Hungarian cuisine


Hungarian or Magyar cuisine is the cuisine characteristic of the nation of Hungary, and its primary ethnic group, the Magyars. Hungarian cuisine has been described as being the spiciest cuisine in Europe. This can largely be attributed to the use of their piquant native spice, Hungarian paprika, in many of their dishes. A mild version of the spice, Hungarian sweet paprika, is commonly used as an alternative. Traditional Hungarian dishes are primarily based on meats, seasonal vegetables, fruits, bread, and dairy products.

General features

Paprika is often associated with Hungary and is used prominently in several dishes. Traditional Hungarian paprika is characterised by its bright colour and distinct heat, differentiating it from milder variations of paprika popular elsewhere in the world. Other herbs and spices commonly used in Hungarian cuisine include garlic, marjoram, caraway seeds, celery seeds and dill seeds. Whilst unique, Hungarian cuisine shares similarities with the culinary traditions of its neighbouring countries. Typical Hungarian food is heavy on dairy and meats, similar to that of neighboring Czech and Slovak cuisines. Staple ingredients in Hungarian cuisine such as quark, poppy seeds and soured cream, along with dishes like stuffed cabbage, stuffed peppers, bean soup and mixed grilled meat are also present in Romanian, Serbian, and Croatian cuisines. Chicken, pork and beef are common, while turkey, duck, lamb, fish and game meats are mostly eaten on special occasions. Hungary is also known for relatively inexpensive salamis and sausages it produces primarily from pork, but also poultry, beef and others.
Bread is perhaps the most important and basic part of the Hungarian diet. It is eaten at all meals, accompanying main dishes. Before the fall of communism in 1990, white bread was a staple food. Numerous other types of baked goods, such as buns and pastries both salty and sweet, often creatively filled, have proliferated in recent years.
Main dishes may "require" a side dish or not. It is unusual to violate this convention. The side dish is most commonly potato in various styles, but rice or steamed vegetables are also popular. Some foods have a customary side dish, while others may take any side dish. Some dishes also have toppings or bread on the side considered almost mandatory, for example, the sour cream and bread with töltött káposzta 'stuffed cabbage'.
Recently, Hungarian chefs have become more creative, so Hungarian dishes prepared for tourists may seem unusual to Hungarians who are familiar with more traditional preparations.
Goulash is a famous Hungarian dish. Other famous Hungarian meat stews include paprikás, a thicker stew with meat simmered in thick, creamy, paprika-flavored gravy, and pörkölt, a stew with boneless meat, onion, and sweet paprika powder, both served with [Spätzle|spätzle|nokedli] or galuska. In some 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 and winter salami are also widely eaten.
Other characteristics of Hungarian cuisine are the soups, casseroles, desserts, and pastries and stuffed crêpes, with fierce rivalries between regional variations on the same dish, palacsinta and Dobos cake.
Two elements of Hungarian cuisine that impress foreigners are the various vegetable stews called főzelék as well as cold fruit soups, such as cold sour cherry soup.
Hungarian cuisine uses a large variety of cheeses, but the most common are túró, cream cheeses, picante ewe-cheese , the most common Hungarian cheeses like Karaván,, Pálpusztai, Emmentaler, Edam and Trappista.
There are many smoked pork products. Many dishes get their character from the smoky taste of one or more of these ingredients. A variety of Hungarian smoked sausages, smoked ham, and smoked lard are also consumed without further preparation. These are accompanied with bread and fresh vegetables, are often called 'cold dish', and mainly consumed for breakfast or dinner, but sometimes offered as starter in restaurants.
Freshwater fish dishes are very common. In addition to the popular fisherman's soup, frying fish on reeds, making káposzta or even kolbász out of it also used to be popular.
Pickled vegetables are often used. The most common is savanyú káposzta and soured peppers, gherkins, but a mix of cauliflower, green tomatoes, baby water melon, and other vegetables is also frequent. These are traditionally consumed in the winter and often were the main source of vitamin-C throughout the cold months of winter. Some seasonal, hearty dishes such as töltött káposzta, húsos káposzta and korhelyleves are based on savanyú káposzta. Classic Hungarian restaurants often offer some variations as side dish, a refreshing complement to heavy dishes.

