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Noodles Au Grautin
1/2 small carton Fould's noodles 1 C milk 1, 2 or 3 egg yolks Cook noodles until tender, about 20 minutes or a little more, in salted water. Drain. Drop egg yolk or yolks into the milk and beat well. (Use as much egg and milk as it takes to cover the noodles.) First lay a layer of noodles, sprinkle a little bread crumbs, more noodles, more crumbs, etc. Cover top with beaten whites. Cook over hot water in double boiler or over water in oven until eggs are brown.
A thrifty egg-and-noodle custard from a church supper collection, written for cooks who already knew what a double boiler was for. Two things need translating: the noodle timing and the fact that there is no cheese in it at all.
- Cut the noodle timeTwenty minutes suggests the heavier dried noodles this recipe assumes; modern dried egg noodles usually need 7 to 10 minutes, and here they should stay slightly firm since they cook again in the custard.
- Fould's noodlesFould's was a widely sold American egg-noodle brand. The size of a "small carton" is not recorded; if you take it as about 8 ounces, half is roughly 4 ounces dry, or 2 to 3 cups cooked. Any dried egg noodle works.
- "Au gratin" without cheeseThe term refers to the browned top, which could come from crumbs or from cheese; this recipe uses crumbs and beaten whites and no cheese at all. If you want cheese, it is your addition, not the recipe's.
- How much custardThe vague "1, 2 or 3 egg yolks" and "as much egg and milk as it takes to cover" means: whisk yolks into milk and pour until the liquid just reaches the top layer of noodles. For 4 ounces of noodles in a small dish, 1 cup milk with 2 yolks is a sensible starting point.
- Oven routeIf you use the "water in oven" option rather than the double boiler, set the dish in a pan of hot water and bake at 325-350F. Higher heat curdles the custard and weeps liquid.
- DonenessThe custard is set when a knife near the centre comes out clean and the mixture reads about 170-175F. The instruction to cook "until eggs are brown" refers to the meringue top, which only browns in the oven -- a double boiler will set the whites but leave them pale.
- CrumbsDry, fine bread crumbs, used sparingly between layers; fresh soft crumbs turn to paste in the custard.
- YieldA light luncheon dish for two, or three as a side. It is bland by design and wants salt, pepper and a little nutmeg.
This is church-supper economy in its purest form: noodles, milk, eggs and stale bread, stretched to feed a table with no meat in sight. Congregational cookbooks like the Libertyville Presbyterian collection were compiled from members' handwritten cards, which is why the measurements read like a conversation -- "1, 2 or 3 egg yolks," "as much as it takes to cover." The named brand is a period marker too: Fould's is said to have built an American trade in packaged egg noodles and macaroni, and packaged noodles were available to home cooks who might otherwise have rolled and cut their own. The title's "au gratin" is generally traced to *gratter*, to scrape -- the browned crust on top, here made from beaten egg whites rather than the cheese modern readers expect.