Yapchik, a Polish or Hungarian version of cholent, was an obsession of my husband for a year. (We investigated the origins of this dish and have gotten conflicting responses. However, we do know that the Skverer Rebbe has been serving it at his tish for many years.)
Essentially, a potato kugel with meat, Yapchik is true Jewish comfort food. Shredded potato, some onion, flanken, salt and pepper…sounds simple enough?
To prepare, yes, pretty simple. Coming up with the ultimate, fool-proof yapchik? Not so much. It took many tries and taste-tests to get this right. My husband made yapchik almost every week for a year. He shared samples with family and friends and every person’s feedback was considered when tweaking this recipe to its current savory perfection. Oven or crockpot? How many potatoes? How many onions? Which meat works best? Cooked over steaming hot water or alone? All these questions were thoroughly researched and the final result is the most perfect yapchik recipe you will find, guaranteed.
TIPS
- Simply omit meat for an incredible overnight potato kugel.
- Cooking this kugel/cholent overnight (8 hours+) achieves a deep brown color and flavor (similar to cholent). If you prefer a lighter color and flavor, simply remove from oven when it is time to lower the temperature.
- In place of the flanken, you can use beef cheek or pastrami, chopped, for a smokier flavor. When using these other options only use 1 tablespoon of salt as these meats are already salty.
- Wrap in aluminum foil and place in cholent.
- In place of the oil, use schmaltz or duck fat for a truly gourmet kugel experience.
Yapchik – Overnight Potato Kugel with Meat
Servings
Ingredients
- 8 large Russet potatoes
- 1 Spanish onion
- 7 eggs
- 1 cup water
- 1¼ cups extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon salt
- 1.2 pounds boneless flanken cubed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Using a kugel blade, process potatoes and onions. Note: a kugel blade comes with only some food processor brands. If you don’t have one, grate the potatoes and onions with the grater attachment and then pulse the mixture using the “s” blade, until the mixture is fully mixed. Do not over process as that will turn the mixture into liquid.
- Remove mixture from food processor and place in mixing bowl.
- Process eggs, water, oil, and salt in the food processor and pour into the potato-onion mixture.
- Add the meat into the mixing bowl and combine everything together.
- Pour in a 9×13 in. baking pan.
- Bake uncovered for 1½ hours.
- Lower oven temperature to 200°F.
- Cover baking pan well with 2 layers of silver foil. You want to seal in all moisture.
- Bake for 6 more hours.
- Shlomo Klein Contributed to this recipe.
do I put it directly on the hotplate-won’t the bottom burn?
It is absolutely delicious! (and not very diatetic)
It depends on the hot plate, if yours is very hot you can try putting it on the part that is less hot or put something in between, even a few sheets of foil can help
can i use regular oil instead of olive oil
Yes for sure
Those are 2 separate tips, but in general if you put it in a cholent it needs to be in a pan and wrapped in foil.
Sounds delicious. In tips 3 and 4 you wrote “if you use other meats such as pastrami, wrap it in foil before placing it in the cholent?”
Can you clarify this? ( the foil part.)
Thank you so much.
I would fully cook it and then freeze.
Can I prep in advance and freeze it? How would you suggest I do that? Should I cook partially?
Is the chop meat cooked first
No need it cooks in the kugel
I would just double it and if doesn’t all fit make a few in muffin tins on the side.
How can I make this recipe in a 11×14?
Can this be made in a crock pot?
Yes, but is best in a pan in the crockpot so it can hold it’s shape and not burn
When I used to make schmaltz I I rendered it on the stove with onions. Well, I bought my first jar of Duck Fat as I could not get enough chicken fat here in Tucson. My quest ion is, will it have a better taste if I rendered in with onions as I did with chicken fat.?
I don’t think it would be necessary since it is already rendered, but cooking with onions first would always give it nice flavor.
Thank you, I appreciate your immediate response.
My mom and Aunt made a similar dish they called Tzimmis. They sauteed Beef flanken in a large roasting pan, added carrotts. onion and sweet potatos then water. Cooked another hour, then they made potato kugel batter and poured it over the beef etc… They baked it for 8 hours or so. when the kugel was set, they poured honey over it and baked again until golden brown. It sounds a little like Yapchick. They were Lithuanian.
Wow, that sounds a combo of tzimmes and yapchik, maybe they made a fusion recipe.
It sounds delicious and is a lot of work. It is not Yapchik.
You might wrap it in baking paper.
