Hungarian cuisine

Hungarian or Magyar cuisine (Hungarian: Magyar konyha) 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.
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 (fatányéros in Hungary) 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 (köret) 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 (e.g., csirkepaprikás 'paprika chicken' is almost always eaten with small dumplings similar to gnocchi (nokedli), while others may take any side dish (e.g., rántott sajt 'fried cheese'). 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 (usually beef or pork), onion, and sweet paprika powder, both served with nokedli or galuska (small dumplings). 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 (kolbász) and winter salami are also widely eaten.
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 layer of crunchy caramel).
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: hideg meggyleves).
Hungarian cuisine uses a large variety of cheeses, but the most common are túró (a type of crumbly quark), cream cheeses, picante ewe-cheese (juhtúró), the most common Hungarian cheeses like Karaván, Pannonia cheese [hu], 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 (csíkos káposzta) or even kolbász out of it also used to be popular.
Pickled (fermented) vegetables are often used. The most common is savanyú káposzta (lit: sour-cabbage, sauerkraut) 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.
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 (a popular Hungarian paprika cream, meaning 'Red Gold') 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.
The historical Hungarian cuisine has been influenced by the history of the Magyar people. 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. "cattleman's (meal)"), 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 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 (a German ethnic group) 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 Magyar 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 Magyar 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.
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 (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. Traditionally fresh tomatoes and green peppers (sometimes scallion, radish 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.
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 (tejberizs) or semolina cream (tejbegríz) 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 (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 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 (for example, fish, egg or liver), then soup. Soup is followed by a main dish. The main dish is a dish including meat, side dishes and salad (such as the uborkasaláta, a typical sidedish made with smetana, paprika and continental cucumber) or savanyúság (from pickled vegetables - paprika, cucumber, sauerkraut, etc.), 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, 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.
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 (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. 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 (Pozsony being the original name of Bratislava), next to regular Bejglies and Strudels(rétes).
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.
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 (strudels) 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 (Húsvét) 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 (Husvéti Vers) 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 (túró) and eggs. The kalács eaten then is often called pászkakalács.
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 (poppy seed pasta variety)
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.
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 (e.g. cherry or cottage cheese batyu), a "fonottka" is yarn ball shaped, "párna" as the name suggests is any pillow-shaped usually puffed pastry, but the "táska" (e.g. virslis táska, cherry 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 (the average Hungarian bread being 3 kg). According to official governmental definition (from MÉ), a bread smaller than 500g margin is classified as a cipó.
Pityókás kenyér: potato bread common in Transylvania.
Kakaós csiga: ("Chocolate snails") 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 (both twisted and smooth) 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.
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 (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 red-currant wine, are mild and soft in taste and texture. A special kind of wine is the Ürmös 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 (plum, apricot and pear are popular). Also notable are the 21 brands of Hungarian mineral waters (for example, Apenta and Kékkúti). Some of them have therapeutic value, such as Mira.
The elderberry (bodza), currant, wild strawberry (szamóca), viola (plant) (ibolya), lavender and raspberry (málna) szörp (a concentrate created from sugar and fruits or flowers) 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.