This is a family tradition (yes, Lithuanian!) However we use chopped bacon & diced ham. We just chop everything up in the food processor, shred the potato, transfer all into a large bowl, add eggs & evaporated milk, transfer to a baking dish (coated with Pam for easy clean-up!) and bake at 350 for about an hour. The flavor is AMAZING!!! We also serve with a dollop of sour cream. Just as a note - you can freeze leftover ham (from holidays) and leftover bacon and thaw them out when you're ready to make the Kugeli! :) No need to have anything pre-cooked except the bacon, just to get rid of the excess grease. I disagree with the review who said the potatoes have to be thinly shredded - we just use a standard shred, my grandmother used to use an old fashioned grater and it comes out PERFECT!!! :) Enjoy!!!!

Everyone in my family has made this many times and I have been eating and making all the variations for 30 years now. Some things to note are that you need to finely shred the potatoes (like mashed raw, not like cheese); use salted butter at your own risk, but add salt and pepper to the mix to taste; use nice cheap fatty bacon, stick it in the freezer for a bit to make it easy to dice raw; coming from my Lithuanian family, a bit more bacon never hurt (I use and extra 1/2 lb); and, finally, serve with real sour cream (not light or fat free, this is a Lithuanian recipe!). All in all, this is a recipe you have to perfect on your own, but is well worth the trouble!

Time consuming but worth the effort. I liked that you did not have to squeeze the juice out of the potatoes. We made this for an ethnic day at my childs school, every one enjoyed this dish.

I made sure to drain-out the water from the shredded potatoes. The kugelis came out delicious -- good enough for my Lithuanian father-in-law to comment how great it is!

I hate rating this recipe so low. I made this tonight exactly as listed, and although the dish came out of the oven looking beautiful, it was very bland. I realized after the fact that there was no salt or pepper in the recipe, and even though I added salt on my plate, and tried it with a dollop of sour cream, it still wasn't enough. I'll try to salvage the leftovers with some cheese, but I don't imagine I can do much more. Sorry.

DELICIOUS!!! Being Lithuanian myself. I really LOVE these Ethnic Reciipes. Excellent for Parties - Makes a Lasting Impression.