Publication of an application pursuant to Article 6(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs

2011/C 191/11

This publication confers the right to object to the application pursuant to Article 7 of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 (1). Statements of objection must reach the Commission within six months of the date of this publication.

SINGLE DOCUMENT

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 510/2006

‘SCHWÄBISCHE SPÄTZLE’/‘SCHWÄBISCHE KNÖPFLE’

EC No: DE-PGI-0005-0738-02.02.2009

PGI ( X ) PDO ( )

1.   Name:

‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’

2.   Member State or third country:

Germany

3.   Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff:

3.1.   Type of product:

3.2.   Description of the product to which the name in (1) applies:

‘Schwäbische Spätzle’, also known as ‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’, is an egg-based pasta product made from fresh eggs in a home-made style. The product is irregular in shape and has a rough, porous surface. The dough is placed straight into boiling water/steam. In everyday language usage, the two names refer to the same product made from the same dough and are interchangeable. The egg-based pasta product may be thick or thin and long or short. There is no clear distinction between the way the two names are used and usage varies from one region to another.

Characteristic features

Colour/appearance: natural, golden yellow to light yellow.

Shape: pasta product with an irregular shape; rough and porous surface; home-made style; the shape varies from thick to thin and from long to short.

Consistency/texture: firm to the bite, can be boiled/not sticky, with a rough surface.

Quality of eggs: fresh eggs in accordance with the normal rules for pasta.

Egg content per kilogram of meal/flour: dry ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’: at least two eggs per kilogram of meal, normally four or six eggs are added per kilogram of meal;

fresh ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’: at least eight eggs per kilogram of meal and flour.

Quality of meal: durum wheat meal or spelt meal.

Quality of meal for fresh ‘Spätzle’: wheat meal or spelt meal.

Quality of water: fresh potable water.

Salt: optional, max. 1 %.

Spices, herbs, spinach: optional.

Citric acid: optional in the case of fresh ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’.

3.3.   Raw materials (for processed products only):

The ingredients used to make (dry) ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ are meal, fresh eggs and potable water. Salt (max. 1 %), spices, herbs and spinach may be added. For fresh ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’, citric acid may be added and flour can be used fully or partly instead of meal.

3.4.   Feed (for products of animal origin only):

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3.5.   Specific steps in production that must take place in the defined geographical area:

To guarantee the authenticity of this traditional product, which is typical of its region, and to ensure a consistently high quality, ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ must be produced in the defined geographical area. The production stages for the fresh and dry pasta products are the same up to the points of cooling and drying. ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ are traditionally made by hand; machine production of ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ did not start until the beginning of the 20th century. The ingredients are mixed and the dough is kneaded until it achieves consistency. Since the introduction of kneading machines, this process has largely been mechanised. The dough is shaped and put into boiling water or steam. The consistency of the dough and the right cooking time and temperature require an instinctive feel and experience which are difficult to standardise. The producers’ craft skills and regional expertise with regard to processing play a special part in this process. In the case of the dry pasta product, the ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ produced are pre-dried and then dried; in the case of the fresh pasta product, the product is cooled, if necessary, pasteurised and then cooled to 2-7 °C.

3.6.   Specific rules concerning slicing, grating, packaging, etc.:

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3.7.   Specific rules concerning labelling:

—

4.   Concise definition of the geographical area:

The geographical area of Swabia comprises the whole of Baden-Württemberg and the whole of the region of Swabia in Bavaria.

