I no longer have relatives with whom I can discuss Burgenland kitchen food. While in Burgenland last summer, I spent a few hours in the kitchen of the Schuch family in Kleinpetersdorf. I felt I was home again in my grandmother's kitchen. As a result, Inge Schuch and I correspond about ethnic food, which she then shares with her mother. Following is the latest:

I write:

Thought of you the other night. We were having goulasch (Molly makes a wonderful one) and we usually have rice with it. We had rice the previous night so I told Molly to try making spätzle. She said they do not get tender for her so she looked in the Viennese cookbook and made them from the same dough you use to make plum dumplings (flour, potato, egg, water). She made them about the size of a small peanut. Oh they were so good. I ate them in a big bowl with goulasch poured over them. Tell me, does your mother make a dumpling like that or does she just make the big ones?

Inge replies:

I loved your goulash/spaetzle story, and so did my mother when I phoned her to share the story. She thought that using potato dumpling dough was a very clever idea, and said that she is sure that the spätzle made from this dough were tender and tasty. It is nothing she has ever tried, however. My mother's version of Nockerl - that is how we call spätzle in our family - is very basic: she uses nothing but flour, water and salt to produce a soft dough/batter. From this batter she cuts small longish pieces with a spoon. The dumplings thus formed she puts into salt water where she lets them simmer until they rise to the top. The recipe she found in her cook books was less basic - it used milk instead of water, plus 1 to 2 egg(s) on top of the salt and flour (1 kg) - but did not give any measurements for the liquid either, which is of course the most crucial thing for ensuring that the dumplings will be soft.

In my collection of cook books I found the following Nockerl recipe for a goulash side dish: