Chef Elsa
Bröselnudeln
Broad egg noodles tossed in golden butter-toasted breadcrumbs until every strand is coated and crackling. Four ingredients, fifteen minutes, and a dish that has kept Austrian families fed and happy for centuries.
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Schinkenfleckerl
Created by
Vienna's golden ham and pasta bake, bound with sour cream and eggs, puffed in the oven until the top crackles and the kitchen smells like every Austrian grandmother's house on a Tuesday night.
Main Dishes
Austrian
Weeknight
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
20 min
Active Time
40 min cook•1 hr total
Yield4 servings
In my grandmother Eva's kitchen in Kent, Schinkenfleckerl showed up the way it does in every Austrian household: when there was leftover ham and not much time. Eva would boil a pot of Fleckerl, those small square-cut noodles you find in every Austrian pantry, toss them with diced ham and sour cream, crack in a few eggs, and slide the whole thing into the oven. Forty minutes later, supper.
What makes this dish work is its honesty. There's no complicated sauce, no fussy layering, no technique that requires training. You cook pasta, you mix it with good ham and a rich, eggy sour cream custard, you bake it until the top turns golden and the edges go crisp. The inside stays creamy and soft while the surface puffs and crackles. It's the kind of food that tastes better than it has any right to, given how little effort it asks of you.
Gretel always said Schinkenfleckerl was the true test of a Viennese home cook, not because it's difficult but because it depends entirely on the quality of what goes into it. Bad ham, and the whole dish tastes like nothing. Good Beinschinken, proper sour cream, and fresh eggs, and you've got something people will ask you to make again next week. This is good Austrian home cooking at its most straightforward: simple food done well, with ingredients that earn their place on the plate.
Schinkenfleckerl belongs to the Viennese tradition of Restlessen, the resourceful art of cooking with leftovers that runs deep in Austrian home kitchens. The dish evolved as a way to use the last of a Beinschinken, the cooked ham on the bone that once anchored the Austrian Sunday table. Fleckerl, the small square-cut pasta, are one of Austria's oldest noodle shapes, predating the Italian pasta varieties that arrived through Habsburg trade routes. The word itself comes from 'Fleck,' meaning patch or square, and the shape has appeared in Viennese cookbooks since the 18th century.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Fleckerl (square-cut pasta)
Quantity
400g
Beinschinken or good quality cooked ham
Quantity
300g
cut into 1cm dice
sour cream (Sauerrahm)
Quantity
250g
eggs
Quantity
4 large
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
plus extra for the dish
onion
Quantity
1 medium
finely diced
salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
freshly ground, to taste
nutmeg
Quantity
pinch
freshly grated
fresh flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
small handful
chopped
fine breadcrumbs
Quantity
for the dish
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Fleckerl (square-cut pasta) | 400g |
| Beinschinken or good quality cooked hamcut into 1cm dice | 300g |
| sour cream (Sauerrahm) | 250g |
| eggs | 4 large |
| unsalted butterplus extra for the dish | 30g |
| onionfinely diced | 1 medium |
| salt | to taste |
| black pepper | freshly ground, to taste |
| nutmegfreshly grated | pinch |
| fresh flat-leaf parsleychopped | small handful |
| fine breadcrumbs | for the dish |
Equipment Needed
- •Large pot for boiling pasta
- •Deep baking dish (approximately 25cm x 20cm)
- •Wide pan for the onion
- •Large mixing bowl
Instructions
- 1
Cook the Fleckerl
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Cook the Fleckerl until just al dente, about one minute less than the packet says. They're going into the oven next, and they'll keep cooking in the custard. If they're soft now, they'll be mush later. Drain them well and toss with a small knob of butter to stop them clumping.
If you can't find Fleckerl, use farfalle or another small, flat pasta that holds sauce in its folds. But try to find the real thing. Austrian and Hungarian grocery shops online stock them, and the square shape is part of what makes this dish. - 2
Soften the onion
Melt the butter in a wide pan over medium-low heat. Add the diced onion and cook slowly until it turns translucent and soft, about five minutes. You don't want any color here. Browned onion would push the flavor in the wrong direction. The onion should disappear into the dish, adding sweetness without announcing itself.
- 3
Mix the custard
In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, a generous grinding of black pepper, a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, and half the chopped parsley. The mixture should be smooth and pourable, pale and rich. Season with salt, but go carefully. The ham brings salt of its own and you can't take it back once it's in.
- 4
Combine everything
Add the cooked Fleckerl, the softened onion, and the diced ham to the sour cream custard. Fold everything together until every piece of pasta is coated. The bowl should look generous and a little wet. That liquid is what turns into the creamy interior as it bakes. If it looks dry, your Fleckerl absorbed too much and you should add another spoonful of sour cream.
Taste the mixture now, before it goes into the oven. This is your last chance to adjust seasoning. It should taste well-seasoned and slightly peppery. The oven won't add flavor, only texture. - 5
Prepare the baking dish
Heat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Butter a deep baking dish generously, then dust the inside with fine breadcrumbs. Tilt and rotate the dish so the crumbs coat the bottom and sides evenly, then tap out the excess. This gives you a golden crust on the outside and makes sure the Schinkenfleckerl releases cleanly when you serve it.
- 6
Bake until puffed and golden
Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and spread it level. The dish should be about three-quarters full, no more. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the top is puffed, golden brown, and firm to the touch. The edges will pull away from the sides of the dish slightly and turn deeply golden and crisp. A knife inserted in the center should come out clean, with no liquid custard clinging to it.
- 7
Rest and serve
Let it sit for five minutes out of the oven. It needs this. The custard sets fully as it rests and the slices will hold together instead of collapsing on the plate. Scatter the remaining parsley over the top. Serve it straight from the dish at the table with a green salad dressed in a mustardy vinaigrette on the side. Mahlzeit!
Chef Tips
- •The ham makes or breaks this dish. Use Beinschinken if you can get it, the cooked ham you'll find at any Austrian or Central European deli, sliced thick so you can dice it properly. Supermarket sandwich ham is too thin, too wet, and too bland. If you can't find Beinschinken, use the thickest cut cooked ham your butcher will sell you.
- •Don't skip the nutmeg. It's only a pinch, but it rounds out the sour cream and eggs the way Vanillezucker rounds out a Mehlspeise. Grate it fresh from a whole nutmeg. The pre-ground stuff tastes like sawdust.
- •Schinkenfleckerl reheats beautifully. Cover the dish with foil and warm it in a 160°C oven for twenty minutes. The top won't be as crisp the second time around, but the interior stays creamy and the flavor actually deepens overnight.
- •Serve this with a simple Gurkensalat (thinly sliced cucumber salad with vinegar and dill) or a green salad. You want something sharp and fresh to cut through the richness.
Advance Preparation
- •The entire assembled mixture can be made up to a day ahead, covered, and refrigerated before baking. Add fiveminutes to the oven time if you're baking it straight from the fridge.
- •Baked Schinkenfleckerl keeps in the fridge for three days and reheats well. It's one of those rare dishes that tastes nearly as good the next day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 410g)
Calories
775 calories
Total Fat
32 g
Saturated Fat
16 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
16 g
Cholesterol
275 mg
Sodium
1375 mg
Total Carbohydrates
85 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
38 g
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