Seasonings

Hungarian food uses selected spices judiciously to add flavor, especially paprika, a spice made of ground red pepper.
Paprika being the most important spice, there are many traditional variations and styles ranging from sweet to extremely spicy. The sweet and more mild paprika tend to be more common, but the spicy varieties are still very popular. Hot chilis are also often given as a garnish in traditional Hungarian cuisine, but when not, dried hot chilis or hot chili paste are typically given on the side.
Hungarians are known for loving spicy foods and may also use Piros Arany to compliment their meals. They also put the Hungarian chili sauce Erős Pista, in their Fisherman's soup and paprikash.
After paprika, garlic and onion bulbs are some of the most popular aromatics, either or both being used in most every savoury dish.
Herbs are also a key component of Hungarian cuisine, with dill, bay leaf, marjoram, and parsley being the most common. Tarragon, savoury, horseradish, and lovage are also quite common, but less so than the previous. Even herbs such as thyme, patience dock, mint and chives can also be component of some dishes, although considerably less frequently than those mentioned before.
The savoury side of Hungarian cuisine makes use of many spices, most notably paprika. However, Magyar cuisine uses many other spices as well with black pepper, caraway, dill seed, and poppy seed being some of the most common for savoury dishes. Though juniper berries and coriander are also frequently used, but generally only for specific dishes. Mustard seed is uncommon as an ingredient itself, but prepared mustards are used often. Hungarian mustards are often likened to a Dijon-style mustard, though they are not typically made with wine and generally use seeds of the white mustard plant; it is also not uncommon for them to include herbs, particularly tarragon and parsley.
Sweet dishes are typically spiced with different seasonings. Cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, cloves, lemon peel, and vanilla are the most common. Allspice, while traditionally relegated to sweet dishes in western cuisines, is used in both sweet and savoury applications in Hungarian cuisine.
While not really a seasoning, the use of a thick sour cream called tejföl as a topping is another common feature in many dishes.
When products use Hungarian-style as a variation, the flavour is usually pepper, onion or bacon.

History

The historical Hungarian cuisine has been influenced by the history of the Hungarians. The importance of livestock and the nomadic lifestyle of the hungarians, 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, pörkölt stew and the spicy fisherman's soup called halászlé are all traditionally cooked over the open fire in a bogrács. In the 15th century, King Matthias Corvinus and his Neapolitan wife Beatrice, introduced new ingredients such as sweet chestnut and spices such as garlic, ginger, mace, saffron and nutmeg, onion and the use of fruits in stuffings or cooked with meat. Some of these spices such as ginger and saffron are no longer used in modern Hungarian cuisine. At that time and later, considerable numbers of Armenians, Czechs, Italians, Jews, Poles, Saxons and Slovaks settled in the Hungarian basin and in Transylvania, also contributing with different new dishes. Hungarian was influenced by Turkish cuisine under the Ottoman Empire. It was also influenced by Austrian cuisine under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. All told, modern Hungarian cuisine is a synthesis of ancient Uralic components mixed with Austrian, Balkan, Turkish and West Slavic. The food of Hungary can be considered a melting pot of the continent, with a culinary base formed from its own, original Hungarian cuisine.
Although Hungary is a major source of paprika, and it is the spice most closely associated with Hungary, peppers, the raw material in paprika production, originated from North America was only later introduced to the Old World, to Spain in the 16th century, as part of the Columbian exchange. The spice was introduced to Hungary via the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, and was first used in Hungarian cuisine in the early 19th century.
Historically Hungarian cuisine had a decisive role in the gastronomy of the Carpathian basin. Because of the Habsburg ruling class making it difficult for the kingdom to do industrial work, the country's small producer markets became prominent, and were therefore also called the monarchy's larder. Hungarian cuisine is famously rich in flavours and has also played a major role in the cuisine of neighbouring peoples.

Hungarian meals

In Hungary, people usually have a large breakfast. Hungarian breakfast generally is an open sandwich with bread or toast, butter, cheese or different cream cheeses, túró cheese, tejföl or körözött, cold cuts such as ham, liver pâté, bacon, salami, mortadella, sausages such as kabanos, beerwurst or different Hungarian sausages or kolbász. Traditionally fresh tomatoes and green peppers are served with these when they are in season. Eggs may also be part of breakfast.
Some types of meat that were commonly eaten in the past or véres hurka are now more associated with the countryside.
Meals are often eaten with savanyúság and millet.
Contemporary Hungarians do not 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 with jam or honey, or cereal, such as muesli and perhaps fruit. Children can have rice pudding or semolina cream for breakfast topped with cocoa powder and sugar or with fruit syrup. Bodzaszörp or hot drinks are preferred for breakfast. In the past, breakfast itself was much more important, often only breakfast and dinner were eaten. In those days, cabbage soup was a common breakfast.
Villásreggeli or brunch is a more luxurious big breakfast given on special occasions or holidays. Often guests are invited. Deviled eggs, cold steak, cold salads, salmon omelettes, 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.
Tízórai refers to a meal eaten between breakfast and lunch.
Lunch is the major meal of the day, traditionally with several courses, but often just one course in modern times. Cold or hot appetizers may be served sometimes, then soup. Soup is followed by a main dish. The main dish is a dish including meat, side dishes and salad or savanyúság, which precedes the dessert. Fruit may follow. In Hungary, pancakes 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, or some pickled variant of them. A simple thin sliced cucumber or tomato salad in vinaigrette is also typical. Salads such as Salade Olivier or potato salad are made of boiled potatoes, 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 than 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 occasion, 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

