And Gutenberg Lived Here: The Season of Drunk Jelly Donuts

Actually, I had been meaning to write this post since the start of the Carnival season,

the middle of November,

but when I read a marvelous comment-

on Bun Karyudo’s terrific  blog-

about stream of consciousness and jelly donuts,

I knew the time had come.

The commenter, it seems,

a Brit named David Prosser,

mentioned that in Britain they don’t eat jelly donuts,

they eat jam donuts,

because if they ate jelly donuts,

they would be eating jello.

So much for the same language.

And here in Gutenberg land, it’s not that much different.

The famous jelly donut,

usually called a Berliner

(yes, gasp, when John F. Kennedy said he was a Berliner, he was actually saying he was a jelly donut.)

becomes,

through magic incantations

and the firing off of a lot of confetti cannons,

the krepppel, crapfen, carnival cake, etc.

The only difference to the mighty Berliner of the sixties being:

about a 2 cc shot of:

kirschwasser -cherries distilled to the flamability level- in the black forest area,

very high potency egg nogg, champagne custard, or mocca rum goop, here on the Rhine,

and,

in the cold and protestant north,

very very occasionally only,

obstle (high octane fruit schnapps)-

since, in general, the north doesn’t celebrate carnival,

unless it is done extra to draw tourists into an area financially depressed in winter.

So what exactly do these “enhanced” kreppel have to do with carnival?

Like the pancake races in England,

it is an attempt to clear the house of flour, eggs and oil before Lent.

And also absorbs,

along with the local declicacy of garlic laced baloney-

half a ring stuck into a hard roll,

the rest of the “flight fuel”  or “angels’ wings” being imbibed in the three high days of carnival.

And if you are a fan of the original Star Trek,

there is a fascinating episode  where captain Kirk visits a planet where the locals celebrate by doing anything they want to do-

no holds barred-

for 24 hours.

Which episode was supposedly written while Gene Roddenbury was stationed in Germany.

I think that says it all.

Ps

While looking up  donut-fill recipes for the north of Germany,

I came across a wonderful Hanukkah story

about how anything baked in oil is good, as a form of remembrance,

but also that,

according to legend,

after God expelled Adam and Eve from the garden,

He gave them jelly donuts to console them.

With or without booze is not mentioned.

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