Hungarian Goulash

Hungary is known for its exotic, tasty and spicy food and delicious wine. In general, the preference is for rich and spicy sauces, stews and sweets over rather "drier" dishes. In particular, the liberal use of a few special ingredients which give it its own inimitable and original flavour.

These are first of all red pepper, fresh green peppers and tomatoes, sour cream and lard. The use of lard or goose-fat instead of other forms of fat for cooking is traditional and certainly typical but nowadays more and more Hungarians are worried about the cholesterol content of lard, so often other fats are substituted.

Ingredients for Beef Goulash Photographic Print
Eising, Susie M.
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The most well-known specialities of the Hungarian cuisine such as goulash soup, or "Gulyásleves", the different varieties of stew or "pörkölt" etc. are red with paprika.

It should be noted that dishes flavoured with paprika need not be hot. In fact, some of the finest brands of paprika are not strong at all.

Fresh green peppers and tomatoes are also frequently used to flavour these dishes, the essence of which is the same: braise any kind of meat in lard/oil with onions, and season it richly with red pepper.

Sour Cream is an essential ingredient in many Hungarian dishes too. It is a basic ingredient of "paprikash" (any kind of meat or just plain potatoes prepared in paprika sauce, to which sour cream has been added), as well as in many Hungarian vegetable dishes and casserole stews.

Paprika, Capsicum annuum, is a sweet-to-mildly hot cultivar of the chile pepper of the family Solanaceae. It is cultivated for its fruit, which are dried and used as a spice or seasoning. C.annuum is a native of South America; however it is cultivated most extensively in Hungary.

The English word was borrowed directly from Hungarian, which in turn borrowed the term from the adjacent Slavic peoples.

Paprika is noted for its high vitamin C content (150-250 mg/100 g). In fact, vitamin C was first isolated by Hungarian scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi from Hungarian paprika.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1937
"for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes, with special reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaric acid."

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The Hungarians are known for their pottery and fabulously-decorated stoneware such as those from Kalocsa. The word Kalocsa originates from the Latin "colocae," literally meaning "made from mud."

We found these plates at the street festival in Heviz, Hungary. What a beautiful serving plate for presenting Hungarian goulash.

I've found similar plates also available on eBay! Imagine that.

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