For Christmas, Hungarians have a fish soup called halászlé. Other dishes may be served, such as roast goose, roast turkey or roast duck, cabbage rolls '. Pastry roll filled with walnut or poppy seed called ' 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. In some households, Lentil stew, also known as 'Lencse Fozelek', is consumed to bring good luck and health in the upcoming years.
Other traditional foods such as Pozsonyi kifli, a type of Bejgli is also commonly eaten in Christmas dinners, next to regular Bejglies and Strudels.
On New Year's Eve, Hungarians traditionally celebrate with virsli 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.
There is also a lot of superstition attached to New Year's food: on New Year's Eve, a coin is baked into the pogácsa. Whoever finds the lucky coin will have a lucky and prosperous New Year. But all the scones have to be gone before midnight, otherwise everything goes the other way.
It was tradition to bake rétes as long as possible, because then you would be that much richer the following year.
It is also tradition for girls to put small pieces of paper with a man's name in the middle of dumplings or other raw dough. At exactly midnight, they threw them into the boiling water, the first male name that came up revealing the name of their future husband.
Easter is considered a huge event and is celebrated all over Hungary. The families and their friends have the Mom and daughter prepare meals such as Smoked Ham with boiled eggs and small sandwiches and drinks quite commonly to have palinka on the table and then wait for Fathers and sons to arrive and say a poem and then spray on their hair with a perfume. Once the Father and son water the Mom and daughters known as Locsolkodás. They have a meal a drink then they go to the next family member until they visited all. In Szabolcs County make a special sweet yellow cheese, sárgatúró, made with quark and eggs. The kalács eaten then is often called pászkakalács.

Typical Hungarian dishes

Others

;Szárnyas Brassói: a variant of the pecsenye.
;Kakashere pörkölt: Rooster Testicle Pörkölt
;Cibere: a fermented drink made from wheat or rye bran, popular during Lent. In Romanian it is called Borș.
;Sültvér: fried blood often eaten with hot peppers and nokedli.
;Kukoricakása: Cornmeal porridge with paprika and cumin
;Puliszka: a Hungarian hominy. The Csángó people make Álivánka sponge cake and Bóc out of it, a cottage cheese puliszka-dumplings, often with special blue molded cottage cheese.
;Nyárlőrinci tutajos : Dumplings made of tarhonya, bacon and crushed potatoes. The tripe is a very common dish in the country, made into stews and soups and also fried.
;Csirke Paprikás Tejfölösen: Chicken Paprikash with sour cream and gravy, usually eaten with fusilli or nokedli. A number of paprikashes exist, including pork- and mushroom - paprikash. Sometimes Pigeon Paprikash was also eaten.
;Paradicsomos káposzta: Tomato and cabbage dish eaten with fasirt or pork ribs
;Tejleves: a milk-based sweet "soup", in multiple flavours.
;Bugaci Vegyes Pörkölt: a pörkölt variant from Bugac which contains pork, beef shank and salo.
;Székely lepény: "Szekler pie" a bacon, onion, sour cream and paprika flatbread, somewhat similar to the lángos, but uses a different dough.
;Fatányéros: Traditional dish of Transylvanian Hungarians.
;Wine soup: Traditional vanilla, cinnamon, white wine flavoured soup.
;Tócsni: A Hungarian potato pancake.
;Rablóhús: Hungarian skewer of roasted chicken and vegetables
;Grenadírmars: potato pasta served with bell pepper and sour cream
;Betyárkrumpli: potato dish with eggs, salo and szalonna.
;Betyárpörkölt bagolyfül nokedlivel: "betyár's pörkölt with owl-ear shaped nokedli"
;Lebbencs leves: potato and smoked bacon soup with lebbencs tészta.
;Körömpörkölt: Traditional pork nail pörkölt.
;Fish Paprikash: its ingredients similar to the paprikash.
;Mundéros hal: a spit-roasted fish.
;Pork strew and Pig Pörkölt: Pork is made in both stew and pörkölt forms.
;Tordai Pogácsa: The Tordai pogácsa, a similar gastronomic attractions to the pecsenye of Torda. The pastry is much larger than the average pogácsa, with the size of a smaller baking tray. The Hungarian peasant population living there has been making it for hundreds of years, albeit with varying recipes.
;Káposztás tészta: cabbage pasta dish
;Dödölle: toasted flat potato dumplings with sour cream and szalonna.
;Korhelyleves: kolbász-sauerkraut soup with tejföl
;Agglegénytál: dish from fried potato, some kolbász, roasted tomatoes and pepper with eggs poured on top.
;Kukoricakása: Onion and red onion Cornmeal with bacon, topped with paprika and lard
;Parsley Lapcsánka: Deep fried potato flatbread with parsley eaten with tejföl and onion
;Rákóczi Rostélyos: button mushroom stew, with pear-shaped pastry ornament
;Pljeskavica: grilled dish consisting of a meat patty similar to hamburger, served as a street food in Hungary

