Hungarian cuisine

Gulyás soup

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, cheeses and honey.

General features

Hortobágyi palacsinta, a savoury crêpe filled with veal, served in Sopron

Hungarians are especially passionate about their soups, desserts and pastries and stuffed pancakes (palacsinta), with fierce rivalries between regional variations of the same dish, (like 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). Other famous Hungarian dishes would be Paprikás (paprika stew, meat simmered in thick creamy paprika gravy) served with nokedli (small dumplings), gulyás (goulash), 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 caramel slice).

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

Meat stews, casseroles, steaks, roasted pork, beef, poultry, lamb or game and the Hungarian sausages (kolbász[1]) and winter salami are a major part of Hungarian cuisine. The mixing of different varieties of meat is a traditional feature of the Hungarian cuisine. Goulash, stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbages or Fatányéros (Hungarian mixed grill on wooden platter[2]) can combine beef and pork, and sometimes mutton. In very exclusive dishes fruits like plums and apricots are cooked with meat or in piquant sauces/stuffings for game, roasts and other cuts. Various kinds of noodles and dumplings, potatoes and rice are commonly served as a side dish. The 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 and Pálpusztai and Pannonia cheese

Spices

Hot peppers

Hungarian food is often spicy, due to the common use of hot paprika. Sweet (mild) paprika is also common. Additionally, the combination of paprika, lard and yellow onions is typical of Hungarian cuisine,[3] and the use of the thick sour cream called tejföl.

In addition to various kinds of paprika and onions (raw, sweated, seared, browned or caramelized), other common flavor components include:

History

"Paprikáscsirke nokedlivel" - paprika chicken with Nokedli

Hungarian cuisine has influenced the history of the Magyar people. The importance of livestock and the nomadic lifestyle of the Magyar people 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)"),[3]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[4][5] and his Neopolitan wife Beatrice, influenced by Renaissance culture, introduced new ingredients and spices like garlic, ginger, mace, saffron and nutmeg,[6] onion and the use of fruits in stuffings or cooked with meat.[7] Some of these spices like ginger and saffron are no longer used in modern Hungarian cuisine.[8] At that time and later, considerable numbers of Saxons (a German ethnic group), Armenians, Italians, Jews and Serbs settled in the Hungarian basin and in Transylvania. Elements of ancient Turkish cuisine were adopted during the Ottoman era, in the form of sweets (for example different nougats, like white nougat called törökméz,[9]quince (birsalma) sweets, Turkish Delight), Turkish coffee, the cake called bejgli or rice dishes like pilaf (in Transylvania), meat and vegetable dishes like the eggplant, used in eggplant salads and appetizers, stuffed peppers and stuffed cabbage called töltött káposzta. 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 its own original cuisine from its original Magyar people.

Hungarian meals

Debreceni sausage with mustard

In Hungary people usually have a large breakfast. Hungarian breakfast generally is an open sandwich with fresh bread or a toast, butter, cheese or different cream cheeses, túró cheese or körözött (Liptauer cheese spread), cold cuts such as ham, véres hurka (similar to black pudding), liver paté (called májkrém or kenőmájas), bacon, salami, beef tongue, mortadella, disznósajt (head cheese), sausages like kabanos, beerwurst or different Hungarian sausages or kolbász.[10] Even eggs, (fried, scrambled or boiled), French toast called bundáskenyér and vegetables (like peppers, bell peppers, tomatoes, radish, scallion and cucumber) are part of the Hungarian breakfast. Sometimes breakfast is a cup of milk, tea or coffee with pastries, a bun, a kifli or a strudel[3] with jam or honey, or cereal like muesli and perhaps fruit. Children can have rice pudding (tejberizs) or Semolina Cream (tejbegríz) for breakfast topped with cocoa powder and sugar. 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, körözött, caviar, foie gras, cheez-its, fruit salads, compote, fruit yogurts, fruit juices, champagne and pastries, cakes and cookies may be served.

Lunch is the major meal of the day, usually with several courses. Cold or hot appetizers[11] 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 are served as a main dish, not for breakfast. Salad is always served with meat dishes, made of lettuce with tomatoes, cucumbers and onions[11] or a simple thin sliced cucumber salad in vinaigrette. Salads like 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. Dinner is a far less significant meal than lunch. It may be similar to breakfast, usually an open sandwich, yogurt or virsli (hot dog sausage) with a bun, more seldom a cake, pancakes (palacsinta), and it consists of only one course.

Typical Hungarian dishes

Gulyás in a traditional "bogrács" (cauldron)

Soups

Main courses

Stuffed cabbage
Gundel Palacsinta filled with nuts and chocolate sauce

Sausage and cold cuts

Téliszalámi

Sweets and cakes

Dobos Cake
Bejgli

Others

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, like redcurrant wine, are mild and soft in taste and texture.

Though not as famous as the country's wines, Hungarian beer has a long history as well. Hungary's most notable liquors are Unicum, a herbal bitters, and Pálinka, a range of fruit brandies.

Also notable are the 21 brands of Hungarian mineral waters (for example Apenta and Kékkúti).[15] Some of them have therapeutic value, like Mira.

Traubi or Traubisoda, is a soft drink based on an Austrian license produced in Balatonvilágos since 1971.

See also

Recipes

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on

References

  1. ^ a b c d e June Meyers Authentic Hungarian Heirloom Recipes Cookbook
  2. ^ Famous Hungarian recipes
  3. ^ a b c Gundel's Hungarian Cookbook, Karoly Gundel.
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ "Hotdog.magazin". http://magicafe.hu/news.php?nid=667. 
  6. ^ "Gourmandnet". http://www.gourmandnet.hu/konyha/site.php?tpl=theme&id=71. 
  7. ^ "Hungarian Cuisine, History, Gastronomy, Legend, Memoires, Recipes and Lore". http://hungaria.org/hal/culinaria/index.php?halid=2. 
  8. ^ "health-family". http://www.mon.hu/engine.aspx/page/article-detail/cn/boon-news-ed07-20051022-021107/dc/im:all:health-family. 
  9. ^ a b Törökméz
  10. ^ Gundel's Hungarian Cookbook, Karoly Gundel, page34
  11. ^ a b Gundel's Hungarian Cookbook, Karoly Gundel
  12. ^ Gundel, Karoly (1992). Gundel's Hungarian cookbook. Budapest: Corvina. ISBN 963-13-3600-X. OCLC 32227400. page 100
  13. ^ Gundel, Karoly (1992). Gundel's Hungarian cookbook. Budapest: Corvina. ISBN 963-13-3600-X. OCLC 32227400. page 83
  14. ^ Quince-cheese
  15. ^ Mineral Waters of the World

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