The quenelle has always existed, but in various forms and flavors.
It was composed of fish flesh, crustacean, or shellfish, ground, seasoned and added with egg before being molded and cooked in boiling water.
In the 18th century, it was now oval, like the one we know today, finally taking the name of quenelle. The word would probably be taken from the German "knödel", a small ball of dough.
The Roman dumpling transited through Germany and Alsace, took an oval shape and became quenelle!
The Lyonnaise quenelle would have appeared around the 1830s, invented by a pastry chef, Charles Morateur. The waters of the Saône were then invaded by pike and intensive fishing was practiced in an attempt to regulate the population. The pastry chef would then have had the idea of mixing the fish with choux pastry.
During the same period, Mother Brigousse served her specialty in her restaurant in Charpennes, "the nipples of Venus", huge quenelles in the shape of a breast. For a century, quenelles remained above all a pastry chef's affair, never far away to prepare them.
Thus, even if today Lyon has become the capital of the quenelle, history shows us that its origin would be rather Roman and German; only the natural quenelle can claim its 100% Lyon origin.
Dumplings are always eaten with a sauce such as Nantua sauce, one of the most famous.