Bogrács and Herder foods

;Hortobágyi Húsos Palacsinta
;Slambuc
;Paprikás krumpli
;Alföldi rakott tarhonya
;Babgulyás: red bean-goulash soup
;Pásztortarhonya: roasted tarhonya and szalonna topped with kolbász, potato, pepper, tomato and paprika.
;Betyárkrumpli: a type of rakott krumpli with star shaped szalonna
;Tokány: Traditional Hungarian pörkölt type from Máramaros with over 20 variations
;Vetrece: Transylvanian food similar to Tokány, eaten with potato-schupfnudels, sour cream, and szalonna.
;Betyáros: lebbencs pasta with cottage cheese and szalonna
;Betyárszelet: this name also refers to a meat dish and a sweet
;Birkapörkölt: Mutton pörkölt
;Szürkemarha-gulyás: Hungarian-grey-goulash
;Steer and Mangalitsa skewers
;Harcsapaprikás: Catfish paprikash
;Vadas marha: beef dish with carrot-based yellowish sauce and dumplings
;Bivalypörkölt: Pörkölt from the Hungarian domestic water buffalo
;Sweet pastas: with walnut, poppy seed, and semolina-and-jam toppings

Pasta types

Csiga pasta: small twisted pasta, made to put in soups
Csipetke or Csipötke: small pebble-shaped pasta. In Szeged it was popular to put in soup.
Galuska: Eaten with paprikash, as tövises galuska or with sour cream, cheeses, eggs.
Gyufa pasta: matchstick shaped pasta, most commonly used in Baja fisherman's fish soups.
Lebbencs tészta: flat rectangular pasta, used in the dishes lebbencs leves and öreglebbencs
Nokedli: Similar to the Galuska. Used in different types of pörkölts and paprikash and in pea soup.
Orsós pasta: similar to Fusilli
Szabógallér: triangular lace-edged pasta
Tarhonya: Very small, caviar-sized pasta.
Tördelt tészta: pasta straps, used in Mácsik

Főzelék

Főzeléks are considered very important for health. It is neither a soup nor a main course. It is similar to Goulash which, although a soup, can be a substitute for a main course. Common flavours include yellow pea, bean, green pea, red lentil, broccoli, spinach, onion, potato, pumpkin, carrot, apple, and sometimes even cherry.

Sausages and cold cuts

Hurka Téliszalámi Herz SzalámiCsabai szalámi and kolbász Gyulai kolbász Debreceni kolbász Disznósajt Szalonna Virsli
  • ''Lókolbász''

