2022 Midsummer Issue

COOKING
WITH SCRATCH ©
Would
you
try a dessert
named kalter hund
(cold dog)? Or
gestreifter hund (striped dog), kalte schnauze,
(cold snout), karierter affe (plaid monkey),
gestreifter affe (striped monkey), kalter igel
(cold hedgehog) or keksmauer (biscuit wall)?
These are just a few of the regional variations
of names for an icebox cake we would enjoy
once in a blue moon at Tante (aunt) Waltraud
and Onkel (uncle) Horst Fahsel’s house back in
the 1960s.
Horst and Waltraud were some of my parents’
first friends when they moved to America
after the war. My father, Horst Kertscher, (yes,
two Horsts—it’s a popular German name!)
sponsored Horst Fahsel in the mid ‘50s when
his visa was about to expire, and they worked
together after he moved from Chicago to New
Jersey.
My parents were very fond of the handsome
Horst and so was I. He came and visited us
often when we lived in the duplex in Montclair,
and my baby album features several photos of
us together.
Horst sent for his bride in the early ‘50s and
got married in New Jersey. They lived in West
Orange for quite some time, and I have vivid
memories of going for kaffee und kuchen (coffee
and cake) at their house when I was growing up.
We had to dress up for kaffee. It was fancy.
We were allowed to sit with the grownups
if there was room at the table. If not, all the
children were relegated to having mikchkaffee
(coffee with lots of milk) and cake in the kitchen.
Horst and Waltraud’s home was decorated in
36
LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Midsummer 2022
What’s In a Name?
by BARBARA SIMMONS
Photo by KAREN FUCITO
AQUATIC VEGETATION CONTROL
Providing lake and pond management
solutions with SCIENCE for over 33 years.
973-948-0107
www.lakemgtsciences.com
Branchville, NJ
what we now call the mid-century modern style.
(It bothers me that trends from my youth are
considered antiques now!)
I can still recall their dining room. There was
a beautiful, sleek Danish teak table in the dining
room with matching chairs and credenza,
lovingly dusted and polished.
Waltraud would set the table with her best
china. And, in the middle of the table, if we
were lucky, there was her famous kalter hund on
a pretty crystal dish.
Waltraud was the only tante who made
this cake. This is not your standard Nabisco
chocolate wafer/whipped cream icebox cake you
may be familiar with.
My mother, Gertrude, didn’t have anything
like it in her repertoire. She was the queen of
fruit tarts and crumb cakes. I honestly don’t
remember her making anything chocolatey.
Thankfully one of my father’s sisters, Tante
Lanni, knew the recipe and dictated her version
of it to me while I scribbled frantically in my
little notebook. I still have that copy today—
half in German, half in English. My amusing
little note at the bottom of the handwritten
recipe makes me laugh: “I hope I can still read
this when I am 40.”
I was curious about the origins of the name
and found this on Wikipedia, under hedgehog
slice (its Austrian name): “Many German
histories refer to a 1920s recipe from the baking
firm Bahlsen that combined chocolate with
packaged cookies. The name “Kalter Hund”
might have been a reference to the rectangular
pans resembling mining box cars (hund, or dog)
in which the dessert is often made.”
I feel lucky to have stayed in touch over the
years with Martin Fahsel, Horst and Waltraud’s
son. While his parents are deceased, his Aunt
Inge—Horst’s sister—is still in New Jersey.
Martin and his wife come up from North
Carolina to visit at least once a year.
We usually meet them for dinner
before they head up to New York
state to visit her relatives.
Listening to Martin talk about
coming up to the lake to swim with
us and go fishing with my father
brought back some happy memories
that he shared with me. (That’s a
picture of me with Waltraud in
a lake in West Milford in 1955.)
Martin recalled listening to the
Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” album and
Don McLean’s “American Pie” on
my record player upstairs with me
and my brother, Frank. And he
recently thanked me for introducing him to
rock and roll.
A few notes about kalter hund: You may have
to hunt around for Palmin brand coconut fat,
one of the key ingredients. It is a very clean
tasting fat that will help the kalter hund frosting
set up hard when refrigerated.
German specialty shops, which now are,
unfortunately, few and far between, usually
carry Palmin. It is also available on Amazon,
where I’ve purchased it a few times.
Use the best quality chocolate you can find.
The better the chocolate, the better your kalter
hund will turn out. I once used Dick Taylor
Craft Chocolate 70% Belize semisweet dark
baking chocolate that a dear friend gave me for
my birthday that was exquisite! Ghirardelli dark
and milk chocolate chips are also excellent and
made in America (from San Francisco!). Just
don’t use unsweetened baking chocolate.
Leibnizkeks, butter biscuits by Bahlsen, are
available in most supermarkets.
Kalter hund is decadently sweet. The original
recipe has you make it in a regular bread loaf
pan, but I find making it in mini loaf pans
makes for more realistic portions. This recipe
yields four to six mini loaves. They freeze well
and are great to have “in the vault.”