Fat Tuesday! I braved the snows this morning to secure a King Cake – complete with the traditional choking hazard of a tiny plastic baby boy – but I fear this year’s quest for the Holy Grail of Fasnachts has been called due to inclement weather.
If I’ve ever had a wholly satisfying fasnacht since my grandmother died, I don’t recall it. When I was a kid, I’d blow in one day after school, an oblivious whirlwind, to find the air heavy with the scent of freshly-made doughnuts. I never knew when it would happen or understood the significance. All I knew is that I’d come home one afternoon and my grandmother would be serving up heaven from an electric fryer.
A fasnacht – which you’ll also see spelled fastnacht, faschnaut, or faschnacht (and which we always pronounced “fosh-knot”) – is a fried doughnut made on Shrove Tuesday – or Fat Tuesday, if you prefer – the last day before Lent. Traditionally, the making of doughnuts was a way to clear out all the tasties a Christian is not supposed to eat again until Easter. In any case, one could use a good fast after consuming so much fried lard!
Now THOSE were doughnuts. The closest I’ve been able to find out in the real world are Italian zeppoli. Not quite the same, but they share a similar, unhealthy, fried, powdered-sugary goodness. However, zeppoli, like fasnachts, can vary. A light and puffy zeppola would bear little resemblance to my grandmother’s fasnachts, which were always cakey.
I miss those doughnuts. My grandmother was an undistinguished cook, but boy could she make fasnachts.
I would be appalled by some “authentic” Pennsylvania Dutch fasnachts, which look too soft and are served with butter and maple syrup. I need an austere fistful of claggy dough that I can enjoy with a cup of coffee.
At any rate, it’s all doughnuts, alcohol, and orgies today, as tomorrow the streets will be strewn with bottles and bodies for the start of Lent.
For now, indulge in a Classic Ross Amico Carnival/Mardis Gras playlist and laissez les bons temps rouler!
“Mardi Gras” by Edward Joseph Collins
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Prelude and Carnival from “Violanta”
Niccolò Paganini, “Variations on ‘Carnival of Venice’”
Sviatoslav Richter plays Robert Schumann, “Faschingsschwank aus Wien” (“Carnival Jest from Vienna”)
Nelson Freire plays Heitor Villa-Lobos, “Mômoprecóce” (“Carnival of the Brazilian Children”) – hold your nose through the BBC intro
Luiz Bonfá, “Manhã de Carnaval” on a Yamaha Silent Guitar
Igor Stravinsky, “Petrouchka,” set at a Shrovetide fair
Creole composer Edmond Dédé, “Méphisto masque” (with kazoo choir)
Charles Lucièn Lambert, “Bresiliana”
Hershy Kay, “Cakewalk,” after Louis Moreau Gottschalk
“Carnevale Veneziano: The Comic Faces of Giovanni Croce”
Roman Carnival scene from Hector Berlioz’s “Benvenuto Cellini”
Not my idea of a fasnacht
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/116/fastnacht-day.html
The many faces of fasnacht
PHOTOS King Cake choking hazard (top); fasnachts best resembling my grandmother’s recipe
