Schinkenfleckerln - Austrian Ham-and-Noodle Casserole

This is a casserole I have been making for 35 years, so technically it is a Most Favorite recipe.  But I did not want to wait until December to write this post.  So here it is!  Bonus Most Favorite!

I found it in my Betty Crocker's International Cookbook, published in 1980.  I've used this book so many times that the binding is cracking and pages are falling out.  I can't really say how "authentic" her recipes are -- they might have been adjusted for the American palate of the 1970s -- but they are fun to peruse and explore.

ISBN 0-394-50453-4

This recipe is on pages 154 - 155.  The book gives the English name of the recipe first, with the ethnic name after it in parentheses.  There is a guide in the back of the book (pg 350) on how to pronounce schinkenfleckerln:  shink-k'n-fleck-airl'n.  My mouth has fun trying to say "airl'n."

Schinkenfleckerln

8 ounces uncooked wide egg noodles

1/4 cup margarine or butter

1 medium onion, chopped

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup dairy sour cream

2 cups diced fully cooked smoked ham (about 1/2 pound)

1/2 teaspoon caraway seed (optional)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup dry bread crumbs

Paprika

Drop noodles into 6 cups rapidly boiling salted water (4 teaspoons salt).  Heat to rapid boiling.  Cook, stirring constantly, 3 minutes.  Cover and remove from heat; let stand 10 minutes.  Drain.

Stir margarine and onion into noodles.  Stir eggs into sour cream.  Stir egg mixture, ham, caraway seed and pepper into noodles.  Sprinkle bread crumbs evenly in greased 2-quart casserole.  Pour noodle mixture into casserole.

Sprinkle with paprika.  Cook uncovered in 350 degree oven until mixture is set, 40 to 45 minutes.

Serve from casserole or unmold onto heated platter.  To unmold, loosen edge of noodles around inside rim with knife.  Place inverted platter over casserole; invert noodles onto platter.  Garnish with parsley if desired.

Serves 4.

My Notes

There is no way I am adding 4 teaspoons of salt to the noodle water.  Adjust to suit your own tastes, but I used 1/2 teaspoon.  Note that the ham and butter already have salt in them.  

This was the '70s, so margarine. I used butter and always have.  It helps to slice the butter into thin slices then spread them over the hot noodles.  That way they melt easily and are distributed around the noodles well.

I have always used the wide egg noodles until today.  I had rotini in my cupboard and that is what I used.

The beaten eggs and sour cream combine to form the sauce for the casserole, so mix them well before adding to the noodles.  I add the sauce last.

I do not find the caraway seeds to be "optional."  "Mandatory" is my thought because I love their flavor.

I have never unmolded the casserole to serve it.  The breadcrumbs should help with that, but I don't know.  I still always butter the dish and spread the breadcrumbs on it before adding the noodles.

It is your choice on how much paprika to use.  When my family was young, I used just enough to add some color.  Now I use more because I like the flavor.

In order:  the cooked noodles.

Butter and onions added to the noodles.  Stir well.

One sauce to rule them all and in the oven, bind them.

With the ham and spices added.

Pour the sauce on last.

Stirred, not shaken.

I admit: those are not evenly distributed.  But the surface is covered enough to work.

I made that ceramic bowl!  (It has a lid, too.)  I was pleased it fit the recipe just right.

I used about that much paprika.  Ready for the oven.

The Verdict

It smells so good!

This is pure comfort food.  Serve it warm so the flavor of the ham and onion come through and the noodles give good support.  Be careful not to overcook it or it gets dry.

First helping.

I enjoy this every time I make it.  I wished I had added more caraway to this, and maybe a bit more pepper.  (Why does that make me think my tastebuds are getting old???)  

My guest taster thought it was fine but I got the sense he didn't think it was exceptional.  Just enjoyable.  He said he would eat it again if I fixed it.  One thing he noticed right away was the onion flavor.  You see, the onion is not precooked, so it has a bit of a tang and a distinct - but not strong - onion presence.  I think it surprised him because he is so used to the onions in a casserole being cooked before mixed in.

The next day we had some for lunch, and I think he liked it better.  He did add some seasoned salt to it, because he is more of a salt eater than I am.  I sure like it hot, not warm.  The flavors come through better and I did not want more seasoning this time.  Of course, casseroles are always better the next day, like stews.

Success!

In the 1990s, I tried making it more low fat.  My notes say that leaving out the butter worked well.  But translating the whole thing to low fat (by also substituting plain yogurt for the sour cream) was not a good idea.  You need some fat in it to keep it moist.

I have also tried it with cooked chunked breakfast sausage, which is a good substitute for ham.

Unless your table guests are big eaters, I would say this serves 6 to 8, not 4.

Showing off that casserole dish!

Hot Fudge Sundae Cake!

Sometimes you want (AKA I want!) dessert and the impulse is to have something from your (my) youth.  Of course I want chocolate, too.  What came to mind was a cake that also has pudding with it.

I recall the title of the recipe to be something like "Impossible Cake" or "Pudding Cake," however Betty Crocker calls it "Hot Fudge Sundae Cake."

The intriguing aspect of it is that you make a cake batter then put a topping on it, pour on hot water, and bake it.  In the process, the cake forms on top and the topping forms a sauce or pudding underneath.  Who figured this out???  

It is also interesting in that it has no eggs, which my friends who are allergic to eggs appreciate.  They don't get cake often because of eggs.  Finally, you mix the whole thing in the pan, cutting down on the amount of dishes to wash afterwards.  This is excellent.

So let's run with Betty, using her recipe on page 258 of her 1984 printing of Betty Crocker's Cookbook.

ISBN 0-307-09800-1  Sunfaded from years of ownership.