Hp sauce
Jaime, when using Duck Fat, ( which I recently bought for the first time, but, have not had the heart to use in place of chicken fat, should I render it with onions as I do the chidken fat? I know it’s rendered, but do you think it will taste more authantic?
we had Shepard pie in London. My Hungarian mother had never seen such a dish but she tried to copy what we were served for school at Avigdor. It was never quite right. Something was missing in the minced meat part. Its prob a German oriented recipe. Did they use marmite? Or some other spice?
my parents were from Hungary and we never saw yapchick not in our home or ang Hungarian friends. We lived in London..Stamford Hill, and never saw this made by any caterers at a kiddush. I’m not so sure therefore that its originally from Prewar Europe….I’m curious to know where this combination of kugel and meat combined originated. And, by the way, Yapchick is definitely my favorite food.
There is some great info here https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/the-history-of-potato-kugel/
Thanks so much for the feedback, how do you serve this kind of thing in a soup?
My aunt and mother used to make this and we loved it. Unfortunately I never got the recipe from them so I’m very grateful that you published this one. They grated it by hand so lots of work and instead of just grated potatoes also added some sliced ones which enhances the texture. They used more meat so the proportion of meat to potato was more even and I think a different cut though I’m not sure which one, perhaps brisket. BTW we called it yapzok and that I think is the Polish pronunciation. The way you spell it sounds Litvak to me–am I right? One thing that would be helpful would be if you specified the amount of potato either by weight or volume because big is rather vague and the really big russets which are used for baking are huge. We enjoyed your version but when I make it again will tweak it to make it come out more like what I remember. Also, did I mention that sometimes my aunt served it in her wonderful homemade chicken soup? Yum!
This dish is typically cooked overnight on low so that it can be eaten hot on Shabbat day, but you can follow this time frame to make it shorter and still get that low and slow effect.
Why do you cook it for six hours ?
I don’t kow that they would stay in the kugel so well or give the right flavor and texture.
Can you make yapchik with barley and beans?
You can wrap the cooked yapchik in foil and add to your cholent pot.
You can also alternate layers of your favorite potato kugel recipe, chopped meat (salt and spices to taste) and then another layer of kugel mix, for a Yopchik
that is like a Jewish Shepherd’s PIe. Much less work than having to cook, mash potatoes and fry onions for the shepherd’s pie. I serve this with a salad every Erev Pesach, when everyone is ravenous for food, and it’s at least eight hours or more until “Shulchan Orech”.
Can it be made in the slow cooker?
What is 1.2 lbs of flanken???
1 lb + .2 lbs ??? Is this a typo mistake???
Or do you mean a 1/2 lb.???
Tip #4 doesn’t make sense to me, unless I’m missing something. What do you wrap in foil and place in the cholent.
No, it is just more of an arm workout.
Are there any special instructions when using a box grater instead of a food processor?
Its called yapzuk
1.2 lb flanken – you can use a little more or less.
Similar amount for pastrami but dont put as much salt
If you cook it fully before shabbat then leave it on keep warm, if not on low
so if i want to make it for shakos lunch, what temp on the crok pot would you leave it at?
Hi I want to make this, serve for lunch but use a hot plate. Any suggestions
Do the same as above – cook the first part in the oven and then cover with foil well (twice) and leave it on the hotplate overnight
yes sorry 1.2 pounds. For pastrami you would use the same amount between a pound and 1.2
Did you mean to write 1.2 lbs. of flanken or 1/2 lb. of flanken. If using pastrami, what would you suggest the amount be? I grew up on Yapchik (over 40 years ago in Australia with ALL European Jewish Holocaust survivors) and had it often, but did not have a recipe — until now. So thanks.
Erica Goldman-Brodie
You can cut the oil and add water but unfortunately it wont taste the same 🙁 You can cover it with any wrapping you would use instead of silver foil or make the whole thing in a dutch oven
This recipe is unnecessarily full of calories! I am sure there has to be an alternative to that 1 1/4 c. of oil bearing in mind the natural fat of the meat! Anyone have ideas how to keep in the moisture and flavor but cut the oil? Also, what could you substitute for wrapping the kugel in the aluminum foil, as aluminum is unhealthy to cook with.
If you are making this for shabbos day do the first part of the cooking uncovered, then before shabbos do the second part and let it go till you are ready to serve. Make sure its wrapped well, it will develop a more intense “cholent” flavor
That is only 7 1/2 hours of cooking time. If shabbos starts at 5:00pm this doesn’t even get you to midnight. How will that work for shabbos lunch?