5.   Link with the geographical area:

5.1.   Specificity of the geographical area:

‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ have been produced in the geographical area for centuries and play a very important part in Swabian cooking. The producers’ craft skills and regional expertise with regard to processing play a special part in this process. Traditionally, the ‘Spätzle’ dough is hand-cut and, even today, hand-cutting of the dough from a board is regarded as a special symbol of its quality. The production of ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ by machine in a home-made style, i.e. as if the dough were hand-cut, started at the beginning of the 20th century for economic reasons. The first patents based on practical experience were registered (see, for example, Deutsches Reichpatent 471046) to maintain the authenticity and home-made character of ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’. Several exhibitions contain records tracing the traditional skills used in Swabia to make the product dating from earliest times to the present day (see ‘Spätzle und Knöpfle — Geschichte(n) rund um das Leibgericht der Schwaben’, especially: Alte Zeiten, Ofterdingen; ‘Spätzle — Schaben, pressen, hobeln’, Freilichtmuseum Beuren). Numerous cookery competitions and several world records in cutting the ‘Spätzle’ dough underline the specificity of the geographical area in connection with the human factors. The local expertise in making the dough has been handed down from generation to generation and plays a significant part in the product's subsequent characteristics. The tradition of making ‘Spätzle’ can be traced back to the 18th century. In 1725, Rosino Lentilio, a councillor and personal physician from Württemberg, concluded that ‘Knöpflein’ and ‘Spazen’ were ‘all the things that are made from flour’. Spelt was grown widely in the Swabian-Alemannic area at the time. The cereal grows on poor soils and was very popular in the region, which was home to small farmers and characterised by poverty. As spelt flour contains high levels of gluten protein and the dough could therefore be made in times of hardship without the need for eggs, ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ were mainly made from spelt. The product achieved fame in the Münsinger Alb upland area. As industrialisation began and prosperity increased, ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ went from being an ordinary, everyday food item to a culinary speciality eaten on feast days. In a description of a Swabian farmers’ village written in 1937, ‘Spätzle’ are described as a festive food. The year before, the local poet Sebastian Blau called ‘Spätzle’ the symbol of Swabian regional identity: ‘ “Spätzle” are the foundation of our cuisine, our country’s fame, etc., the Alpha and the Omega of a Swabian menu, etc.’. In places less favoured by nature within the geographical area, the traditional, regional methods of making ‘Spätzle’ together with the highly developed craft skills enabled a high-value product to be made. Today in Swabia, ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ are produced by nearly all makers of pasta products and used by nearly all restaurateurs. Since the 1980s, exports of the product have also been a success. For the people living in the geographical area, the product has become a symbol of identity. The great importance of ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ in Swabian cooking can be seen, inter alia, from the novel, first published in 1827, entitled ‘Die Geschichte von den Sieben Schwaben’, according to which the custom in Swabia is ‘to eat five times a day, five times soup, twice with “Knöpfle” or “Spätzle” ’. In 1892, Elise Henle wrote that it was the proper thing for a woman in Swabia to know how to cook ‘Spätzle’: ‘She’s not a proper Swabian girl if she can’t cook “Spätzle” ’. More recently, the Swabian author Siegfried Ruoss lists more than 50 different recipes from Swabia using ‘Spätzle’ in his cookbook ‘Schwäbische Spätzleküche’.

5.2.   Specificity of the product:

Unlike other pasta products, ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ is an egg-based pasta product made from fresh eggs in a home-made style. The product is irregular in shape and has a rough, porous surface. The dough is placed straight into boiling water/steam. It can be thin or thick, long or short. It is the only pasta product boiled for the first time during the course of its production. The moist dough is either pressed through perforated sheets or it drops through these sheets and into a hot water container. If appropriate, the dough is cut during this process.

5.3.   Causal link between the geographical area and the quality or characteristics of the product (for PDO) or a specific quality, the reputation or other characteristic of the product (for PGI):

The causal link between the special features of ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ and the geographical origin is attributable to the special regard in which the products are is held in view of their origin. The products are pasta specialities which look back over a long tradition, are emblematic of Swabia and in particular are well known and held in high regard both within the region and beyond. This is confirmed by most of the comments received by the national authority and from a consumer survey carried out in 2002.

Secondly, numerous references in literature, press articles and regional cookery books confirm the fundamental importance of ‘Spätzle’ and ‘Knöpfle’ to Swabian cooking and the high regard in which the products are held as the ‘Swabian national dish’.

In Swabia today, ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’ and ‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ appear in the product lists of nearly all makers of pasta products and are used by nearly all restaurateurs. Since the 1980s, exports of the product have also been successful. The high regard in which ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ are held is mainly the result of the traditional, regional production methods and the highly-developed craft skills which exist in Swabia for making ‘Spätzle’, with the hand-cut variety finding particular favour. Machine production also demands an instinctive feel and experience, so the producers’ craft skills and regional expertise with regard to processing are of special significance. Therefore, the assumption which can be made is that the renown of ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ is closely associated with the region of production.

The product ‘Schwäbische Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ is well known to consumers and, given its regional origin, it is held in high esteem based on its long tradition as a Swabian speciality and the local craft skills developed in making the product, which is regarded as being of special quality if it is hand-cut. A nationwide survey carried out in 1965 by Konsumgenossenschaft Stuttgart e.G. for the Stuttgart and Reutlingen regions showed that ‘Spätzle’ are held in the highest regard. Swabian literature is also full of poems about the Swabians’ favourite food, such as the poem published in 1838 in the Schwarzwälder Boten entitled ‘Das Lob der Schwabenknöpfle’, the poem ‘Schwäbische Leibspeisa’ and ‘Spätzles-Lied’. There are numerous festive activities and customs in which reference is made to ‘Schwäbiche Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ and the products are marketed to the tourist industry in the form of speciality food weeks, courses, seminars and competitions on how to cut ‘Spätzle’. More recently, ‘Schwäbiche Spätzle’/‘Schwäbische Knöpfle’ have come to be seen as Swabia’s ‘culinary ambassador’.

Reference to publication of the specification:

(Article 5(7) of Regulation (EC) No 510/2006)

Markenblatt, volume 21, 23 May 2008, Part 7a-aa, p. 33858

(http://www.register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/geo/detail.pdfdownload/127)

(1)  OJ L 93, 31.3.2006, p. 12.