Hot Fudge Sundae Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1 3/4 cup hottest tap water

Ice cream

No ice cream.  : (

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix flour, granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa, the baking powder, and salt in ungreased square pan, 9x9x2 inches.  Mix in milk, oil and vanilla with a fork until smooth.  Stir in nuts.  Spread in pan.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa.  Pour hot water over batter.

Bake 40 minutes.  While warm, spoon into dessert dishes and top with ice cream.  Spoon sauce from pan onto each serving.  9 servings.

My Notes

I chose to use pecans for the optional nuts.  

I was out of brown sugar, but did you know you can make it?  I started with granulated sugar and mixed in enough molasses to make it resemble brown sugar.  Using the wire attachment on my mixer did a good job of distributing the molasses.  I didn't measure, but I would guess about 1 1/2 cups of sugar to about 1/3 cup molasses did it.  There were some lumps that I pressed out and others I ignored.  I noticed that the leftovers were even more like brown sugar after they had set overnight.

I didn't have a 9x9 pan but I used a rectangular pan that was close in volume to the square pan.

Use a fork to mix the dry ingredients together so you can reach the corners of the pan well.  

Once the batter was made, I spread the chopped nuts over it and somewhat mixed them in with a fork.  

Sprinkle the brown sugar and cocoa evenly over the entire surface of the batter.

Dry ingredients mixed and spread in pan.

Now they are wet and spread in pan.

Nuts on top and "mixed" in.

Water added.

Done!

The Verdict

Notice the directions say to serve it warm, not hot.  I learned earlier in life that when it is hot, the sauce is too runny and difficult to serve.  When the cake is warm, the sauce is thicker.  But also, when the leftovers are cold, the sauce is a definite pudding in texture.  

It tasted exactly how I recalled it -- good!  Chocolaty in a "from cocoa" point of view, sweet but not bad, and the sauce is a nice touch.  I didn't have ice cream, but that didn't matter.  I would have chosen vanilla to complement the "hot fudge" aspect and chocolate flavor.

The cake is definitely cake.  This was the first time I had nuts with it, which I liked.  So the texture was crunchy from the nuts, chewy from the cake, and creamy from the sauce.  You really can't go wrong with this.

My guest taster thought it was rich.  I don't think it was rich as compared to a cheesecake.  

Success!

Cake above, pudding below.  Amazing!

Betty Crocker suggests modifications:  use butterscotch chips or miniature marshmallows or raisins for the nuts.  Or a mixture of peanut butter and peanuts for the nuts.

I would suggest (without having tried it) to use coffee instead of water and to include cinnamon or other sweet spices to enhance the flavors.  

There is, on the next page, a similar recipe called "Lemon Pudding Cake" (can be modified to lime), if you are not interested in chocolate.  It does call for eggs, though.

Potato Soup from the 1950s

I was fortunate to inherit my grandmother's copy of Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book.  I think it is a second edition but I can't tell because some of the front pages are missing.  I know it is not the first edition because I purchased a replica reprint on its 50th anniversary, in 2000.

The two editions look about the same (the picture is of my grandmother's book) but the first edition has an alphabetical index by chapter and my grandmother's book has a standard index.  I find the standard index much more convenient; I can look up all recipes for say, potatoes, at once instead of having to check each chapter.

Speaking of which, I had a bag of potatoes in my pantry that needed to be used.  This, my friends, is how women used to cook all the time -- What do I have and how can I use it?  What is in season?  There was not a lot of running to the store to get the latest trendy ingredient or deciding what to cook based on how you felt on the spur of the moment.  So in this spirit, I decided to try Betty C's simple recipe for potato soup (it being a wet and blustery day).

****

Potato Soup (page 371)

"The homey, old-fashioned kind."

Saute' gently in 2 tbsp. butter...

   1 tbsp. grated carrot
   1 tbsp. scraped onion

Stir in ...
   1 tsp. salt
   1/4 tsp. celery salt
   1/8 tsp. pepper
   2 cups hot milk
  1 cup mashed or boiled potatoes put through a coarse sieve

Cook 20 min., stirring occasionally.

Amount:  6 servings.

*****

I used the fine holes on the grater for the carrots and, instead of scraping the onion (which I find messy), I finely chopped them.  It seemed like a lot of butter for my tastes but, when I considered that I'd be using non-fat milk, I was fine with it.

I boiled the potatoes unpeeled for about 20 minutes, until they were tender all the way through.  I pierced them with a cooking fork to check.  They were drained and cooled for a while and then I peeled them.

The recipe called for 1 cup of mashed potatoes.  I cooked four potatoes knowing that it was too much.  No problem!  I can always use the remainder for some other dish, like a gratin. I ended up using two. (They were all pretty small potatoes.)

I admit to not using a sieve but I stirred it for awhile to break up the potato bits.  When I cooked it for 20 minutes, I kept the fire as low as possible and stirred it more often once the soup started steaming.  This got the soup nice and hot and also blended the flavors.

The Verdict:  Yum!  It smelled good, making me want to taste it.  It was interesting to look at, with the carrot and onion bits, the pepper, the small lumps of potato, and the butter floating on top.  It was tasty and a little bit creamy -- would be more so if I had used whole milk as they would have in the '50s, I think.  I'm not a fan of celery salt but I used it anyway and was pleasantly surprised at the flavor.  I think it is just right.

By the way, "6 servings" would work if this was a soup course before a bigger meal.  I don't think I would get more than 2 servings if soup was the main focus of the meal.  If you like chunky potato soup, you could use some of the extra cooked potato, cut into small dice, to make it that way.  I think it would also be good with some cheddar cheese melted into it. I had it "as is" for lunch with some saltine crackers and a sliced apple.