Hungarian Goulash

first you would be in a agrument where i live now in austria because many would say it is a austrian dish.  the two countries were ruled together before ww1 so they share some same dishes. 

moving to salzburg austria from canada and now working as a chef here i have worked with some local chefs and in some local homes with traditonal methods.  without getting into a recipe mode this is what i do.  brown the onions that are small cut slowly.  add garlic tomato paste then  the paprika powder.  some hot paprika to if you want it spicy.  cook low heat dont burn.  heat a skillet with oil and season the meat with salt pepper and paprika.  quickly fry the meat to get a little color.  do small batches so the meat does not sweat in the pan.  now add beef soup or jus to the onion mixture to make your base.  let this cook adding majarom and season to taste.  cook then puree the mixture add the beef to the liquid and a bayleaf and cook slowly until the meat is tender.  they use shoulder meat here.  when the meat is tender and the seasoning is good i thicken it with a cooked roux until the right consistancy.  served with a bread dumpling called a  knodel.  or use  smaller pieces of meat and you put potatoes in it and serve it as goulash soup.  this is served in almost every gasthaus as a main meal or a soup

The method Chef Kostedorf explains for an Hungrian Goulashis very close to what I was taught as an apprentice in  Southern Germany and I have  seen it done this way everyplace I worked in Germany and Switzerland. In Germany we liked to use meat from the Beef Shank and at the time  (now over 60 years ago), every butcher in Southern Germany sold you only Beef Shank  as"GOULASCHFLEISCH ". I have no idea what cut  of beef is is there sold today to be used in an Hungarian Goulash. And I do not know what was used in Switzerland since it came already pre-cut . I do know that it was not Shank since a beef Shank needs  a very long cooking time to get soft.

Also it was  always CARAWAY seeds that was used in a real Goulash !

I agree with DAGOBERT.There was never ever any kind of thickener added. Onions were the thickener and there was a ground rule ; you were supposed to use equal amounts of onions and meat .

This is similar to how I make it, but come on, goulash cooked with olive oil? I don't understand this trend to use olive oil in everything. Why don't we come back to good old lard that belongs there? However, I also like a Czech-style goulash with beer. This one is just lard, equal parts of onions and beef, then sweet paprika and some garlic and a bottle of dark lager or even light one (this is what I use, however, feel free to experiment with different kinds of beer). I make it as a stew. not a soup and serve it with Czech-style dumplings. I also serve Hungarian-style goulash with dumplings.

The basic bread roll dumpling recipes goes something like this. A pint of milk, two eggs and an egg yolk, salt and enough flour to make a dough that is neither runny nor dry (knead it with a wooden spoon until blisters or bubbles form). The type of flour I use is a coarsely ground one, but not so coarse that it would qualify as wheat meal. Let it rest for one hour. Meanwhile, dice some bread rolls or buns and fry them in butter. Let them cool. Shortly before cooking the dumplings mix the buns in the dough, form peach-shaped dumplings and simmer them in salted water for 20-30 minutes. Slice immediately. This comes from a 19th century Czech cookbook and this is the way my grandmother has always made them. They're a bit heavy but still fluffy inside and wonderfully slippery on the outside. Also great with all those Czech sauces that accompany boiled beef when beef broth is the first course, such as onion sauce or dill sauce.

Another 19th century cookbook gives a different dumpling recipe (among about two dozens other dumpling recipes). Here some diced buns are soaked in milk until they dissolve, some are fried in butter. Three egg yolks, salt, a tablespoon of wheat meal and a couple of tablespoons of breadcrumbs are mixed with the milk-bread mixture. The whites are beaten until stiff peaks form and then blended in the dough, fried buns are added, too. The dough is too wet and is therefore steamed in cheesecloth. These are called Viennese dumplings and are much lighter.

Bear's garlic is in season now and it's a good idea to mix some chopped in the dumpling dough. Goes well with goulash, I think.

Of course I do love olive oil, I just feel that good lard is better in dishes like this. On the other hard, olive oil is unsurpassed in vegetable dishes with tomatoes, eggplants and the likes. After all, lard is the traditional cooking fat in Hungary and here in Slovakia, too. And if you can get good lard from healthy pigs then all the better. I am lucky to have an access to Mangalitsa lard from a small farm near Košice, where I live, which I can buy in a small butcher's here. Alternatively, you can buy belly fat from a butcher and render it yourself. I would just stay away from store-bought lard as it has an unpleasant, sharp smell when heated (at least that's my experience). Also, lard is about 50% unsaturated, though I don't really care since I don't believe that saturated-fats-cause-heart-disease theory. And yes, Pilsner Urquell works great in and with goulash.

Chef Kostendorf nailed it. Its the way I learned it from the oldtimers back in the 50s. Paprika  is a must, how strong depends on your taste. Give me this with some washboard spatzele and I am a happy camper.  With any leftover add some more veges and make goulash soup.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dagobert 

Always do it as natives do (used to do it for generations) is my moto. Too much experiment, fusion, taste adaptation,... never worked for me. Olive Oil - love it. But not in this dish. Embellishments - same thing. Good ingredients : Beef, onions, paprika, fat, few spices and seasoning is really all you need. The rest could be very tasty, but in my humble opinion, it is not GOLAŽ.
Dagobert

I have to agree. I have tasted "gulas" some years ago, in Romania (there are many Hungarians living there, and this meal was prepared for me by an old lady in an iron pot, on a fire in the garden).

I have to say that I've tried to reproduce that recipe many times... couldn't even come close to it. So I must second that thought, original ingredients are a must (and I mean pork grease, not olive oil, and so on).

Quote:

Originally Posted by zojison 

 

I have to agree. I have tasted "gulas" some years ago, in Romania (there are many Hungarians living there, and this meal was prepared for me by an old lady in an iron pot, on a fire in the garden).

I have to say that I've tried to reproduce that recipe many times... couldn't even come close to it. So I must second that thought, original ingredients are a must (and I mean pork grease, not olive oil, and so on).

No doubt that goulash cooked in a traditional cauldron over wood fire will be vastly superior to anything else. You certainly can reproduce it anywhere in the world, you just need that cauldron.

I have been fortunate and worked with many great chefs and cooks from all over Europe.  Not one has specified olive oil for goulash ,and in fact not  for  any kind of native dish(except Italians) who have so much of it that they use it for everything. Most of the old timers used lard, rendered fat or butter for everything. Olive oil here came into vogue about 20 to 25 years ago with the healthy foods craze.