spatzle

[charlie]

I don't have a press for these yummy noodles. My Grandmother used to just cut them from her hand. Unfortunately I'm a klutz and libel to slice my fingers off. Suggestions please.
Rolling them and cutting really isn't my forte' either. I want the puffy short ones.

[hwinpp]

Yesterday I saw a programme where they were scraped though some kind of strainer. The result looked pretty good.

[Deleted]

I just buy them at the supermarket. Even though they are considered to be an Alsatian speciality here, they are available everywhere -- at least in the north.

[charlie]

I have a lovely pork tenderloin, for saurarrbraten, braised sauarkraut and I'd planned on the noodles to round it off with. Looks like I'll be punching some holes in a can and pushing the dough through. No worries, necessity is the mother of invention. It's that or slicing my fingers.

[auntieannie]

you mean the ones made with a rather liquid dough? if you put a bit of dough on a small flat plate, you should be able to separate it in bits with an implement that isn't a knife, by separating the bit you want with said implement and letting it slide into the boiling water before you separate more dough from the mass on the plate. um... I don't make sense, do I?
Although what she uses there looks very much like a grater. upside down. (it's poshified with a plastic box on top but you should be able to get the dough through the grater little by little.)

[auntieannie]

goodness me, is this the cutting you mention?


mom does something similar but much thicker than that.
what I was trying to say above was that if you use a small chopping board or a plate and you just push however much dough you want in the water, tearing it away from the rest of the dough, you should be fine.
good luck! hoping you'll find a non-sharp implement to make your spatzle!

[fumobici]

I had spatzle as a kid made with a grater it works fine. I think the technique was inspired more by the Swiss take on the dish than the Alsatian as I know my father's wife learnt to make it in Switzerland.

[Deleted]

Now you made me look for a French video about this. The one below seems good to me, particularly because the cook seems to be a total klutz and yet she manages to make them anyway.

[bixaorellana]

Someone tried to explain the upside-down grater technique to me. I remain mystified.

Charlie, I have one of those graters that comes with its own shallow plastic bowl, if you want to borrow it.

[Deleted]

I was looking for another thread and was dismayed to be reminded that I am all out of spatzle!