Grandma’s Egg Noodles

Tags

chicken noodle soup, egg noodles, noodle, turkey noodle soup

***My blog now resides at www.allthelittlereasons.com Please join me there to see all of the posts from this blog, as well as my new ideas, tutorials, recipes and musings!***

I can’t believe that these ingredients make the most delicious egg noodles I’ve ever tasted.  No measuring, no actual recipe, just a few ingredients and 15 minutes and you have yourself homemade egg noodles that would impress anybody!

I love my hubby’s grandma.  She has helped over the years by showing me skills people used to naturally pass down to the next generation – quilting, canning, baking bread, making noodles, whipping up a batch of pancakes.  Somehow these things are becoming a lost art.  But there’s something so comforting to know that if you have just a couple ingredients, you can make a delicious meal for your family.  No grocery store needed!

Years ago, I asked my her to tell me how to make noodles.  She said, “oh you just use an egg and half a shell of water.  Add a pinch of salt and keep adding flour until it’s not shiny anymore…”  OK, I was lost.  Not shiny anymore?  I needed a tutorial.  So when we went to the lodge for Christmas that year, Grandma gave me a live, in person tutorial on making egg noodles.  I’m passing her wisdom on to you via pictures.  I hope you will be able to replicate these delicacies.  You won’t be sorry!

First off, add an egg to a smallish mixing bowl.  Then, use the shell and fill up one half with water and add it to the egg.  The reason that you use the shell instead of a set amount is so that you have the right amount of water for that size egg.  It’s always the perfect amount this way.

Whisk the water and egg together with a fork.  Then add flour one spoon at a time, whisking with the fork between additions of flour.

Keep doing this until you get a dough-like consistency

But see how it’s still shiny?  It still needs more flour.  Add a little more, one spoon at a time until it looks like this

Turn it out onto a lightly floured counter top

Knead it for a few minutes until it comes together nicely.  It won’t be the same texture as bread dough.  It should look like this

Roll it out with a rolling pin until it’s thin and even.  Try to keep it the same thickness all the way through.  If the noodles are different thicknesses, they will cook at different rates.

Use a pizza cutter to cut the noodles into strips.  They don’t have to be perfect.  They are homemade…you don’t want people to think you bought them at the grocery store!

At this point, you can take the long strips and dry them to use later.  When I’ve done this in the past, I’ve dried them on a cooling rack, or over the oven door handle.

The next day, you can break them onto noodle sized hunks and store them in an air tight container.

From here on out, I’m going to give you the directions on how to use these for chicken noodle soup, or turkey noodle soup.  If you want to use them as regular pasta, just keep them in longish strips and cook them in salted water according to the cooking directions below. Toss with whatever sauce suits your fancy!  Or, just saute a bunch of veggies with olive oil and garlic, add the cooked pasta and finish with fresh Parmesan cheese.

Normally I use them immediately for soup, instead of drying them.  To do that, just cut them with the pizza cutter into noodle sized pieces.

Bring your chicken stock or turkey stock up to a boil.  Add noodles.  I usually use a spatula to get them to the pot, then separate them with my fingers as I add them to the boiling stock.  If you toss them in all together in a clump, they will stay like that and you’ll have hunks of half-raw noodles in your soup.  Gross!  It’s worth the extra effort to separate them.  If there’s a bit of flour on them, no concerns.  It will just thicken the soup.

How long they need to cook depends how thick the noodles are.  I’d check them after ten minutes, but I’ve made quite thick ones before (that’s the way my husband likes them…more like dumplings) that need up to 30 minutes to cook.  Once they reach the desired tenderness, add your shredded chicken or turkey.  Salt your soup and taste to make sure it’s to your liking and enjoy!