Hunky Bill's Perogy Maker [General]
2008 Dec 30
This product will have the 'ol Ukranian Chruch Lady Babushka's rolling their eyes.
I personally would miss the dimple marks made by the 'ol gals fingers while sealing the edges.
Here is the Hunky Bill Perogy Maker in action to a St. Germain-ish Lounge-y House Trak.
PS: Don't the perogies have a delta-wing fighter plane look to them ?
I personally would miss the dimple marks made by the 'ol gals fingers while sealing the edges.
Here is the Hunky Bill Perogy Maker in action to a St. Germain-ish Lounge-y House Trak.
PS: Don't the perogies have a delta-wing fighter plane look to them ?
2008 Dec 30
It's been likely 20 years since I've made perogies, which as far as I'm concerned is far too long. I was still due a Christmas present from my wife so I went out and picked up a Hunky Bill's for just shy of 30 bucks, to give it a try. Next time I'll time how long it takes because I'm not entirely convinced that it's quicker to do. Rolling out the 2 sheets of dough takes a fair bit of time. Aside from that, the assembly is far quicker with the device. But all told as mentioned I'm just not sure it is a time saver.
The Dough
I made a double batch of the recipe I used 20 years ago.
- 2 cups flour
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 to 1 cup water (took 1 cup for me today)
I mixed up a double batch in my kitchen aid. Then I went on to the filling.
The Filling
I winged this based on the recipes I'd used 20 years ago. Basically it is bacon, mashed potato, salt, pepper and onion. For the bacon, I hauled out of the freezer a chunk of the stuff I made myself this summer. We got a quarter side of pork from a local organic farmer, and I got him to leave the bacon cut as one huge 6kg piece, which I proceeded to brine and smoke over the next few days. This piece was about 8 inches long, and maybe 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches in the other dimensions. I did not weight it, but would guess maybe 200g to 300g. I sliced it so I ended up with 1.5 inch squares, 2 or 3 times thicker than normal bacon. I cut the bit of rind from each piece and then fried the pieces minus rind for about 5 to 10 minutes in my non-stick pan, turning a few times all the while. I drained the fat and saved it, and took the bacon for use in the filling.
Meanwhile I had cleaned a bunch of smaller potatoes - the biggest was maybe golf ball sized. These were the last of the ones we got from our organic farmer as part of our CSA this past summer. It worked out to be maybe 6 cups of potatoes. I put them into a 2 litre pyrex measuring cup and nuked them on high for about 27 minutes. It took about 22 minutes to come to the boil, then I monitored it after that til I could easily poke a fork through them. Note that I scrubbed the potatoes well with one of the surgical scrubbers from Lee Valley, but did not peel them.
I tossed a whole, peeled Vidalia onion into a food processor, along with the potatoes, 1.5 tsp sea salt, and 1 tsp pepper. I buzzed it up well. This yielded about exactly 6 cups of filling when firmly packed. I split it in half, and grated a bunch of cheddar cheese to mix into one half - got maybe 2-3 cups coarsely grated. This got mixed into one half the filling.
Assembly
I took about a baseball (not softball) sized piece of dough and rolled it out thinly for the Hunky Bill's. Then I filled the 18 spaces, and rolled out another piece for the top. It was really quite easy to do. I repeated this 3 times in total, and each time layed them out onto a cookie tray as you can see in the photo. The parchment paper is a piece I've been re-using for a few weeks now - I generally don't like to use it for the waste, but when I really feel I need to, I make sure I get the most out of it.
After doing 3 racks of the Hunky Bill's I had dough left over of course, because there will always be some from the device the way it works. And I had filling left over. So I decided to finish off the rest of it the old fashioned way - all the while explaining to #1 son that this would have been the way his great grandmother (Polish) did it. You just take a blob of dough maybe half the size of a golf ball, roll it into a ball, then carefully roll it out into a flat circle. Plop a small teaspoon of filling into the circle, fold it over, and use a fork to seal the edges. In university when I was studying Russian, we had an annual "Vetcherinka" or "Russian Night", and I and another student once made perogies the old fashioned way, and borscht, for 150 people.
Cooking
I'm really ticked off at myself that I ruined about 15 perogies due to my own stupidity. Of course I'm used to cooking the frozen ones, which cook for 9 minutes from the freezer. I went for 7 with these and it was still too much - most of them opened up so 15 of the 18 from the first rack went into the composter. Grrrrr! Note to self - boil freshly-made perogies 2 to 3 minutes! They can then be eaten, or optionally fried in the fry pan. I chose this option, using the saved drippings from the fried bacon.
#1 son loved them, but he loves the frozen ones anyway. The big surprise was that #2 loved them. But then again he's taking a liking to a number of slavic things now that he's really into the Ukrainian dance.
The Dough
I made a double batch of the recipe I used 20 years ago.
- 2 cups flour
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 to 1 cup water (took 1 cup for me today)
I mixed up a double batch in my kitchen aid. Then I went on to the filling.
