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Nudels Boiled in Milk
Take 3/4 of a pound of freshly made nudels cut very fine and dried. Dissolve a little butter in a stewpan, put in the nudels, and shake the pan over the fire until they are well browned. Pour over them as much good milk as will cover them well, and let them simmer gently until they are quite soft. Add 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar and 3 well-beaten eggs, steam a few minutes longer, and serve as hot as possible. Time to boil the nudels, until soft, from ten to fifteen minutes. Sufficient for four or five persons. Macaroni may also be prepared in this fashion.
A German milk-noodle dish, somewhere between a side and a pudding. The success of it rests on browning the noodles properly before any liquid goes in.
- What nudels areNudeln are plain egg noodles, rolled thin, cut in fine ribbons and left to dry on a cloth. Three-quarters of a pound of dried fine egg noodles from a box is a fair equivalent; avoid the wide, floppy sort, which will not brown evenly.
- Brown them firstToasting the dry noodles in butter until they are nut-coloured is the whole character of the dish, and it takes longer than expected over medium heat, five to eight minutes with constant shaking. Rushed or skipped, the result is simply sweet noodles in milk.
- How much milk"As much as will cover them well" comes to roughly 3 to 4 cups for this quantity. Whole milk is meant; skimmed milk gives a thin, watery result once the noodles have drunk their fill.
- The eggsBeat the eggs with the sugar and temper them with a ladle of the hot milk before they go back into the pan, or they will set in threads. Keep the heat very low from that point on and stir until the mixture just thickens and coats the spoon, around 170F.
- "Steam a few minutes"This means cover the pan and hold it over the gentlest possible heat, not boil. Once the eggs are in, boiling will curdle the custard and no amount of stirring brings it back.
- Sweetness and servingTwo tablespoons of sugar makes this barely sweet by modern standards, closer to a supper dish than a dessert. Cinnamon, a scrape of nutmeg or grated lemon zest are plausible additions if you want it to read as a pudding.
- YieldFour to five as a side or a light supper course, two to three as a main. It is best straight from the pan; reheated, the custard tightens and weeps.
Milchnudeln belong to the German and Austrian home kitchen, where noodles were made fresh, hung or spread to dry, and then cooked in milk rather than water to make a filling meatless dish for a fast day or a light evening meal. The English word noodle comes from German Nudel. The compiler notes that macaroni takes the same treatment.