Are you a potato kugel master?

I can't figure out how to make a really light and crispy potato kugel. My mother's potato kugel (a Jewish/Eastern European kind of pudding with eggs, onions, potatoes) had thick, crusty edges (we fought over the corners), a lovely brown top and a soft center.

I use what I think is her recipe, but I'm doing something wrong. The flavor is fine, but the texture is all wrong. It comes out tough and without that wonderful crustiness. The last one I baked at 400 degrees for more than an hour and I was disappointed again.

One difference, for sure, is that my mother grated her potatoes and onions over a wire grater; I use a food processor. Do you think that could account for the difference?

Any ideas or hints would be welcomed.

Mrs/SFNM is a kugel master and her method involves a few things you might find useful:

1. Potatoes are finely grated with excess liquid drained off

2. She uses a small amount of baking powder

3. The dish is covered while it bakes (it still browns nicely)

Bill/SFNM

I was just asked to bring a potato kugel to Rosh Hashanah dinner...any great recipe sources? Say, Mrs. SFNM's? lol

Until the definitive recipe can be obtained from Mother of Gypsy Boy, I offer the following (adapted slightly) from Robert Sternberg's immensely interesting, informative, and otherwise generally fascinating Yiddish Cuisine:

2½ pounds baking potatoes, peeled
2 medium onions
4 beaten eggs
1 cup matzoh meal
½ cup corn or peanut oil*
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400F. Oil a two-quart loaf pan, line it with waxed paper, then oil the waxed paper. Set to the side.

Grate the potatoes and onion (by hand if you're a mensch or menschette, by food processor if you're in a hurry); drain to remove excess liquid, squeezing a bit.

Add the eggs, matzoh meal, oil, salt and pepper to the grated mixture. Mix and turn the whole thing into the loaf pan.

Bake for 45-50 minutes; unmold, leaving the waxed paper on. Cool a bisl so that you can remove the waxed paper without desconstructing the whole kugel. (You can prepare in advance to here.)

Return to oven for another 20-25 minutes until the sides are brown and crispy.

According to Sternberg, this will serve 6-8 as a vorspeis or accompaniment to dinner or 4 as an entree.

Ess gezuntehayt

*He doesn't call for it, but if ya got schmaltz, even better.

N.B. FWIW, Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food contains a pretty darn similar recipe. She uses more potatoes and fewer onions and a bit less oil. But otherwise, the recipes are close.

P.S. Reb Sternberg also offers another version that he labels a Galitzianer version, with red boiling potatoes. He describes it as "light and airy." I wouldn't know from this; where I come from, "light and airy" potato kugel is an abomination. Still, if you want the recipe, PM me and I'll send it along. Or...if you want Mother of Gypsy Boy's noodle kugel. Oy...to die for!

Gypsy Boy wrote:Or...if you want Mother of Gypsy Boy's noodle kugel. Oy...to die for!

The rebbe's recipe sounds lovely but I have time, so if Mother of GB is willing to share, I can wait. Thanks!

Bill/SFNM wrote:Mrs/SFNM is a kugel master and her method involves a few things you might find useful:

1. Potatoes are finely grated with excess liquid drained off

2. She uses a small amount of baking powder

3. The dish is covered while it bakes (it still browns nicely)

Bill/SFNM

I neglected to add a couple comments in my post above:

1. I would grate less than "finely" (but more than "coarse," if that makes sense) but that's a personal call and
2. baking powder is a good idea and will make the finished product a bit lighter.

Also, although I think that hand-grating versus food processor will make a difference, texturally speaking, it isn't likely to account for a tough dish or for lack of crustiness.


And the request has been made to Mother of GB.

Gypsy Boy wrote:Robert Sternberg's immensely interesting, informative, and otherwise generally fascinating Yiddish Cuisine

This is a fabulous book.

Rabbi Sternberg, btw, briefly lived in Chicago and attended CHIC with an eye toward launching a career as a kosher caterer or restaurateur, but apparently didn't persist with that aim, as he's now executive director of a Holocaust museum in Massachusetts.

My take on the texture of the potatoes for kugel is that they should be grated -- not shredded -- somewhat more coarsely than you would for latkes. You can achieve this readily in a food processor by cutting the potatoes in chunks and processing with on-off pulsing.

My bubbe would have made it in a casserole dish. Sternberg adds the innovation of twice baking in a loaf pan for thin slices with more crusty edges. I think a Baker's Edge pan would be ideal.

