Central Europe · Volume 21, Rye, Smoke and the Kitchen Beside It
Kugel (sweet noodle)
Ashkenazi, pre-1939 Poland
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 1 hour
- Researched
- 10 sources cited
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Ashkenazi, pre-1939 Poland, the sweet Polish and Galitzianer style, distinct from the savoury Litvak version across the border.
As tradition built it
Serves 8. 1 hour.
Ingredients
- 500 g egg noodles (lokshen)
- 4 eggs
- 100 g sugar
- 100 g schmaltz or butter, melted
- 100 g raisins
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Method
- Boil the noodles until just tender. Drain.
- Beat the eggs with sugar, cinnamon and melted schmaltz. Fold through the noodles and raisins.
- Pour into a greased baking dish and bake at 180°C, 40 to 45 minutes, until set and golden on top, the edges properly crisped.
What a modern chef changes
A textural contrast built deliberately, rather than left to chance in the oven
Rung 4
Method
- Toast a portion of the noodles separately in schmaltz before combining, rather than mixing all of them straight from the boiling water, building a genuine textural contrast, some noodles soft and custard-set, some with real bite and colour, between the crisp top and the tender interior a single undifferentiated mix produces.
- Plump the raisins in a little sweet wine or brandy before folding them through, rather than adding them dry, so they soften and release flavour into the custard rather than staying as isolated dry, chewy points.
- Bake in individual portions rather than one large dish, giving every serving its own crisp top and edge, a straightforward, honestly-named modern convenience rather than a claim to any historical precedent.