While we were still living in Germany, I tried several times to follow the recipe she gave me to make them at home, but invariably, as soon as the nockerl hit the broth, they would come completely unglued, resulting in beef-flavored porridge. After several failed attempts, I finally gave up. I haven't tried making Griessnockerl in over two years. Until tonight.

Since I have long since lost the scribbled recipe from my Austrian friend's mother, I looked up a recipe on the Internet. And there was the answer. Every recipe I found said to let the nockerl dough stand for at least ten minutes before putting them in the boiling water. Works like a charm! Such a simple omission, but oh so important.

Here's a translation of the recipe I used:

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• Twice as much farina as egg (by weight) -- roughly 5 ounces
• As much butter as egg (by weight) -- roughly 6 tbsp
• Salt
• Nutmeg
• Broth

Direction

• Mix some of the farina with the butter and beat until creamy.
• Beat in the egg and the rest of the farina.
• Season with salt and nutmeg and beat well until a smooth consistency is reached.
• [Form small dumplings from mixture. Keep them small because they will get larger as they cook.]
• Let the dumplings rest for 20 minutes.
• Bring the broth to a boil.
• Lay the dumplings into the lightly boiling broth.
• Reduce the heat to medium and cook until done, roughly 10 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and leave the dumplings in the broth for 3 more minutes.