Mother (and Sister) of Gypsy Boy have now weighed in and their versions, a bit to my surprise, are extremely close to Sternberg's above.* The differences are two: ratio of potato to onion (a personal preference, really) and the possible use of either potato flour or "regular" (wheat) flour in lieu of matzo meal. I think potato flour or matzo meal make the most sense. (My mother also mentioned baking powder, fwiw, though I would personally omit it.)


*In point of fact, this is a pretty simple dish and nearly every one of the cookbooks I consulted--some new and some dating to the early twentieth century--are analogous to Sternberg's.

I'm really curious about this whole "light and fluffy" line of discussion.
I'm used to potato kugel as this wonderful, crispy, brick-like thing; fluffy would never enter the description.
And since it's often served at passover, baking powder is right out.

JoelF wrote:I'm used to potato kugel as this wonderful, crispy, brick-like thing; fluffy would never enter the description.

Yup!

One last, interesting note. I just thought to look in Suzanne Roukhomovsky's Gastronomie Juive, a French cookbook from 1928. The book has sections devoted variously to Russian, Alsatian, Romanian, and German Jewish cuisine. The only potato kugel recipe that I could find in the book is simple in the extreme: three large potatoes, three whole eggs, salt, pepper, and....goose fat. (No onions at all!) She doesn't call it schmaltz, but I feel vindicated.

She calls for baking the kugel in small enamel or porcelain cups ("petites timbales"), noting that in Russia there are specially made forms called "falirtchik's" which make baking the kugel easier. (I don't have my Russian dictionary to hand but if I can find a useful translation, I'll edit this post.)

I now ponder how to usefully insert the word falirtchik into my vocabulary on a regular basis...

Mhays wrote:I now ponder how to usefully insert the word falirtchik into my vocabulary on a regular basis...

With the holidays approaching, I think if you were to be "overheard" in the kitchen (especially by that terribly thoughtful husband of yours), musing to yourself, "I'd love to make it for the family.... If only I had some falirtchiks...."

Or, in the company of friends and LTH colleagues, "I was just saying the other day, there are so many things I could start making, if only I had some falirtchiks!"

All righty then, I'll be reporting back next week. Thanks for the efforts Gypsy Boy. I too wish I had some falrtchiks.

JoelF wrote:And since it's often served at passover, baking powder is right out.

Baking powder is perfectly permissible during Passover, if you buy kosher-for-Passover baking powder.

The Passover ban on leavening is based on the premise that the Jews escaping Egypt had no time to let their bread rise -- so the restriction is on yeast. Instant reactions of chemicals are OK. Just find a product with a pesachdik hechsher.

I am confused. I am hosting my first Rosh Hashanah and when we would go to my grama-in-laws house she always had "meat" dishes. No dairy. So then how do you make potato kugel? Is that for if you are making a dairy meal? I though that was traditionally for Yom Kippur. Please advise!

JeanneBean wrote:I am confused. I am hosting my first Rosh Hashanah and when we would go to my grama-in-laws house she always had "meat" dishes. No dairy. So then how do you make potato kugel? Is that for if you are making a dairy meal? I though that was traditionally for Yom Kippur. Please advise!

Potato kugel is not a dairy dish. It is either a meat dish (if it contains schmaltz) or a parve dish (which is neutral - no meat, no dairy). Either way, just fine for your Rosh Hashanah dinner.

Good luck on hosting your first RH!

Any suggestions for an alternative to the loaf pans? I am thinking about trying this recipe in a 9 inch square pan. I am not certain if I still have my loaf pans and don't want to invest in new ones for this recipe.

Thanks...

Now I'm curious: how did all the various recipes turn out? Did we achieve success?

As per my usual spaciness, I didn't realize the recipes called for loaf pans. Since I was preparing for 30 people, I knew I'd need to use 9x13 pans, so I started scouring the net for recipes Sunday night. I ended up making two different recipes, one I didn't care for, but another that I and everyone really enjoyed. It involved sauteeing half of the onions in schmaltz before adding to the mixture. It also called for a quarter cup of potato starch and 1 cup of boiling water over the mixture right before pouring it into the pan. I have to say it was great. Not sure what the rules are about posting recipes from other sources, I'd be very happy to share it if allowed.

Thanks to all for the recipes and encouragement!

sujormik wrote:Not sure what the rules are about posting recipes from other sources, I'd be very happy to share it if allowed.

