Helzel is an Ashkenazi

Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...

 Jewish dish

Jewish cuisine

Jewish Cuisine is a collection of the different cooking traditions of the Jewish people worldwide. It is a diverse cuisine that has evolved over many centuries, shaped by Jewish dietary laws and Jewish Festival and Sabbath traditions...

. It is a sort of sausage

Sausage

A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...

 made from chicken neck skin stuffed with flour, schmaltz

Schmaltz

Schmaltz or schmalz is rendered chicken, goose, or pork fat used for frying or as a spread on bread, especially in German and Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. Also is very common in Ukrainian cuisine Schmaltz or schmalz is rendered chicken, goose, or pork fat used for frying or as a spread on bread,...

, internal meats (chopped heart, gizazard, liver), and fried onions and sewn up with a thread. Sometimes the stuffing is flavored with garlic and black pepper. Helzel may be cooked in chicken soup or used as an ingredient in cholent

Cholent

Cholent or Hamin is a traditional Jewish stew. It is usually simmered overnight for 12 hours or more, and eaten for lunch on Shabbat . Cholent was developed over the centuries to conform with Jewish religious laws that prohibit cooking on the Sabbath...

. Because of its sausage shape and the flour-based stuffing, helzel is sometimes called "false" kishke

Kishke (Jewish food)

Kishke or kishka , also known as stuffed derma, is a Jewish dish traditionally made from beef intestine stuffed with flour or matzo meal, schmaltz and spices. In modern cooking, edible synthetic casings often replace the beef intestine...

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The Ashkenazi helzel recalls to mind the tebit, the cholent equivalent of Iraqi Jews, which includes a whole chicken skin filled with a mixture of rice, chopped chicken meats, and herbs.