Hungarian cuisine

House goulash as házi gulyásleves
Hortobágyi palacsinta, a savoury crêpe filled with veal.
Chicken paprikash (csirkepaprikás) simmered in thick creamy paprika gravy with home made pasta called nokedli.
Gundel Palacsinta filled with nuts and chocolate sauce.

Hungarian or Magyar cuisine is the cuisine characteristic of the nation of Hungary and its primary ethnic group, the Magyars. Traditional Hungarian dishes are primarily based on meats, seasonal vegetables, fruits, fresh bread, dairy products and cheeses.

General features

Hungarian cuisine is mostly continental European, with some elements from the East and Southern Europe such as the use of poppy, the popularity of kefir and quark (cottage cheese). Paprika, a quintessential spice and pepper is often associated with Hungary and used prominently in a handful of dishes. Typical Hungarian food is heavy on dairy, cheese and meats. Chicken, pork and beef are very common, while turkey, duck, lamb, fish and game meats are also eaten but not as frequently. Hungary is also famous for the high quality and relatively inexpensive salamis and sausages it produces primarily from pork, but also poultry, beef, etc.

Bread is perhaps the most important and basic part of the Hungarian diet. It's eaten at all meals and often as a side to a main dish. Before the fall of communism in 1990, white bread was a staple food, and Hungarians were very proud of the delicious bread widely available. After the change to capitalism, the quality of bread decreased as bakers tried to save on costs. Fortunately, there was a backlash and many specialty bakers arose who strive to provide the high quality white bread available back then, as well as many new varieties. Not only bread, but numerous types of baked goods, such as buns and pastries both salty and sweet, often creatively filled, have proliferated in recent years. These can be found in the numerous bakeries all over Hungary. To mention one, the pogácsa is a real Hungarian classic, and the Fornetti franchise has been hugely successful with their line of pogácsas and other pastries.

Hungarians view main dishes as one of two types: either requiring a side dish (köret) or not requiring one. For the ones that require it, it would be very unusual to eat it without the side dish. Vice versa, if a side dish is not required it would be very unusual to order one. The side dish is most commonly potato prepared in different styles, but rice or steamed vegetables are also popular. Some foods have a customary side dish (i.e. csirkepaprikás (paprika chicken) is almost always eaten with noodles (nokedli), while others are completely flexible (i.e. rántott sajt (fried cheese) can take any kind). Some Hungarian dishes also have toppings or bread on the side considered almost mandatory, for example the sour cream and bread with töltött paprika (stuffed cabbage).

In recent years, chefs have made Hungarian food into a creative art form, adding new ingredients and preparation styles that never existed in the past. As a result, Hungarian dishes prepared for tourists may seem quite unusual to Hungarians who have always eaten those foods in a traditional, less showy way.

Goulash, the quintessential "Hungarian" dish, is actually not eaten very frequently, it's a traditional food. Other famous Hungarian meat stews include paprikás, a thicker stew with meat simmered in thick, creamy, paprika-flavored gravy, and pörkölt, a flavorful Hungarian stew with boneless meat (usually beef or pork), onion, and sweet paprika powder, both served with nokedli or galuska (small dumplings). In old-fashioned dishes, fruits such as plums and apricots are cooked with meat or in piquant sauces/stuffings for game, roasts and other cuts. Various kinds of noodles, dumplings, potatoes, and rice are commonly served as a side dish. Hungarian dry sausages (kolbász)[1] and winter salami are also an integral part of Hungarian cuisine.

Other characteristics of Hungarian cuisine are the soups, casseroles, desserts, and pastries and stuffed crêpes (palacsinta), with fierce rivalries between regional variations on the same dish (such as the Hungarian hot fish soup called fisherman's soup or halászlé, cooked differently on the banks of Hungary's two main rivers: the Danube and the Tisza), palacsinta (pancakes served flambéed in dark chocolate sauce filled with ground walnuts) and Dobos Cake (layered sponge cake, with chocolate buttercream filling and topped with a thin slice of caramel).

Two remarkable elements of Hungarian cuisine that are hardly noticed by locals, but usually elicit much enthusiasm from foreigners, are the different forms of vegetable stews called főzelék[1] as well as cold fruit soups, such as cold sour cherry soup (Hungarian: hideg meggyleves).

Hungarian cuisine uses a large variety of cheeses, but the most common are túró (a type of quark), cream cheeses, ewe-cheese (juhturó), Emmentaler, Edam and the Hungarian cheeses Trappista, Pálpusztai, and Pannonia cheese.

Spices

Paprika
Csaba sausage (Csabai kolbász)

Hungarian food uses selected spices judiciously to add flavor, and despite the association of hot paprika with Hungary, there is actually no Hungarian dish that features hot chili peppers by default, it's always optional to those who request it. Hot chilis are also rarely given as a garnish to be put on by the eater in traditional Hungarian cuisine. This is in stark contrast to other nations associated with the chili pepper, like Mexico or Thailand, which use the hot variety much more frequently and typically also serve it as a garnish. In Hungary, the sweet (mild) paprika is much more common and features prominently in many dishes. The use of the thick sour cream called tejföl as a topping is another common feature with many dishes.

