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Powidl, a plum butter or stew, is a traditional dish popular in Eastern Europe. Late harvested plums, cinnamon, and cloves are simmered for hours and strained to make a smooth spread or filling for other dishes. It is often made in small batches and can be used in sandwiches, cakes, pies, and dumplings.
Powidl, also written as powidel, is pronounced like “violin” and is known as povidla in Czech. It is a plum butter or plum stew that is eaten as a spread or used as a filling to prepare other dishes. It is very popular in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and other parts of Eastern Europe. The production process of Powidl is quite long, although not particularly complicated.
This is a traditional dish which, in earlier days, was mainly prepared in winter. Winter was the one time most people had the time to spare for the long cooking and constant churning required to make this plum butter. Often, the women would get together to cook and would take turns stirring the piping hot plum stew and while away the time telling each other stories. The Czech word for storytelling is povidat and the name of this food originated from it.
The main ingredients used to make this plum butter are late harvested plums, cinnamon, and cloves. The plums are chopped, added to cinnamon, cloves and water, and the mix is first brought to a boil and then simmered for many hours. You need to stir the mixture at regular intervals as it cooks to keep the prunes from sticking to the bottom of the pot. The powidl is considered done when the water has evaporated to a good extent and the mixture has reached a thick consistency. The mix is then strained through a sieve to remove the skins and spices and to make a smooth plum butter.
In most jams, sugar and lemon juice are usually added to the jam as a preservative. Sugar is generally not added when making powidl, but a little lemon juice can be added to the dough while it is cooking. The mixture is then filled into jars and stored in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. Without this, plum butter likely won’t last long after a jar is opened. Many chefs these days prefer to make powidl in small batches as needed, so there’s no question of spoiling your plum stew.
This plum butter can be used in sandwich or cake spreads or as a filling in cakes, pies and dumplings. A popular Austrian dish that uses plum stew filling is a dumpling known as Germknödel. Powidl is also used to make a special cake Powidl and to make a Bohemian pastry called Buchteln.
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