Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 10 llb. peeled potatoes (reds are best, white are quickest to peel)
3-5 bl. flour
1 - 16 oz can evaporated milk
5 medium onions, diced
2 lb. slab bacon, cu tin 14" cubes
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Directions: |
Directions:Prepare mixture of diced onion and cubed bacon in advance. Mix together and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Grind raw potatoes. (The old Swedes would have a fit if they caught us grinding the taters instead of grating!)
Use the fine blade on the grinder. To keep the potatoes from turning dark, keep them in water until all are ground. About every 5 minutes the ground potatoes should be placed in a piece of nylon net and rinsed under cold water to remove the starch. Squeeze excess water from the ground potatoes while in the netting.
When all potatoes are ground, place in a large mixing bowl. Add evaporated milk, a "skosh" of salt; then gradually stir in flour and stir in flour.... and stir in flour.... and stir in flour until yur arm cramps, then stir in more flour. The goal is to get the dough to the consistency of two-day old concrete, or at least until it will hang onto your wooden mixing spoon.I did mention to use a heavy wooden mixing spoon didn't I? Sorry about that!! Throw away that metal spoon or save it for your grave marker, and get a wooden one. Now comes the fun part! You are now ready to assemble your crubs.
Wet one hand and place a large tennis ball-sized glob of dough in that hand, using the wooden mixing spoon. After wetting the other hand, make a patty of the dough in one hand, so that the dough kind of oozes over the edges of your hand. Form a slight hollow in the center of the patty. Now place a heaping tablespoonful of the bacon/onion mixture into the center of the patty. With both hands slightly wet, fold the edge of the dough (that have been oozzing over the side of your hands and through your fingers) up and over the sides and top of your meat/onion filling. The idea is to form a ball with the meat in the center. The dough must totally cover the meat - no breeches - if a hole or tear develops, of another little piece of dough and apply it as a patch. Quickly, with slightly wet hands, work the blob into a nice round ball. Transfer it to a wet wooden ladle, and lower it into a kettle of boiling (and lightly salted) water. Try not to allow the crubs to settle on the bottom immediately, but hold it in the wooden ladle for approximately a minute, until the outside has a chance to "set."
Congratulations! You have now made your firs Krip Krakker. Repeat above about 20 times. Did I mention that you need a really big kettle? You might need to or three large kettles. Do not allow the crubs to touch each other during the first fiv minutes of boiling. Boil for approximately one hour.
Tips:
*work with slightly wet hands and utensils. This dough will stick to anything. On the other hand, too much moisture will weaken the dough and cause it to become runny and fall apart.
*After making a few crubs, the dough will probably need to be stiffened up a bit by ( you guessed it) the dreaded "stir in some more flour!"
*Clean up immediately. Dough that is allowed to cure on your utensils, counter top, or elbows will yield only to a jack hammer.
*Do this in your neighbor's kitchen - - then you can just say "the hell with it" and go home!
Serving:
*Immediately after removing from the cooking kettle, crubs may be served as they are, with a little milk poured over them. An excellent compliment to this feast is potato bologna.
*Crubs really hit the "top of the chars" when sliced about 1/4 inch thick and browned in a small amount of bacon grease. What a treat for breakfast...crubs served with a couple of eggs, sunny side up! Look out hash browns....you ain't seen nothin' yet!
* Another variation, suitable for dinner, is to slice and fry as above, then saute in milk, which will produce it's own gravy. |
This recipe for Krip Krakker (Crubs) - Traditional method is from