Betty Taught Me How to Make Homemade Egg Noodles!

Thursday I ate such a lousy dinner because my appetite was Bleaaagh! But yesterday and today are a different matter entirely. It seems I've been munching and munching and making up for lost time...er, I mean, lost calories. Fiddlesticks, I wasn't going to make this a chemo blog and hadn't mentioned the nature of my illness until this post. But there it is...by now I've completed my second chemo session. The first day after seems to be a normal day. Then the 2nd, 3rd, 4th days are down and my appetite disappears. I've lost more weight in the past two months than I care to lose. Now I'm feeling really good and I'm hungry for food again. At least until next chemo.

Yesterday I had a hankering for chicken-noodle soup so I made some home-made egg noodles using a recipe in my rather ancient Betty Crocker cookbook from the 1960s. The book is falling to pieces...the spine is missing...the pages are stained and marked from the years. It's my source for pancakes, pies, noodles, and a handful of other recipes that I can't seem to commit to memory as some cooks do. (I've tried using store noodles...they're just not quite the same when it comes to chicken-noodle soup.)

Making egg noodles is really rather simple...mix together some flour, egg, salt and water. Knead for 5-10 minutes. Let rest. Roll out very thin. Cut thin. Let dry. Drying is important, so don't rush. The recipe mentions cooking in salted water...I've never tried that. I prefer chicken broth that I make ahead of time from leftover chicken pieces or from the bones left from roast chicken. Generally those yield small amounts which I freeze and accumulate until I have enough for a large batch of noodles.

Here's the recipe as written by Betty herself. (Don't forget, you can click on photos.)

HOMEMADE EGG NOODLES (I used a half recipe...you do the math on the eggs. heh-heh)
2 cups flour
3 egg yolks
1 egg
2 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup water

Measure flour into bowl; make a well in center and add egg yolks, whole egg and salt. With hands (Yep, your fingers are going to do the dirty work!) thoroughly mix egg into flour. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. (Add only enough water to form dough into a ball.)

Turn dough onto well-floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (You may have to dust the surface with a bit more flour every now and then.) Cover with clean dish towel; let rest 10 minutes.

Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Roll dough, 1 part at a time, into paper-thin rectangle, keeping remaining dough covered. (Again..add flour as needed to keep from sticking.) Roll rectangle around rolling pin; slip out rolling pin.

Cut dough crosswise into 1/8 or 1/4 inch strips. Shake out and place on floured surface (or clean dishtowel) to dry, about 2 hours. (I let mine dry overnight.)

When dry, break into smaller pieces. Cook in 3 quarts boiling salted water (1 T salt) 12 to 15 minutes or until tender. Drain thoroughly. Makes about 6 cups noodles. (I cooked mine in chicken broth with bits of chicken included. If you are simply cooking the noodles to be used as ""noodles", 3 quarts of liquid may be fine. But if you are making soup, you will want a lot more liquid as you want the soup to have plenty of broth. If you have leftover soup, the noodles tend to swell and soak up the broth and the broth is a most important, tasty part of the soup!)