It’s February. It’s cold outside. The kids troop through the door after school, leaving a trail of icy boots and wet gloves. There is nothing like a bowl of comforting noodles with a hearty sauce to warm bellies and take minds off the Arctic weather. Using Grandma’s Frozen Egg Noodles for your soup or stew lends your dish a homey, old-fashioned goodness. But it is best to take care when cooking your noodles to guarantee they stay supple and separate. In this article we will dive deep into all details of cooking frozen egg noodles. Consider this a cooking lesson from Grandma herself.

Looking for cliff notes? Here are Grandma's instructions:

1. Pull the noodles from the freezer and let them relax while you prep the water
2. Bring 5-6 quarts of water to a strong rolling boil
3. Add 1-2 tablespoons of salt to the boiling water
4. Add the noodles to the boiling water
5. Gently agitate the noodles to help them separate
6. Cook for ~12-15 mins or until just cooked through
7. Drain and reserve 1-2 cups of pasta water for finishing with a sauce.

Note: You can (and we encourage you to) cook Grandma's Frozen Noodles directly in a broth. The noodles absorb an incredible amount of liquid leading to a soft and flavorful noodle. Just note that it might add a bit of cloudiness to your soup. 

An now for the deep dive into perfectly cooking egg noodles: 

Preparing The Water

How Much? Noodles absorb a lot of water, so it is recommended to start with a pot of at least 5 quarts of water per pound of noodles so that the noodles can absorb 1.6 to 1.8 times their weight and still have plenty of water surrounding them to cook evenly—and separately. That starchy noodle water is a cook’s secret weapon, so don’t throw it all out. Use a Pyrex measuring cup (or a coffee cup) to save a cup or two of noodle cooking water to thin your sauce if needed. It is gold.

"Frozen noodles can absorb 1.6 to 1.8 times their weight in water or broths"

How Hot? The temperature of the water is critical. It must be at a rolling boil before adding the frozen noodles, which will significantly lower the water temperature. Calculate your boiling time for the noodles once the water is back up to a boil. At sea level, the boiling temperature of water is 212°, but for every increase of 500 feet in elevation, the boiling temperature of water drops by one degree.  Here, in Wyoming, at 5633 feet, I’ve noticed that the boiling temperature of water is about 200° F.

What about Salt? Salt is often added to cooking water for frozen egg noodles or for pasta but don’t add the salt until your water has come to a full rolling boil that can’t be stirred down. Salt raises the boiling temperature of water slightly, so adding it sooner would mean that you have to wait a little longer for your water to boil. Adding 1½ tablespoons of salt to 5 quarts of water will help the noodles maintain their shape and make the noodles taste better, and the salt will also limit the starch gelation and reduce stickiness.   

Agitating Noodles for Separation: Tap water is typically slightly alkaline, with a pH level between 6.5 and 8.5. This means that the water has calcium and magnesium ions that increase the stickiness of noodles. The ions act as a glue to increase the likelihood that the noodles will bond to each other. To counter that action, it is important to gently agitate the noodles once they go into the boiling water so that the noodle swells, softens, and releases starch into the cooking water. If you skip this essential separating step, you are likely to end up with a mass of clumped noodles that is very soft on the exterior but dry inside, where the water couldn’t penetrate the mass. 

Cooking The Noodles

When starting your recipe, assemble your ingredients (create a mise en place to facilitate cooking) and take the noodles from the freezer. Prepare your sauce or soup before you cook the noodles so that you don’t have to hold them while making the rest of the dish because they will pack down into a solid mass. By the time your water is boiling, your noodles will be sufficiently relaxed, i.e., not frozen as solid as a brick, but still frozen, so you can place Grandma’s Frozen Egg Noodles in the boiling, salted water. As you do this, the water will stop boiling, and you should use a pasta fork or tongs to gently lift the noodles as the water comes back up to temp. “Gently” is the keyword here. You don’t want to break the noodles. A few minutes of stirring and lifting while the water returns to a boil will guarantee noodles that don’t stick together.

While the noodles cook, you can consider what is happening in that pot. The gluten in the noodle, which consists of two protein groups called gliadins and glutenins, creates a network with the ovalbumin from the egg white to create a matrix that locks in the starch granules that absorb the water. As the exterior protein layer is ruptured, the dissolving starch escapes into the cooking water. Less water can penetrate the noodle's interior, enabling a finished product with a soft exterior but lingering firmness in the center of the noodle—a term known as “al dente” or “to the tooth.”

How Long? The cooking time for the noodles will vary depending on your burner’s BTUs and your elevation but start checking the noodles for doneness at 12 minutes. You want noodles that are firm to the bite but don’t want to see a dry, starchy core. They may need a full 15 minutes to cook.  

Draining and Preparing

Save some of the pasta water and drain the noodles when they are cooked to your taste. It is best not to rinse the noodles unless you plan to hold them for a while or use them in a cold dish like a noodle salad. The remaining exterior starch on the noodles will help to bind the sauce to the noodle.

Some people like to cook noodles directly in a broth or stock when making a soup. This will result in a cloudier finish to your soup, due to the starch in the noodle and the small amount of cornstarch used in the frozen egg noodle manufacturing process to keep the noodles from sticking together. Noodles cooked in broth will have more flavor from cooking submerged in a seasoned liquid but the cloudiness factor is something to consider.

There are dozens of ways to cook egg noodles but these are my suggestions from many years of cooking and observing the process. But the key takeaway is cook them and share them with your family for a dinner that bonds and nourishes in many ways.