In addition to various kinds of paprika and onions (raw, sweated, seared, browned or caramelized), other common flavor components include: dill, bay leaf, black peppercorn, caraway, coriander, cinnamon, garlic, horseradish, lemon juice and peel, marjoram, mustard (prepared), tarragon, oregano, parsley, vinegar, poppy seeds, and vanilla. Less used spices are anise, basil, chervil, chives, cloves, juniper berries, lovage, nutmeg, rosemary, savory, thyme, creeping thyme, and white peppercorn.

History

Goulash (gulyásleves) in a traditional cauldron (bogrács).
Stuffed cabbage (töltött káposzta) served with dill, sour cream, and sonka (ham). Töltött káposzta is frequently also served in a tomato sauce with sauerkraut and kolbász.
Bogrács

Hungarian cuisine has influenced the history of the Magyar people, and vice versa. The importance of livestock and the nomadic lifestyle of the Magyar people, as well as a hearkening to their steppe past, is apparent in the prominence of meat in Hungarian food and may be reflected in traditional meat dishes cooked over the fire like goulash (in Hungarian "gulyás", lit. "herdsman's (meal)"),[2] pörkölt stew and the spicy fisherman's soup called halászlé are all traditionally cooked over the open fire in a bogrács (or cauldron). In the 15th century, King Matthias Corvinus[3][4] and his Neopolitan wife Beatrice, influenced by Renaissance culture, introduced new ingredients such as sweet chestnut and spices such as garlic, ginger, mace, saffron and nutmeg,[5] onion and the use of fruits in stuffings or cooked with meat.[6] Some of these spices such as ginger and saffron are no longer used in modern Hungarian cuisine.[7] At that time and later, considerable numbers of Saxons (a German ethnic group), Armenians, Italians, Jews, Poles, Czechs and Slovaks settled in the Hungarian basin and in Transylvania, also contributing with different new dishes. Hungarian cuisine was influenced by Austrian cuisine under the Austro-Hungarian Empire; dishes and methods of food preparation have often been borrowed from Austrian cuisine, and vice versa. Some cakes and sweets in Hungary show a strong German-Austrian influence. All told, modern Hungarian cuisine is a synthesis of ancient Asiatic components mixed with Germanic, Italian, and Slavic elements. The food of Hungary can be considered a melting pot of the continent, with a culinary base formed from its own, original Magyar cuisine.

Hungarian meals

Hungarian lunch starts with soup. This is veal meat soup (borjú húsleves).
Winter salami is made from cured pork and spices, smoked slowly. During the process a special noble-mold is formed on the surface.

In Hungary, people usually have a large breakfast. Hungarian breakfast generally is an open sandwich with fresh bread or toast, butter, cheese or different cream cheeses, túró cheese or körözött (Liptauer cheese spread), cold cuts such as ham, liver pâté (called májkrém or kenőmájas), bacon, salami, mortadella, sausages such as kabanos, beerwurst or different Hungarian sausages or kolbász.[8]. Traditionally fresh tomatoes and green peppers (sometimes scallion and cucumber) are served with these when they are in season. Eggs (fried, scrambled or boiled) may also be part of breakfast.

Some types of meat that were commonly eaten in the past (such as beef tongue, disznósajt (head cheese) or véres hurka (similar to black pudding) are now more associated with the countryside as people turn to healthier diets.

Modern day Hungarians don't always eat this typical breakfast. For many, breakfast is a cup of milk, tea or coffee with pastries, a bun, a kifli or a strudel[2] with jam or honey, or cereal, such as muesli and perhaps fruit. Children can have rice pudding (tejberizs) or Semolina Cream (tejbegríz) for breakfast topped with cocoa powder and sugar or with fruit syrup. Hot drinks are preferred for breakfast.

Villásreggeli (literally breakfast with fork) is a more luxurious big breakfast given on special occasions or holidays. Often guests are invited. Deviled eggs, cold steak, cold salads, salmon-omelet, pancakes, a spicy cheese spread made with sheep milk cheese called körözött, caviar, foie gras, fruit salads, compote, fruit yogurts, fruit juices, champagne and pastries, cakes and cookies may be served.

Lunch is the major meal of the day, traditionally with several courses, but often just one course in modern times. Cold or hot appetizers[9] may be served sometimes (for example fish, egg or liver), then soup. Soup is followed by a main dish. The main dish is a dish including meat and salad, which precedes the dessert. Fruit may follow. In Hungary, pancakes (or rather, crepes) may be served as a main dish or as a dessert but not for breakfast. Salad is typically served with meat dishes, made of lettuce with tomatoes, cucumbers and onions[9] or a simple thin sliced cucumber or tomato salad in vinaigrette are also typical. Salads such as Salade Olivier or potato salad are made of boiled potatoes,[1] vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, mushrooms, fried or boiled meat or fish, in vinaigrette, aspic or mayonnaise. These salads are eaten as appetizers or even as a main course.

Some people and children eat a light meal in the afternoon, called uzsonna, usually an open sandwich, pastry, slice of cake or fruit.

