Gulyás – Hungarian meat goulash

Ask someone to name a Hungarian food and they will probably say, “goulash.”  Gulyás – Hungarian meat goulash – is considered by many to be the national dish of Hungary. It is a chunky soup or stew of tender meat and vegetables heavily seasoned with paprika and other spices.  Gulyás began as food prepared by shepherds and herdsmen as far back as the 9th century (gulyás means “herdsman” or “cowboy”).  Only after the nationalist movements of the 19th century did gulyás gain popularity as a quintessential Hungarian dish.  Before that it was considered peasant food (as I suspect many of the dishes on Feastern Europe were).  Paprika made its appearance in gulyás with the ascendance of that spice in the 18th century when black pepper was very scarce and very expensive.

But where’s the macaroni?

Americans are familiar with a similar dish (also called goulash) but it’s altogether different, more of a beef and noodle casserole, though it may also be mildly seasoned with paprika. If you attended public school in the United States, you undoubtedly saw this variety of goulash on your lunch menu. Gulyás can be made with beef, pork, veal, venison, mutton…really any meat will do although most people are familiar with the beef version. That’s what we will be making today. Because you simmer the meat for a long time (2 hours) you will get a tender result regardless of the cut of meat you use.

The “essential” gulyás ingredients

In writing this recipe, I consulted dozens of websites and cookbooks looking to find the essence of authentic gulyás. It seems that every Hungarian family probably has its own recipe for “true” gulyás. Here we will make what I consider to be the essential base recipe and I’ll give you some suggestions for embellishment. Every recipe I checked, or nearly every recipe, called for: meat, fat/oil, onion, broth, caraway and paprika. I’ll call those the must-have ingredients. [One source indicated that caraway is not essential but considering it grew in the wild where the original gulyás herded their flocks I presume it’s likely to be one of the original ingredients used to spice the dish].

Next are the ingredients in more than half the recipes out there: lard or bacon fat, tomato or tomato sauce/paste, garlic, sweet or hot peppers, and potato. I am not going to include potato in the recipe demonstration because I plan to serve my goulash with dumplings; however if that were not the case I would definitely use potatoes in the soup. And finally the optional ingredients that appear in fewer than half the recipes for gulyás are: carrot, celery and celery leaves, bay leaf, vinegar, and marjoram.

Feel free to mix and match ingredients as you experiment with gulyás.

Preparing to make gulyás – Hungarian meat goulash

You can hardly go wrong with any combination! Before you turn the heat on your stove, I recommend you get your ingredients ready for cooking so they are handy. It’s important not to burn or overcook any ingredients in the early stages so the quicker you can move things along the less likely you’ll be to make a mistake. Start by cutting up your meat into bite-sized pieces; remove any extra fat. Then crush the caraway seeds and chop up the vegetables.

I like to use a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have one or a spice mill, crush them with the back of a metal spoon. It’s not so important to get them to a fine powder. Breaking them open will release the flavorful oils inside and make the caraway aroma more available to your soup.

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Here I used a mixture of green and red peppers. You could use all one color bell pepper or even add hot Hungarian peppers. They are about as hot as jalapeños so that’s a possible substitute. I used a yellow onion and Roma tomatoes. If using potatoes, dice them into 1/2-inch cubes and put them in a bowl of water before using. Carrots can be sliced or diced. Carrots are not added until after the first hour of simmering; potatoes after the first 90 minutes. You can cut them up during the simmer time.

Now melt half of the lard in a large Dutch oven on the stovetop over medium heat. Brown the meat being careful not to overcrowd the pot. With 2 pounds of meat you will want to do this in two batches. Remove the cooked meat and set aside. gulyás – Hungarian meat goulash

Cook the vegetables

Next, melt the rest of the fat and cook the onions just until they get glassy; don’t let them caramelize or burn. Put in the minced garlic. Sprinkle in the caraway and paprika and stir. Cook the spices for about a minute. You do not want them to burn. Add the peppers and combine everything well. Cook for another minute or two before adding the broth.

Stir the pot and add tomato paste. Add the meet chunks to the soup.

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Turn down the heat to low and simmer the soup, covered, for an hour. After an hour, stir the pot and check the flavor. Add salt and pepper if needed. Add carrots now if using.

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Finally, test a piece of meat for tenderness. It should be quite tender after two hours on a low simmer. You can see that the consistency is quite loose, more like a soup than a stew. And nothing like the goulash casserole you may have been expecting! If you are eating gulyás with dumplings turn up the heat a little and put them in now. Let them cook a few minutes until soft and plump. Now you’re ready to serve!

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