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Buttered Nudels
Throw the nudels into boiling water, and let them boil for three minutes. Take them up with a strainer, put them on a hot dish; melt some fresh butter in a stewpan; sprinkle a large handful of bread crumbs in it, and let them remain until they are lightly browned, then put them upon the nudels. Clarify a little more butter, if the first portion was dried up in browning the crumbs, and pour it over the dish; serve very hot. Time, ten minutes to boil the nudels.
A plain German noodle dish — boiled egg noodles dressed with browned butter crumbs. The whole thing succeeds or fails on the crumbs, so give them your full attention.
- The crumbs are the dishButter and crumbs go from lightly browned to burnt in well under a minute. Keep the pan on medium heat, stir constantly, and pull it off the moment the crumbs smell nutty and take colour.
- Two different boiling timesThe body of the recipe says three minutes, the time note at the end says ten. Three minutes suits fresh homemade noodles; dried commercial egg noodles want 6-10 minutes. Cook to the point where the noodle is tender but still has some resistance.
- "Nudels"German Nudeln — soft egg noodles, wide ribbons or short squares, made from flour, egg and a little salt. Any dried wide egg noodle stands in; fresh pappardelle or tagliatelle works too.
- StewpanA straight-sided pan with a handle, generally deeper than a skillet. A modern skillet or small saucepan will do the job, and a light-coloured interior helps you judge the crumbs.
- Bread crumbsDry crumbs from stale white bread, coarser than the fine sandy crumbs sold in canisters. Grate or pulse day-old bread and leave the pieces slightly uneven for texture.
- Clarifying the butterMelt the butter, skim the foam and pour off the clear fat from the milk solids beneath, so there is no second batch of solids to catch and brown. A tablespoon or two should be enough for the second pour.
- Salt and finishingSalt the boiling water well; there is no other seasoning in the recipe. Toss the drained noodles with a little butter before the crumbs go on so nothing sticks, and add pepper if you like.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. As a starting point, roughly 12 oz of noodles, 4 oz butter and a cup of crumbs would serve about four as a side dish.