Make a stiff noodle-dough; roll out very thin and cut into ribbons half an inch wide. Let them dry and boil in salted water; drain in a colander. Fry some sliced onions in butter until soft; add the noodles. Stir and serve hot with stewed chicken.
A skeleton recipe of the kind that assumed every cook knew how to make noodle dough. The instructions that matter are the stiffness of the dough and the brief drying, both of which keep half-inch ribbons from turning to paste in the pot.
- The dough, since the book won't sayA stiff German egg noodle dough is roughly 2 cups (250 g) flour to 2 eggs, a good pinch of salt, and only enough water — a tablespoon or two — to bring it together. It should feel dry and firm under the heel of the hand; too soft and the ribbons will not hold the thin roll.
- "Very thin"Aim for about 1/16 inch, rolled evenly so the ribbons cook at the same rate. Rest the kneaded dough 30 minutes covered before rolling or it will fight back.
- Letting them dryThis is not a curing step. Twenty to thirty minutes spread on a floured cloth or draped over a rack, until the surface is leathery rather than tacky, is enough to stop the ribbons welding together in the water.
- Boiling timeFresh-dried noodles of this thickness cook in 3 to 5 minutes in well-salted water — taste one rather than watching the clock. The book gives no time; a long boil will only give a slack, waterlogged noodle.
- The onionsThe recipe asks only for "soft", but slow cooking in butter for 15 to 20 minutes until sweet and lightly gold gives far more flavour. This is the whole seasoning of the dish, so do not rush it over high heat.
- FinishingAdd the drained noodles to the onion pan while both are hot and toss over medium heat for a minute so they take up the butter. A little of the noodle water loosens things if the pan goes dry.
- YieldThe quantities above serve three to four as a side dish with stewed chicken, or two as a supper on their own.
Buttered noodles with fried onions belong to the broad family of German and Austrian home cooking built on egg dough rolled, dried briefly, cut and boiled — a tradition present in German cookbooks before Italian dried pasta was common in northern kitchens. The half-inch ribbon here sits between the fine soup noodle and the wide Bandnudeln served as an accompaniment to braised and stewed meat, which is how the book deploys it. Its appearance in a day-by-day collection of dishes of many nations fits a pattern seen in American and British household books around the turn of the twentieth century, of giving cooks one foreign dish at a time in a form short enough to fit a single page — which may be why the dough itself goes undescribed and the reader is expected to know it.