and lemon; fat comes from lard, vegetable oil and butter. According to the specification, the recipe differs only slightly from producer to producer. A starter dough is made from yeast, milk and sugar and mixed with the flour; then sugar, egg yolk and egg white, salt and the other ingredients are added. The soft dough rises at room temperature, is divided into pieces of 250 to 500 g, shaped into plaits and left to rise again.

The dough is then rolled onto the greased wooden spit, the “trdlo”, which sits on a stand. It is brushed with beaten egg white, sprinkled with crushed walnuts, almonds or apricot kernels and baked golden brown over an open heat source such as embers or a grill, turning constantly and brushing with fat from time to time. According to the specification, the open fire, the turning and the brushing give the pastry its particular smell and taste. After cooling it is sprinkled with icing sugar and vanilla sugar.

Origin & history

The area lies in Slovakia and is bounded in the north by the border with the Czech Republic, in the west by the Morava, in the south by the Myjava and in the east by the Teplica between Senica and the Czech border.

Trdelník has been baked on a spit since the beginning of the 19th century. According to oral tradition, the recipe comes from the cook of the poet and writer Count Jozef Gvadáni, who lived in Skalica from 1783 to 1801. Around 1900 it began to be sold at fairs; it has been made on a larger scale since the middle of the 20th century, and most of the written evidence also dates from this time. As the first surviving document, the specification names a manuscript by the Hungarian poet Gyula Juhász, who taught at the grammar school in Skalica; the pastry is also mentioned in a book by Ferdinand Dúbravský about the town (1921) and in 1977 in the regional magazine “Jídelníček”.