The Filling
I winged this based on the recipes I'd used 20 years ago. Basically it is bacon, mashed potato, salt, pepper and onion. For the bacon, I hauled out of the freezer a chunk of the stuff I made myself this summer. We got a quarter side of pork from a local organic farmer, and I got him to leave the bacon cut as one huge 6kg piece, which I proceeded to brine and smoke over the next few days. This piece was about 8 inches long, and maybe 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches in the other dimensions. I did not weight it, but would guess maybe 200g to 300g. I sliced it so I ended up with 1.5 inch squares, 2 or 3 times thicker than normal bacon. I cut the bit of rind from each piece and then fried the pieces minus rind for about 5 to 10 minutes in my non-stick pan, turning a few times all the while. I drained the fat and saved it, and took the bacon for use in the filling.
Meanwhile I had cleaned a bunch of smaller potatoes - the biggest was maybe golf ball sized. These were the last of the ones we got from our organic farmer as part of our CSA this past summer. It worked out to be maybe 6 cups of potatoes. I put them into a 2 litre pyrex measuring cup and nuked them on high for about 27 minutes. It took about 22 minutes to come to the boil, then I monitored it after that til I could easily poke a fork through them. Note that I scrubbed the potatoes well with one of the surgical scrubbers from Lee Valley, but did not peel them.
I tossed a whole, peeled Vidalia onion into a food processor, along with the potatoes, 1.5 tsp sea salt, and 1 tsp pepper. I buzzed it up well. This yielded about exactly 6 cups of filling when firmly packed. I split it in half, and grated a bunch of cheddar cheese to mix into one half - got maybe 2-3 cups coarsely grated. This got mixed into one half the filling.
Assembly
I took about a baseball (not softball) sized piece of dough and rolled it out thinly for the Hunky Bill's. Then I filled the 18 spaces, and rolled out another piece for the top. It was really quite easy to do. I repeated this 3 times in total, and each time layed them out onto a cookie tray as you can see in the photo. The parchment paper is a piece I've been re-using for a few weeks now - I generally don't like to use it for the waste, but when I really feel I need to, I make sure I get the most out of it.
After doing 3 racks of the Hunky Bill's I had dough left over of course, because there will always be some from the device the way it works. And I had filling left over. So I decided to finish off the rest of it the old fashioned way - all the while explaining to #1 son that this would have been the way his great grandmother (Polish) did it. You just take a blob of dough maybe half the size of a golf ball, roll it into a ball, then carefully roll it out into a flat circle. Plop a small teaspoon of filling into the circle, fold it over, and use a fork to seal the edges. In university when I was studying Russian, we had an annual "Vetcherinka" or "Russian Night", and I and another student once made perogies the old fashioned way, and borscht, for 150 people.
Cooking
I'm really ticked off at myself that I ruined about 15 perogies due to my own stupidity. Of course I'm used to cooking the frozen ones, which cook for 9 minutes from the freezer. I went for 7 with these and it was still too much - most of them opened up so 15 of the 18 from the first rack went into the composter. Grrrrr! Note to self - boil freshly-made perogies 2 to 3 minutes! They can then be eaten, or optionally fried in the fry pan. I chose this option, using the saved drippings from the fried bacon.
#1 son loved them, but he loves the frozen ones anyway. The big surprise was that #2 loved them. But then again he's taking a liking to a number of slavic things now that he's really into the Ukrainian dance.
2008 Dec 30
Whoops, forgot to add that the bacon went into the food processor too.
Also,that the picture above of all the ones on the tray are ones I did not cook yet. The tray went into the deep freeze just like that. When they are frozen I'll vacuum seal them and then put them back into the freezer where they should keep quite some time.
OH! And I covered the potatoes in water before nuking!
Also,that the picture above of all the ones on the tray are ones I did not cook yet. The tray went into the deep freeze just like that. When they are frozen I'll vacuum seal them and then put them back into the freezer where they should keep quite some time.
OH! And I covered the potatoes in water before nuking!
2008 Dec 31
Wha ? Just shy of 30 bucks for a piece of (food grade) plastic ?
Must be made at a Canadian Auto Parts Plant.
Only 5 bucks plus shipping (for an older Hunky Bill version) at eBay:
cgi.ebay.com
Then again, one can save 30 bucks worth of labour pretty quick with a Hunky Bill.
Must be made at a Canadian Auto Parts Plant.
Only 5 bucks plus shipping (for an older Hunky Bill version) at eBay:
cgi.ebay.com
Then again, one can save 30 bucks worth of labour pretty quick with a Hunky Bill.
2008 Dec 31
re: eBay... Shipping on that item is $6 within the US. They don't ship to Canada, but if they did the shipping plus duty plus brokerage fees could potentially surpass the $30'ish zymurgist paid. I've seen this problem more often than not on eBay -- the stated price is somewhat meaningless without shipping info.
On a tangentially related brighter note, Amazon has expanded its Canadian offerings to include some consumer electronics. One day Canadians might have the same access to products enjoyed by our neighbours to the south...
On a tangentially related brighter note, Amazon has expanded its Canadian offerings to include some consumer electronics. One day Canadians might have the same access to products enjoyed by our neighbours to the south...
zymurgist
Anyone know where to get one locally?