The photo above is my Dad, Bob Seidel, carefully checking ingredients for Czech dumplings that my son Josh is making
I recently started working on my family ancestry using Ancestry.com. My father, Bob Seidel, was the youngest son of two Czech immigrants, Rose and Emil Psajdl. We honor his family’s Czech heritage by making dishes that his mother made. But, the dishes themselves are only part of the story. Read on to learn about Rose’s immigrant story…
Rose Votava’s Immigrant Story
When Rose was 17 she left her home in Sušice, Bohemia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but is now in Czech Republic. She boarded the SS George Washington in the bustling port city of Bremen, Germany. After a stop in England and France to pick up passengers, the ship sailed on the Atlantic, arriving in New York on Christmas Eve 1912 after an 8-day journey. It was unlike any Christmas Rose ever spent with her family back home in Sušice.
Oral history tells us that Rose’s father felt she was the smartest of his children and thought she could have a better life in America. She wasn’t alone on the ship, as a friend from her town, Rose Psajdl, came on the journey as well. It must have been quite the journey for these two girls from Sušice, Bohemia.
Rose’s immigration record shows that she had $20 in her pocket. I have her tattered baptism certificate, barely held together with cellophane tape. She must have clutched that certificate securely when she disembarked from the ship in America, it was her only identity and connection with her old life. How did she feel at that moment, was she excited or scared?
After going through the Ellis Island immigration process Rose took a train to Chicago where she connected with her friend Rose Psajdl’s brother, a handsome musician named Emil Psajdl. She married Emil about 2 years after her arrival and they had 2 children, Rose and Emil, while living in the Chicago area. Around 1918 Emil, a clarinet player, found a job in Beloit, WI with Fairbanks Morse Co., who recruited him to come work for them and play in their company band.
They packed up their children Emil and Rose and headed to Beloit. They settled in a cute home on Church Street and had 4 more sons – Frank, Harold, Charles, Robert and a daughter Betty. Rose loved to garden, and I remember the Czech breads and meals that she made. We still honor Rose by baking bread and making huge dumplings with paprika onion gravy with her recipes on Christmas. Originally Rose would have obtained a live goose for the Christmas meal and process the goose in their basement, chopping off its head and plucking feathers before it made its way to the oven. We have now simplified things, and make a nice pork loin roast to go along with the Dumplings and Gravy.

These are dense, chewy dumplings formed in the shape of a loaf
Rose Psajdl’s Czech Dumplings (Knedlíky) and Paprika Gravy
Grandma Rose never used measuring cups or spoons. My mother, Mary Ann Seidel, followed her around in the kitchen one time, writing down the recipe as best she could. It has been our family tradition to make these on Christmas Day and often we enlist new family members or visitors to help make them. Rose would have served the dumplings and gravy with roast goose. Because goose is difficult to find, we substitute a pork loin roast.
Dumplings for 6 People
These are dense, chewy dumplings formed in the shape of a loaf
- 3 Eggs
- 1-1/2 Cups of Milk at Room Temperature
- 2 tsp. of salt
- 5-1/2 cups of flour
- 4-6 tsp of baking powder (makes them fluffy)
- 3 slices of bread toasted, buttered and cubed
Mix eggs well, add room temperature milk. Mix salt, flour and baking powder, add by cups full to make a dough that is less stiff as a bread dough would be. While still soft and sticky, add the cubes of bread and after getting the dough to a stiffer consistency knead for a few minutes, form into loaves. You can let this rest for a half an hour or so. Get salted water boiling and add the loaves of dough carefully into the boiling salted water, seeing that it doesn’t stick to the bottom. This recipe should be boiled for about 30 minutes, covered . If you are doubling the recipe to serve 12, cook longer. For 12 you can boil about 20 minutes, then turn loaves over and boil another 20 minutes. Remove and cut into slices. They should be served right away after cutting them. You can also put some chicken bouillon in the boiling water, which adds flavor and color to dumplings.

Mary Ann and Bob Seidel supervise dumpling makers Josh Oldenburg and Ann Oldenburg on Christmas Day, 2014.
Gravy for Six People
Melt 1 stick of butter, add 1 cup chopped onions. Cook until translucent, you don’t want the onions browned, but translucent, they will finish cooking when you add the chicken broth. After cooking the onions, add paprika – about a tablespoon, salt to taste- about 2 teaspoons, and 2 cups of chicken broth , you can add some bouillon for extra flavor. Kind of simmer this for about 10 minutes, so onions finish cooking.
Add about 3 T. of vinegar to taste*, add 1 can of condensed evaporated milk (not the sweetened kind) to which has been added 1/3 or more cup of flour, a dash of sugar and stir carefully over heat to thicken, don’t let it boil or it will curdle. This can be made ahead of time and reheated at the last few minutes of cooking the dumplings
* Note from Therese: I put a lot more vinegar in this recipe. I always double the recipe. I make a Roux with cooked onion and butter and add the flour to cook into a paste before stirring in the vinegar, then the milk.
If making dumplings for 12, double the recipe for the gravy.
Enjoy! Therese Oldenburg
Great job Theresa, I’ll make sure to show my parents.
Therese, How exciting that you are doing this! I make dumplings similar to this. We can talk sometime.