I love country music, country dancing, and country food. And usually, I don’t care what country any of it comes from – just so it’s country. In this case, Austria is the “homeplace” of my husband’s ancestors, and I make one of his favorite dishes right here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
It’s a staple meal in our house. We call it Ham and Noodles because we can not pronounce the real name – Schinkenfleckerl. The recipe has been passed down from my Austrian mother-in-law, Emily.
It’s what I call “peasant food” – hearty, inexpensive, goes a long way to feed many, and (as are all my favorite recipes) easy to prepare. I always make it with leftover ham and the amounts are entirely subjective.
Ingredients:
Leftover Cooked Ham (grind it up in a meat grinder) Quantity? The equivalent of a 1 lb. ham steak – or in lay terms – a big chunk or a lot of big chunks of leftover ham. (I know this is vague but nothing can go wrong with this recipe)
An Onion (grind it up with the ham in the meat grinder) – Quantity? One onion to a pound of ham (or more onions if you are feeding a mob)
Butter (A lot) – One to two sticks. (Start with one)
Noodles – A Whole Box (2 or more boxes if you are feeding a mob) Note: You can use flat noodles, or curly noodles, or I like to use shells (the big ones) because the little hollow places collect bits of ham.
- Fry the ham and the onion together with the butter.
- Add butter if you need to so ham doesn’t dry out.
- Cook until ham turns golden brown. Keep it on “Warm.”
- Boil the noodles.
- Combine all.
Believe it or not, that’s it! And I can almost guarantee you will love it.
Serve with a big salad and you’ve got a great meal.
There are many other versions of this delightful dish if you want to get a bit more complicated with ingredients, but this is the way I learned to make it from my sister-in-law, who learned it in her mother’s kitchen. And I have never met a person who disliked Schinkenfleckerl!
Looks yummmmmmyyyyy!! 🙂
LikeLike
Sharing this with my husband, the cook in our house. He usually grinds up the ham and mixes it with pickles (aha! a use for your friend’s pickes – the ham overpowers the pickles!) for “ham salad.” Blech! I would much prefer this! 🙂
LikeLike
What’s not to like and with all the butter, yum! My mother’s mother was from Austria. She was a great cook. She could feed an army with very little — lots of noodles, home-grown vegetables, soup and a little meat would do it. Thanks for sharing!
LikeLike
Can’t wait to try this. I love peasant food & usually have leftover ham in my freezer. After all I WAS a pig farmer. Wouldn’t this be great with a big dish of home made pickles? I know how much you love those.
LikeLike
Yep – it’s a winner! 🙂
LikeLike
Interesting variation Amiable… ours is a hot meal – minus the pickles, but I could have used the Pickle Lady’s awful pickles for your husband’s ham salad!
LikeLike
Thanks Kate and Weren’t our European ancestors creative with meals?
LikeLike
Somebody else just recommended adding pickles to the actual recipe! Wish I had thought of that with the “awful” pickles I loved so much. 🙂 Thanks for reminding me about those pet pigs I met so long ago at your farm. 🙂
LikeLike
You are not helping my diet putting up photos like that! However, it does look very yummy 🙂
LikeLike
Meant to entice and destroy!
LikeLike