Pastry culture

In Hungary, there are a great variety of pastries and baked goods and the language even classifies them. For example, in general, a batyu is a square or pentagonal pastry, a "fonottka" is yarn-ball shaped, "párna" as the name suggests is any pillow-shaped usually puffed pastry, but the "táska" is usually used for triangular, rolled or braided filled-pastries.
Molnárka: Along the kifli and the cipó this is another iconic breadtype. It has a shiny texture like hamburger buns, but is oval shaped. It is commonly used to make sandwiches.
Cipó: A circular loaf, smaller than normal bread. According to official governmental definition, a bread smaller than 500g margin is classified as a cipó.
Pityókás kenyér: potato bread common in Transylvania.
Kakaós csiga: traditional Hungarian pastry with chocolate filling. It was originally called csokoládés tekerge. They are often dusted with icing sugar or covered with white chocolate.
Molnárpogácsa: a large flattened pogácsa type pastry. The story goes that it was given to the miller's apprentices as payment.
Stangli: Often used to describe straight kifli. A stangli is a rectangular bread stick, usually 30 cm long, sprinkled with cheese or seeds. Most often sold in 8–10 cm bars in boxes as snacks for gatherings.
Dübbencs: Smooth surface rolled bread flavoured with dill
Béles: The Béles is a pastry filled with raisin and curd or fruit jams. In Transylvania, porridge-filled Béles was often eaten on New Year's Eve.
Darázsfészek: a traditional Hungarian vanilla roll, originating from Northern Hungary, and the palóc regions.

Sweets and cakes

Dobos Cake
  • Rákóczi Túrós Derelye Rigó Jancsi Gesztenyepüré
  • Barátfüle Borzas Kata or Borzas gombóc refers to spiked dumplings, made by putting a small lump of laskadough in the middle of a vanilla cream and frying the whole thing in lard. But the Borzas Kata is more commonly used a walnut-peach jam or chocolate cake slice with a similar "spiky" top, hince the similarity. Kürtőskalács Stove cake or Chimney cake, cooked over an open fire — a Transylvanian specialty, famous as Hungary's oldest pastry. Fonott kalács is circular or rod-shaped and braided while the Easter pászkakalács cylindrical, with braided decoration. The rózsakalács is shaped like a bouquet of roses. There are many other variants such as Jász ostoros, kulcsos and even has a paprika flavoured variant.Babka Fumu
  • There are many other kalács types, such as the Fatörzskifli the Guduc kalács Angel wings Vaníliás kifli Piskóta Krémes Rétes Csiga Flódni Képviselő Fánk Kuglóf Lekváros Bukta Lekváros tekercs Lekvár Birsalma sajt Törökméz Halva Madártej Őrség Zöld Aranya Túró Rudi Szaloncukor Arany galuska Vargabéles Eszterházy torta Molnár kalács Linzer torta and Isler cookies are both Austro-Hungarian sweets
  • Minyon / Kugler Palacsinta Rakott palacsinta
  • Győri édes and Pilóta Vargabéles Mézes Puszedli Mákos guba
  • Túrós lepény or túrós pite
  • The Balaton, Zala, Néger, László, Kókusz, Jeges and Somogy Kocka and the Boci Szelet are all different types of small cube-shaped cakesÖkörszem Zserbó Hájas süti Máglyarakás Levendula fagylalt Ibolya fagylalt Almás kalács Puncs szelet Zacher torta Fekete erdő torta Csokoládészalámi Mézeskalács
  • ''Habos túrós''

Others

Lángos Pogácsa Zsemle Fánk or Bismarck Doughnuts, typically made for FarsangKifli
  • laska
  • Hókifli
  • Sajtoskifli is kifli with cheddar cheese, which usually does not have the crescent shape.
  • Dunakavics Perec
  • Sajtos tallér
  • Diákcsemege a traditional mix of nuts, traditionally consisting of raisins, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts and sunflower seeds.
  • Keszőce Májgaluska Grízgaluska Tarhonya Rizi-bizi Vinetta or padlizsán krém Körözött or Liptai túró Libamájpástétom
  • Málé
  • The Kőtes palacsinta, and the Pánkó are traditional foods of the Szeklers of Bukovina.
  • Poroja Bundáskenyér Bread -
  • ''Kenyérlángos''

Drinks

Hungarian wine dates back to at least Roman times, and that history reflects the country's position between the West Slavs and the Germanic peoples.
The best-known wines are the white dessert wine called Tokaji Aszú and the red wines from Villány. Famous is also the wine called Bull's Blood, a dark, full-bodied red wine. Hungarian fruit wines, such as red-currant wine, are mild and soft in taste and texture. A special kind of wine is the in which next to the grapes, wormwood is also put into the barrel.
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. Some of them have therapeutic value, such as Mira.
The elderberry, currant, wild strawberry, viola (plant), lavender and raspberry szörp is also common. The Jaffa flavoured Szobi szörp was an iconic soft drink before the change of regime. Traubi or Traubisoda, is another soft drink based on an Austrian license produced in Balatonvilágos since 1971.