This winter I’ve been exploring Jewish comfort foods and among my greatest discoveries is the beloved potato Kugel. It’s simple, delicious, and an important part of the Jewish heritage. So, if you’re interested in learning more about the history of this versatile and scrumptious side dish you are in the right place. In addition to the story of potato kugel, I’ll share my experience making this Jewish delicacy including my favorite recipe.
A Brief History of the Potato Kugel
Kugel has been an Ashkenazi Jewish favorite for hundreds of years in many varieties, but in its long history, the potato version didn’t appear until about 200 years ago. In the years leading up to this point, kugels were made with bread and flour. Eventually, the bread-like combination was replaced by a mixture of egg and Farfel, an Ashkenazi noodle, according to Wikipedia.
Over the years, the kugel has evolved into savory and sweet dishes with ingredients including milk and cottage cheese. My Jewish Learning explains that the popularity of sweet Kugel came about thanks to sugar beet refining in Poland in the early 1800s. Some of these sweet versions often included cinnamon and raisins.
Around the mid-1800’s potatoes became all the rage due to their low cost and high nutritional value resulting in potato kugel taking the lead in popularity. Meanwhile, in 20th century America, the sweet kugel gained favor due to a flood of Jewish immigrants, and around this time canned fruit became a common addition to sweet kugel. Head to myjewishlearning.com for a more detailed history.
What I love about Potato Kugel
The kugel has been on quite a journey through the centuries evolving from bread, noodles, potatoes, and fruit, and learning all of these variations will take some time. However, my first successful kugel was the potato variety following a disastrous noodle kugel incident which I will re-attempt soon. But for now, it’s all about potatoes.
Potato kugel became an instant hit in my house. It contains few ingredients, is simple to make, and is delicious. You can follow the same recipe here: allrecipes.com. Heads up though, I followed the exact recipe that feeds 24. My family of 3 was eating potato kugel for days. Next time I will cut down the recipe significantly!
The 4 main ingredients are potatoes, onions, salt, and pepper. I used a food processor to shred the potatoes and onions, seasoned the mixture, and then placed the ingredients in a casserole dish. This potato kugel is a pareve dish, with no meat or dairy added. The result is an amazing super simple side dish that’s crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. When is the best time to serve kugel? It’s typically made for Jewish holidays and Shabbat, but can be consumed any time you want.
What’s Next?
Before I revisit the savory noodle kugel that went terribly wrong, I plan to try my hand at sweet kugel (which also involves noodles). I love peaches. Peach tea, peach cobbler, peach crisp: any way you can incorporate peach into a recipe, I am there. So imagine my surprise when I found a recipe for peach noodle kugel!
I will follow the food.com recipe. Are you interested in making peach noodle kugel? If so, leave a comment below or find me on my socials, I would love for you to join me on this adventure. If you’ve already made it tell me what you think! Oh, how I love, exploring the rich history of Jewish cuisine and look forward to many years of writing about it.
As always, I would love to connect. Feel free to follow me on social media or leave a comment below. Are you interested in learning about my Jewish journey? Click the links below. Thank you so much for reading. Shalom friends!
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