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This Sausage Is Kosher—Because It’s Made of Chocolate

How Schockoladenwurst came from Germany to El Salvador, and why this pareve dessert should make its way to your table

by
Joan Nathan
April 26, 2017
Photo: Justin Covington
Photo: Justin Covington
Photo: Justin Covington
Photo: Justin Covington

In isolated Jewish communities, we can often find delicious recipes not found elsewhere anymore.

When I visited El Salvador in 2016, a local psychologist named Daniel Guttfreund organized a Sabbath dinner at his mother’s apartment featuring Jewish dishes that his family has eaten every Friday night and for holidays since his grandfather immigrated there in the 1920s. That evening, the dishes included challah, mushroom and onion pierogi, and stuffed cabbage, as well as more typically Salvadoran dishes like stuffed chayote and a yuca latke. The desserts were favorite recipes that Daniel’s family had brought over from Berlin, including Schokoladenwurst, or “chocolate sausage.”

This addictive, no-cook chocolate treat made with cookies and cocoa powder was probably invented before or during WWI, when processed cocoa and chocolate were available and people wanted to preserve gas by not cooking. This pareve dessert became popular with Jews and non-Jews alike before WWII. I doubt it if it is very popular in Berlin today, but it has remained a favorite in other places where immigrants brought the recipe. It goes by salami di cioccolate in Italy and shokoladnaya kolbasa in Russia. From my time in Israel in the early 1970s, I knew as knackknick, Hebrew for sausage.

My favorite part of making this recipe is the instruction to make three cylinders of cookies: one to eat now, then two to freeze, ready for the next time you crave it.

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Joan Nathan is Tablet Magazine’s food columnist and the author of 10 cookbooks including King Solomon’s Table: a Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World.

The Recipe


Schokoladenwurst

Schokoladenwurst

Joan Nathan is Tablet Magazine’s food columnist and the author of 10 cookbooks including King Solomon’s Table: a Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World.