Yapchik
 
Ingredients
  • 2 to 3 strips of flanken meat (pick pieces that have lots of meat on them and are nicely marbled)
  • Salt and pepper
  • 5 pounds plus 2 large golden potatoes (such as Yukon Gold)
  • 1 large yellow onion
  • 8 extra large eggs
  • ½ cup oil
  • 1 Tbsp salt
  • dash of black pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 300ºF.
  2. Place meat in a pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with water. Seal tightly with heavy duty foil and bake for at least 6 hours, preferably 7. (Alternatively, place the meat in a 200ºF oven and bake overnight.)
  3. Remove meat from oven, let cool a bit and then refrigerate. Allow enough time for the fat layer to congeal. (I will usually start cooking my meat on Thursday morning then refrigerate it overnight.)
  4. Preheat oven to 450ºF. If your oven has a “roast” setting, use it now.
  5. Peel potatoes and onion.
  6. In a food processor, process the potatoes and onion on medium speed (8 on the Braun). (If the speed is too slow, the kugel is too stringy and vice versa if it’s too fast.)
  7. Place the potato mixture in a large bowl. Mix in the eggs and oil. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well.
  8. Pour about 2 cups of potato kugel mixture into 2 9- x 6- inch pans. (Obviously use any size that suits your family, but I like to have two smaller kugels so that one gets eaten on Friday afternoon and one on Shabbos day.)
  9. Remove meat pan from the refrigerator. Remove layer of congealed fat, then proceed to cut out the bones, cartilage and any large pieces of fat. Cut the meat into little chunks.
  10. Evenly sprinkle meat chunks over the layer of potato mixture. Top with remaining potato kugel mixture.
  11. Bake for 1 hour. Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF and bake for an additional hour.
  12. Notes:
  13. Flanken that comes on the bone (that is, not the boneless flanken) works best for this. The meat will be soft, just the way you want it.
  14. Yes, the images show a hand-grated kugel. I do not really believe the grandmother's tale that hand grating improves the taste of potato kugel. I just own an annoying food processor that I am so eager to replace one day with the Braun. In the meantime, 9 times out of 10 I will pull out my trusty grater and get a good workout.
  15. Potato kugel served fresh is incredible, we all know that. What you didn’t know (maybe) is that it can be prepared in advance and then frozen. I defrost it a bit and then add about ½ cup of hot water to the pan. Cover tightly with foil, and bake in a 200ºF oven overnight. Comes out amazing!
Recipe by Between Carpools at https://betweencarpools.com/yapchik/