Lithuanian Kugele

[brideofjc]

Since my primary heritage is that of Lithuania, I grew up on Kugele which is a potato dish,

that if you make it dry enough you could slice it and take it with you on the go,

kind of a fast food recipe from ancient days. So I thought I'd share it with

you all. Hope you try it, it is good right out of the oven, steaming hot...

but my favorite is the next morning fried in bacon grease.

KUGELI

8-10 Large Potatoes (depends on family size)

8 slices Bacon, fried and crumbled

1 cup hot milk

8 Eggs, beaten

1 Large onion, chopped

Salt to taste (Note: potatoes absorb salt, you might have to use more)

Garlic Pepper

Bacon Grease

Grate (best if manually done, you get a finer mush) potatoes into bowl, you may salt as you go to keep mush white,

add fried bacon, milk, onion and beaten eggs. Add spices and the bacon grease.

Mix well, pour into greased loaf pans - this usually makes two loaves. You can freeze one for later.

Bake in 350 degrees for 1 hour or until knife comes out clean.

Hint: Next morning....fry your eggs, bacon and Kugeli, Yum Yum.

Edited December 31, 2007 by brideofjc

[ChasUFarley]

WOW - sounds awesome...

Can't imagine what my cholesterol count will be after that, tho... cut me and I won't bleed!

[brideofjc]

Hi Chas:

It's really not all that bad....REALLY!

1 slice will do you, so if you do the math, you can get about 12 slives per loaf pan

and this recipe makes two loaf pans = 24 slices

and there's only 8 eggs, so each breakfast is only about 1/3 of an egg

SEE????

It's not bad at all.

Hope you try it.

[Abigail]

I make a noodle kugel dish that is sweet, not savory.

1 bag of egg noodles, cooked

1 large container of cottage cheese

6 raw eggs

3 tbspoons brown sugar

1 tspoon cinamon

raisins (I like lots of them, but you can add according to taste)

You can also add grated apple or replace the raisins with grated apple. Actually, I imagine you could substitute all kinds of different fruits.

Mix it all together and bake on 325 for about an hour

[Nottawayfer]

Bride:

Do you grate the potatoes raw or do you boil them before you grate them? If you don't boil them first, how do you cut down on the amoutn of starch from them?

[brideofjc]

Not, if you boil them first you won't be able to grate them. I guess you could puree them in the blender, but you would have to use your cup of milk for the liquid. Probably more. When you grate them first, yes you're getting starch, but it also produces a lot of liquid which allows for the potatoe to

basically cook in the loaf pan while it is evaporating as well. But I guess it would be ok, if you do it, let me know what consistency it turns out to be. It might

end up being very dry; because there really is a lot of water in the potatoes, even if we don't think there isn't. If yoou do it, watch your cooking time and see

if it is done at 30 minutes & then 45, using the knife test which should come out clean. I've never tried it before so you'll have to experiment with it first.

I've been making it the way my great grandma made it and on down the family line for so long, I'm kind of picky when it comes to how I process the

potatoe first., I know I've eaten other Lith's kugele and knew they used the "grate" function on their blender and the potatoe comes out much coarser

than when you do it manually with a wire mesh grater. It's a lot of work doing it manually, but to me it's worth it.

Blessings

[pond]

I like your recpie I will try it we had a similar recipe but used mashed potato from the day before or lunch.

I was thinking about why and i remembered we had a wood burning stove to cook on and the wood and heat was probably being used for the meat (irish much?) so we fried them.

no they are not dry

1 we put alot of butter in our mashed potatoes!

2 we do put milk in

3 the onion adds some water and flavor.

the bacon grease has to be HOT HOT you make a little pancake with your hands throw that bad boy in and a crust appears from the crispies from the bacon fat and then you flip it over and yummy .

the pancake is not big about the size of your palm depending how many people your feeding and how many are left over! you do understand when i say "mashed potatoe" they have been boiled already and mashed right?

Edited January 5, 2008 by pond

[Eyesopen]

This sounds like a yummy twist on my German Grans potato pancakes.

Basically the left over mashed potatoes were mixed with chopped onion and fried in bacon grease for breakfast the next morning. Of course they are served with bacon and eggs as well. Lots of fat and cholesterol. Yum.

I'll give this one a try.

[Outfield]

Great recipe. I will probably half it though - think that will be okay? I have some potatos now I need to use. Thanks for sharing.

[brideofjc]

Great recipe. I will probably half it though - think that will be okay? I have some potatos now I need to use. Thanks for sharing.

Salt to your taste though. As I said, potatoes absorb your salt, so sometimes it might seem you have to use a lot to

get any flavor.

But this is not a pancake, ...I think the translation of Kugeli is basically "potato pudding" that is baked.

Hi Pond, yes, I make potatoe PANA CAKES (Grandmas pronunciation) too and yes I use left over mashed potatoes.

Hi Outfield, yes you can half it, because it does make a lot. I always make the full recipe and freeze the other loaf for later.

Kugeli takes a lot of elbow grease as well as bacon grease LOL sooooo, to save myself time and energy, I always make the

full load.

I hope you all enjoy, I sure have and thankful I grew up on it. This was the poor immigrants way of surviving and feeding large families.

Hope you all have a great day today.

[Abigail]

Kugel is pudding - there are many varieties of it and I have yet to taste one I didn't like.