Helzel


Helzel or gefilte helzel is an Ashkenazi Jewish dish. It is a sort of sausage made from poultry neck skin stuffed with flour, semolina, bread crumbs or matzo meal, schmaltz, and fried onions and sewn up with a thread.
Chicken or goose necks are commonly used but duck or turkey necks can be substituted. The stuffing can also include internal meats, such as chopped heart, gizzard, liver. Sometimes the stuffing is flavored with garlic and black pepper. Helzel may be cooked in chicken soup or used as an ingredient in cholent. Because of its sausage shape and the flour-based stuffing, helzel is sometimes called "false kishke".
The name derives from Yiddish heldzl which in turn stems from German Hals.
Until well into the 20th century, the dish was a comfort food of Ashkenazim typically served on Shabbat and Jewish Holidays. Nowadays its popularity declined.

Similar dishes

The Ashkenazi helzel recalls to mind the tebit, the cholent equivalent of Iraqi Jews, which includes a whole chicken skin filled with a mixture of rice, chopped chicken meats, and herbs.