The Oldest Strudel Recipe Is A Handwritten Document From 1696. It Is On Display At The Viennese City Library

On June 17 get whirled up in pastry dough, apples, and spices.  It’s National Apple Strudel Day.  In German, the word strudel means whirlpool or eddy.  This tasty dessert is aptly described in German as a sweet mixture of fruit, sugar, and spices, layered with thin dough that is rolled together and baked. The result is a bubbling, flaky treat.

• 8th Century BC – An Assyrian script shows the first records of thinly rolled and multiple-layered doughs
• 1453 – It was the Turkish Baklava pastry, introduced into Austria in 1453, that laid the foundation for strudel.
• 1526 – The Turkish phyllo dough is used with the ‘crazy dough’ from England in a multiple layered dough recipe, giving it a unique texture and look.
• 1696 – According to some people, every day should be ‘apfelstrudel’ day, to give it its proper Austrian name. The oldest Strudel recipe is a handwritten document at the Viennese City Library (Wiener Stadtbibliothek).
• 18th Century – Strudel pastries, including early apple-filled versions, gained wide popularity across the Habsburg territories, helping to fix layered, rolled pastries as a hallmark of Central European cuisine.
• 1827 – Anna Dorn pens and publishes a detailed recipe for apple strudel in the “Great Viennese” cookbook.
• 19th Century – As Viennese coffeehouse culture flourishes, apple strudel emerges as one of the most popular pastries served with coffee, reinforcing its image as an everyday yet emblematic treat of the city.
• 1900 – In fin‑de‑siècle Vienna, cafés frequented by writers, artists, and political thinkers commonly offered apple strudel, tying the pastry to the social and intellectual life that later earned coffeehouse culture UNESCO recognition.
• 20th Century – Through political change and migration after the fall of the Austro‑Hungarian Empire, apple strudel became a shared classic across Austria, the Czech lands, Hungary, and neighboring countries, each adopting local variations.
• 2003 – Apple strudels were Texas’ official state pastry from 2003 to 2005, as they are thought to have been among the first pastries made in the state.
• 2009 – The longest strudel measured 2038 feet 10 inches in an event organized by HUBO in Brussels, Belgium.
• Strudel is most often associated with Austrian cuisine, but is also a traditional pastry throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
• Strudel is a loanword in English from German. The word itself derives from the German word Strudel, which in Middle High German literally means “whirlpool” or “eddy”.
• In Hungary, it is known as rétes, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia as štrudla or savijača, in Slovenia as štrudelj or zavitek, in the Czech Republic as závin or štrúdl, in Romania as ștrudel, and in Slovakia as štrúdľa or závin.
• The word “strudel” means “vortex,” “whirlpool,” or “eddy” in German.
• Traditional Hungarian, Austrian, and Czech Strudel pastry differs from strudels elsewhere, which are often made with puff pastry.
• Strudel is also associated with Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, particularly of German, Swiss, and Austrian Ashkenazi Jews. Apple and raisin filling is popular among Jews.
• In Hebrew colloquial speech, the symbol @ in email addresses is called “shtrudel”, in reference to the spiral form of strudel. The official Hebrew word for the @ symbol also takes its name from strudel: “keruchith”, which refers to the @ symbol, is the Hebrew word for the strudel pastry (as opposed to the German loan word used in colloquial speech).
• Strudel inspired films:
  • Inglourious Basterds. This Quentin Tarantino film has viewers on the edge of their seats as the protagonist sits down for an apple strudel with her enemy, and he insists that they must wait for the cream.
  • Winter in Vail. This Hallmark Channel film features Lacey Chabert as an event planner who quits her job and moves to a chalet in Vail where she meets an attractive man who teaches her how to make apple strudel for a local event called the Strudel Fest. The storyline might be improbable but the strudel is still delicious.
  • The Illusionist. Set in Vienna, a scene in this film depicts Edward Norton as a magician who is trying to win the heart of Jessica Biel, who plays a duchess. The two don’t technically share an apple strudel together–but is it wrong to wish they would? They are in Vienna, after all.
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This conversation says it all: Queenie asks Newt if he prefers pie or strudel. Newt replies that he has no preference, so Queenie corrects him and says, “You prefer strudel, huh, honey? Strudel it is.” Queenie must have known that it was National Apple Strudel Day, even in their fictitious world!

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Days of the Year

Foodimentary

Mobile-Cuisine

Ten Random Facts

Just Fun Facts

Days of the Year

National Today

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