The Inspired Kitchen

Yerushalmi Kugel

The sweet and peppery flavor of Jerusalem Kugel.

By Adeena Sussman

I can remember passing through the Hasidic neighborhood of Me'a She'arim in Jerusalem as a teenager and first seeing the mahogany-brown wedges of Yerushalmi (Jerusalem) Kugel.

 

Curious, I bought a slice of the still-warm Sabbath delicacy, and was hooked. Unlike any noodle pudding I had tasted before, this one featured a sophisticated interplay of sweetness and peppery bite, with a subtle toasty flavor thrown in for good measure.

 

The taste is surprisingly easy to recreate at home; all you need is a sure hand and the confidence to make a quick caramel of oil and sugar. Just when you think you've got your sugar dark enough, cook it a minute longer--you'll see and taste the difference in the results. If you burn the caramel, start over--the second time's often the charm.

 

Although many American adaptations call for baking the kugel in a regular casserole dish, I prefer to bake mine in a soup pot or Dutch oven with less surface area, which creates a higher, denser end result.

Serves 10-12

 

One 16-oz. package thin egg noodles

1/2 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

6 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon finely ground black pepper

 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cook noodles according to package directions; rinse and drain well. In a heavy skillet, combine oil and sugar over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar is very dark but not burnt, about 11-12 minutes. Remove from heat.

 

In a large bowl, quickly combine drained noodles and caramelized sugar. Stir to incorporate. Let cool at least 10 minutes, then add eggs, salt, and pepper and stir to combine. Grease the bottom and sides of a 6-quart soup pot or Dutch oven and pour noodle mixture into pot. Do not cover pot. Bake for 2 hours, or until kugel is very dark brown and top is crusty.

 

Note: if you prefer a more traditional kugel, yielding flatter, square servings, bake in a greased 9" x 13" casserole for about 75 minutes.

 

Adeena Sussman is a food writer and chef based in New York. She writes the bimonthly food column Season to Taste for Hadassah magazine, and her work appears regularly on Epicurious.com, and in publications including Time Out New York, The Forward, the San Jose Mercury News, and Sunset magazine. Visit her at adeenasussman.com.