It's fine as long as you rewrite the directions in your own words, but it's nice to credit the source, too.

I adapted this recipe from Recipezaar, it was their recipe # 71313.
Lacy Potato Kugel

"It's from the "Kosher Palette Cookbook" it is crispy on the outside and creamy and, well, 'lacy' on the inside. "

SERVES 12

6 large idaho potatoes, peeled
2 large onions, 1 diced and one quartered
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
5 tablespoons oil or schmaltz
2-3 teaspoons salt
fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup potato starch
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup oil

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
2. Saute diced onion in the schmaltz until nicely caramelized and golden.
3. Grate potatoes and raw onion using either the fine (smallest holes) disc in the food processor or with a box grater .
4. Squeeze out liquid and place in a large mixing bowl.
5. Stir in eggs, caramelized onions (along with the schmaltz used to saute them) and salt and pepper.
6. Sprinkle starch on top.
7. Pour boiling water over starch and stir thoroughly.
8. Pour 1/4 cup of oil into a 9x13 baking pan and heat in oven for about a minute. Do not allow oil to burn.
9. Carefully pour potato mixture into pan and bake for 20 minutes.
10. After 20 minutes, reduce heat to 400 degrees and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top is a deep golden brown.

LTH,

With apologies to Gypsy Boy's mom, I freewheeled a bit with her recipe. I followed her advice and used a small amount of baking powder, but went with matzo meal, I also grated a few cloves of garlic with the onion and potato and baked the kugel in a larger shallow pan to increase surface to crisp ratio.

Both my wife and I thought it a delicious potato kugel, compliments to Mama GB!

Potato Kugel









Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:baked the kugel in a larger shallow pan to increase surface to crisp ratio.

Further kugel experimentation reveals squares slowly crisped in a med-hot pan are the perfect accompaniment to Sunday morning eggs and sausage.

Speaking of sausage, I had a ring of Smoked Hot Hungaria from Lincoln Quality Meat Market. Smoked Hungaria is meant to be eaten out of hand, but the ring I purchased was too fresh for my taste, soft texture, unrendered fat giving the large diameter link an oily mouthfeel. Cutting into 1/4-inch disks and pan frying tightened up texture and rendered out fat making a delicious lightly spiced foil for runny over easy eggs and crisp potato kugel.

Enjoy,
Gary

Lincoln Quality Meat Market
4661 N Lincoln AVe
Chicago, IL 60628
773-561-4750

Hi ,
Here my old world recipe.

7 or 8 medium sized old potatoes
1 large onion
starch from the potato water
2 eggs seperated
2 tbsps potato flour or matzo meal
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
3 or 4 tbsp oil

Grate the potatoe finely( i cheat and use a big version of the micro plane).
Then the onion into a bowl and cover with water and let it sit covered with saran wrap iin the fridge for a 30 min. Squeeze out the extra liquid into the bowl again I cheat and use a potato ricer it looks like a big garlic press. I load it up and squeeze as much of the liquid out as I can in the bowl and set aside. After a little while the starch will settle out the water and collect on the bottom of the bowl. Gently pour off the liquid and keep that stuff on the bottom. Put everything into that bowl with the potato starch, your egg, the salt and pepper and the matzo or potato flour and fold in the stiff egg whites.

In a 425 oven heat your 8 inch square pan with the oil till hot I use butter that way you know when it hot without burn the oil. Bake 45 min til crisp and brown.


Hope this helps

Chef Bear Italia
Michael Zito

Kugel can ONLY be hand graded. The other replys as far a baking powder are right on. Also, to make it taste truly outstanding, add some diced partially cooked bacon.
Very good kugel can be found daily at Racine Bakery, 6600 s. Archer Ave., Chicago.
Also their sulze, a type of head cheese is very good.
Wally Wade

walter wade wrote:Kugel can ONLY be hand graded. The other replys as far a baking powder are right on. Also, to make it taste truly outstanding, add some diced partially cooked bacon.
Very good kugel can be found daily at Racine Bakery, 6600 s. Archer Ave., Chicago.

What Racine Bakery sells is Lithuanian kugelis, which while very good, is not quite the same thing as the Jewish-style kugel this thread has been discussing so far.

Among other things, the minute you put bacon in a dish, it ceases to be Jewish. Most kugelis recipes also contain dairy products, such as milk and butter, which Jewish potato kugel does not.

Anyone who insists that potatoes cannot be grated in a food processor has not properly learned how to use that appliance.