SAMMICHES & SPAM
The Culinary
MAN-ifesto
By Adam Steen and Aaron Barth,
Executive Director of the Fort
Abraham Lincoln Foundation
Kase Knoephla (Cheese Buttons)
Adam: A sizeable portion of the population in North
Dakota descends from ethnic Germans that fled
Russia in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Naturally, their food found its way into the heritage
and culture of the state. It’s almost impossible
to walk into a small town greasy spoon in North
Dakota without coming across Knoephla Soup
and Fleischkeukle. I shouldn’t say “almost”. It’s
impossible. Of course, the recipes all change as you
go into different areas of the state.
I was recently asked by the Fort Abraham Lincoln
Foundation and the Northern Plains Heritage
Foundation to update North Dakota Legacy recipes
for 2016. Luckily, I’d been working on just that
since early May, after a string of nightmares about
German-Russian food in a fine dining setting,
brought on by attending the National ProStart
Invitational, a national culinary competition for high
school students.
I’ve still got a few of them to work through, but
Kase Knoephla (Cheese Buttons) is one that I have
completed, tested, and served.
Aaron: Kase Knoephla is a direct reflection of the
dairy a