Dinner is typically less important then lunch, and there is no typical Hungarian dinner. It may either be a lunch-type meal, with multiple courses and the same foods one would serve for lunch, or it could be the same as a traditional Hungarian breakfast, with bread, cold cuts, cheeses, tomatoes and peppers as described above. When dinner is an important occasion it will be prepared the same way and with the same courses a full lunch would be. When it's not an important occassion it's a good time to eat leftovers.

Hungarian meal times are somewhat flexible. Typical times are as follows:

Breakfast 6-9 am Lunch 12 noon-2 pm Dinner 6-9 pm

Special occasions

Pörkölt with nokedli.

For Christmas, Hungarians have a fish soup called halászlé. Other dishes may be served, such as roast goose, roast turkey or roast duck,[10] cabbage rolls (töltött káposzta). Pastry roll filled with walnut or poppy seed called (bejgli) is a usual Christmas food, and candies and sweets used to decorate the Christmas tree, such as szaloncukor are eaten during all Christmas, when everybody picks them and eats them directly from the tree. On New Year's Eve (Szilveszter), Hungarians traditionally celebrate with virsli (Vienna sausage, and lentil soup. On New Year's Day, it is common to eat either lentil soup or korhelyleves, a meaty sauerkraut soup said to cure hangovers.[11] Easter (Húsvét) meals have few specialties, though some Hungarians (especially in Szabolcs County) make a special sweet yellow cheese, Sárga túró, made with quark (túró) and eggs.[12]

Typical Hungarian dishes

Hungarian bread. Hungarians buy their bread freshly made every second or third day from the local bakery, not in plastic bags or frozen.
Dobos Cake
Cold sour cherry soup

Soups

Bableves
Halászlé (fisherman's stew)

Main courses

Pásztortarhonya with a basil garnish and bay leaf
Pacalpörkölt with potatoes
Wiener schnitzel (called Bécsi szelet in Hungarian)
Liptai túró (spicy cheese spread with paprika, caraway and onions)

Sausage and cold cuts

Various Hungarian sausages at the Csaba Sausage Festival in Békéscsaba, Hungary.

Sweets and cakes

Bejgli, poppy seed roll

Others

Kifli, a crescent-shaped bread
Lángos

Drinks

A cold bottle of Unicum

Hungarian wine dates back to at least Roman times, and that history reflects the country's position between the Slavs and the Germanic peoples. The best-known wines are the white dessert wine called Tokaji (after the North-Eastern region of Hungary, Tokaj) and the red wines from Villány (Southern part of Hungary). Famous is also the wine called Bull's Blood (Egri Bikavér), a dark, full-bodied red wine. Hungarian fruit wines, such as redcurrant wine, are mild and soft in taste and texture.

Hungary's most notable liquors are Unicum, a herbal bitters, and Pálinka, a range of fruit brandies (plum and pear are popular). Also notable are the 21 brands of Hungarian mineral waters (for example Apenta and Kékkúti).[19] Some of them have therapeutic value, such as Mira.

Traubi or Traubisoda, is a soft drink based on an Austrian license produced in Balatonvilágos since 1971. Before soft drinks became widely available, Hungarians made their own soft drinks called szörp, which is a concentrate created from sugar and fruits such as the raspberry, currant or elderberry. This concentrate is diluted in either fresh or carbonated water. These are really delicious if you can find them.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 June Meyers Authentic Hungarian Heirloom Recipes Cookbook
  2. 1 2 Gundel's Hungarian Cookbook, Karoly Gundel.
  3. ↑ A magyar konyha története
  4. ↑ "Hotdog.magazin". Archived from the original on 2009-11-21.
  5. ↑ "Gourmandnet". Archived from the original on 2009-06-04.
  6. ↑ "Hungarian Cuisine, History, Gastronomy, Legend, Memoires, Recipes and Lore".
  7. ↑ "health-family".
  8. ↑ Gundel's Hungarian Cookbook, Karoly Gundel, page34
  9. 1 2 Gundel's Hungarian Cookbook, Karoly Gundel
  10. ↑ Hungarian cuisine, József Venesz ISBN 963-13-0219-9: Corvina Press 1977
  11. ↑ Korhelyleves, Chew.hu
  12. ↑ Sárga túró (Yellow Cheese), Magyar News 2013-02-28
  13. ↑ "Palócleves, amit nem is a palócok találtak ki". Origo. 2015-06-24. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
  14. ↑ Gundel, Karoly (1992). Gundel's Hungarian cookbook. Budapest: Corvina. ISBN 963-13-3600-X. OCLC 32227400.page 100
  15. ↑ Gundel, Karoly (1992). Gundel's Hungarian cookbook. Budapest: Corvina. ISBN 963-13-3600-X. OCLC 32227400.page 83
  16. ↑ Quince-cheese
  17. ↑ Törökméz
  18. ↑ http://jewish.hu/view.php?cid=81_flodni_1000_kcals%20
  19. ↑ "Mineral Waters of the World". Pmgeiser.ch. Archived from the original on 2009-02-26. Retrieved 2014-03-12.

Recipes

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