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Post by nana on Apr 12, 2017 19:45:08 GMT -5
A spaetzle maker! It fits over the top of just about any pot big enough to cook spaetzle in, and it is so amazingly easy to use. Just plop some batter on, and push it through the holes into the boiling water with the handy dandy spatula. They all come out the same size and it takes almost no time at all to do a whole batch. My husband used to make them for me with a cutting board and knife, dipping it into the water and slicing off dough--oddly enough it is a similar technique to mixing plaster, something he is familiar with, which I was all butterfingers at. But now, anyone can be an expert with one of these! Plus the box provided us with much merriment. My German is not good enough to translate spaetzle-ass exactly. We surmised that that is what you develop after eating all the spaetzle you will be making with this thing.
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Post by karitx on Apr 14, 2017 19:20:23 GMT -5
hahahahaha! I don't usually keep gadget boxes, but I would totally keep that one!
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Post by pooka on Apr 15, 2017 1:30:39 GMT -5
That is an interesting gadget. & the box is a keeper for sure. Sometimes foreign languages are more humorous when they don't quite translate at first glance. There's the famous JFK speech in Berlin where he said, "Ich bin ein Berliner". We know he was trying to say he was a Berliner as in a citizen of Berlin. But apparently there's a popular jelly filled pastry called a berliner, so to a German ear, he was roughly saying "I'm a jelly doughnut". I've seen these made the old fashion way with a wooden spätzle board & a knife. It looks like something that takes years to master. I should have known someone would come up with a gadget to do it. To add a humorous twist to this, I did a quick search for "spaetzle making", & I find this website. Cooking With Nana - NANA'S Pasta Maker Spaetzle BoardFor those that have never seen traditional spätzle made, here's a short video of a German cook doing it the old fashion way.
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Post by nana on Apr 15, 2017 13:24:35 GMT -5
Thanks for finding that, Pooka! That is exactly how my mom used to make them, only even she was not quite that fast! It's how my husband did it too, but it's something I could never master. The ones I made with the spaetzle-ass were only about an inch or inch and a half long, but I think if I make the dough just a little looser, it will drip through the holes and stretch out a bit more, and I'll have nice long noodles like that nice German Nana had. They taste good no matter what the shape, though. I even made them about 1/3 whole wheat, so they were health food. Yeah, that's right...health food....
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Post by Chuckie on Apr 15, 2017 22:25:40 GMT -5
A spaetzle maker! It fits over the top of just about any pot big enough to cook spaetzle in, and it is so amazingly easy to use. Just plop some batter on, and push it through the holes into the boiling water with the handy dandy spatula. Once more-- A POX upon ALL ye evil vixens that inhabit this place!!!! Yet ANOTHER kitchen device I had NO IDEA EXISTED, and now I M-U-S-T have one!!! GRRRRRRrrrrr!!!! CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by pooka on Apr 16, 2017 0:55:00 GMT -5
Chuckie, you don't need one of those gadgets. You need to learn to do it the old fashion way like the German lady in the video above.
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Post by nana on Apr 17, 2017 18:15:03 GMT -5
Fair warning: It's a lot harder than it looks. Get a spaetzle-ass. You won't regret it!
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Post by vaporvac on Apr 18, 2017 15:31:16 GMT -5
Nana, I think I already have a spaetzle ass... and one of those metal gadgets, as well! : )
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Post by Chuckie on May 17, 2020 19:34:55 GMT -5
A spaetzle maker! It fits over the top of just about any pot big enough to cook spaetzle in, and it is so amazingly easy to use. Just plop some batter on, and push it through the holes into the boiling water with the handy dandy spatula. Once more-- A POX upon ALL ye evil vixens that inhabit this place!!!! Yet ANOTHER kitchen device I had NO IDEA EXISTED, and now I M-U-S-T have one!!! GRRRRRRrrrrr!!!! CHEERS! Chuckie Well, a REALLY KEWL cook shop--The Pot Rack--is going outta biz in town, alas!!! At any rate, saw a sign yesterday out front that read "40% off". So in I go. They had ONE spaetzle board left in there, so I bought it. Hear is the "board" I got: I cooked Monkey some by another recipe I found online. Boiled them in veggie broth, then they recommended have some onions sauteing in butter, once you strain the spaetzel out, toss it in w/the onions, stir it about, add some shredded Swiss cheese on top, stirring gently till it melts. She thought it rather "bland". Mine, however, was QUITE tasty!! I'd made a roast, seared it first, then into the large thermowell pot w/about 1/2 cup red wine, the juice and mushrooms from a can, some bay leaves, and an onion. I cooked the spaetzle in the broth from the roast--- YUM!! Made onion rolls on manual in the bread machine to go w/it too. And here is the end product--do I pass muster, nana? I made the sweet & sour red cabbage to go w/it as well.
CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by nana on May 18, 2020 6:47:31 GMT -5
That looks like some A+ work to me, Chuckie!!
I found a spaetzle maker like that one once at a tag sale, but got rid of it because as much batter squeezed out the sides as went through the holes. I had to keep stopping and scoop it back into the little cube on top. It looks like yours worked better, though!
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Post by mach12 on May 18, 2020 18:46:37 GMT -5
Chuckie - that's the style I have and it's easy and works great for me. I mix the batter just a bit thin so that it almost drips through and I just slowly slide it back and forth to cut off the pieces and let them drop into the boiling water. If I'm doing a really big batch I put some saran wrap on a cutting board to set the thing on while the first batch cooks and then use a rubber spatula to scoop any that dripped through back into the rest of the stuff waiting. The spätzle is every bit like the stuff we got in Germany.
That's some good looking rotkohl too!
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Post by Chuckie on May 18, 2020 19:25:09 GMT -5
Chuckie - that's the style I have and it's easy and works great for me. I mix the batter just a bit thin so that it almost drips through and I just slowly slide it back and forth to cut off the pieces and let them drop into the boiling water. If I'm doing a really big batch I put some saran wrap on a cutting board to set the thing on while the first batch cooks and then use a rubber spatula to scoop any that dripped through back into the rest of the stuff waiting. The spätzle is every bit like the stuff we got in Germany. That's some good looking rotkohl too! Thanks to you & nana for the kudos! I didn't have any probs to SPEAK of w/it, 'cept when I was using a very SMALL pot to cook Monkey's. Would've been EASIER had I removed the SLIDER, and just put the dough in the center & smoothed it gently back/forth w/a spatula so it stayed directly OVER the pot!!! (hard to see w/the slider on it). I L-I-K-E-D the spätzle recipes, in that they're RIGHT up my alley---just get it "till it's JUST right!" Would certainly FRIGHTEN a "new" cook, but unless I'm baking in the bread machine or making like a cake, I just wing it! The one I went w/from Youtube said make the dough JUST thick enough that it DOESN'T "readily" fall through your board. He showed you doing it over the batter bowl to test it, and that's EXACTLY what I did. Was first too thin then too thick, so added flower/then milk to get it "Goldilocked". We got a BUTTLOAD of duck eggs from her S.I.L/nieces, so that's what we were trying to get rid off w/o tossing. As an aside, I used 3 of them to make this, and <1.5 cups flour, whereas the Chambers noodle recipe calls for ONE egg to a cup of flour!! Will make a BIG batch of egg noodles this week, and give the majority of them away to use up the majority of the EGGS... CHEERS! Chuckie
ps--had to look up what "rotkhol" was!! LOL NOT in me Irish-American vocabulary to be sure!! 'Course most of what IS can't be printed out here....
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Post by mach12 on May 18, 2020 19:59:58 GMT -5
I was trying to get the batter to where it didn't go through without the slider movement and got it thinner one time than I'd intended so I just went with it. Before that I used a steaming disk that came with one of my old Wear-Ever Dutch ovens and I set the batter (or dough I guess) on it and pressed it through with a plastic spreader. I keep several new packages of spreaders for spreading body putty when doing auto body work so grabbed one of those one time and that became the spätzle spreader. Put a mechanic in the kitchen... Edit - Just as an FYI, here's a link to the spreader that I use when using my steamer plate. It's like they're made for it. Problem is that they come in a box of 20 for about $8 and I've been using the same one for years. I guess you can use them as stocking stuffers... www.harborfreight.com/4-in-putty-spreaders-20-pc-69564.html
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Post by nana on May 19, 2020 18:52:46 GMT -5
Thanks for bumping this up though, I haven’t made spaetzle in a while. Sometimes I need reminders of what else is out there when I get in a rut!
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Post by chipperhiker on Jun 12, 2020 12:59:41 GMT -5
ugh. So now I want ANOTHER kitchen gadget!!! lol
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Post by nana on Jun 13, 2020 7:49:10 GMT -5
Sorry! But that’s the chance you take when you read a thread entitled “My New Favorite Gadget!”😉
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