Schüttelbrot is a favorite crispbread of the Tyrolese regions, one that typically appears on the table at mountain ski huts and in cafés and casual restaurants at mountain resorts, in company with the local Alpine smoked hams and cheeses. The source of its name is a cause for mild controversy, as no one's entirely sure where it comes from. Though in modern German the verb forms of schüttel can mean to shake or shiver, there's nothing particularly shaky about this bread. It seems more likely that the name goes back to a dialect word for a drawer in a wall-mounted kitchen cupboard -- the kind of place where you might logically store a hard-baked thin bread like this one for long periods.

Possibly the most unusual thing about schüttelbrot is its spicing. The seeds of fennel, a herb that doesn't mind heights and grows well in the chilly alpine weather, normally make an appearance in schüttelbrot. So does caraway seed, one of fennel's relatives and an equally hardy herb. But a slightly more surprising ingredient is bockshornklee, "goat's-horn clover" -- or, in English, fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum). Normally these days fenugreek is more commonly associated with Indian food. But the herb shares its relatives' ability to grow successfully on barren ground like mountain scree-slopes, and it also turns up in some alpine cheeses (a close relative is the herb used in schabzeiger) as well as in this bread.

The seeds of these herbs are all pounded in a mortar, or otherwise chopped and crushed, and kneaded into the bread. After rising, the bread is rolled flat before one last pre-baking rise. (Some recipes suggest you use a pasta machine for this, but EuroCuisineLady thinks this may be going to a little too much trouble: a rolling pin seems to work fine.)

The essentially rural nature of schüttelbrot means that, in its normal habitat, there'll be a lot of variation in how it looks and tastes, depending on the local baker's preferences. Those who're trying for a very traditional look and feel will incorporate whole rye groats or kernels (roggenschrot): these are optional. (If you go for this approach, do not forget to pre-soak the rye kernels in warm water for a couple of hours before adding to the dough! Otherwise somebody's going to break a tooth.) Other bakers will coarsely chop, pound or grind down the same kernels before adding them to the dough in the early stages. Still other bakers prefer to leave the rye kernels out entirely, instead depending on the rye flour to carry that portion of the flavor, and pointing it up with varying amounts of caraway, dill, fennel or fenugreek, according to local preferences. What everybody seems to agree on is that regardless of its thickness -- which, depending on who's making it, can vary from paper-thin to about a quarter-inch when baked -- schüttelbrot has to be crunchy to best set off the sliced meats and cheeses it accompanies.

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