History of Hungarian Cuisine, Spices, Most Popular Dishes and Our Favourites

First let me tell you everything I know about Hungarian cuisine in general:

• spices and other characteristic ingredients
• its history
• typical dishes

Characteristics of Hungarian cuisine
Ancient Hungarian cooking
Italian influence
The Turks and the Paprika
The Habsburg era
Hungarian cuisine today

Characteristics of Hungarian Cuisine

Authentic Hungarian dishes are definitely not for people on diet. You may find our dishes a bit too heavy and fatty, however their rich flavour, aroma and texture compensate you for the slightly excessive calory intake.

But don't think that everything is soaking in pork fat and paprika. These ingredients are essential for authentic Hungarian dishes, but properly portioning them and using modern cooking methods we can make healthier dishes.

The ingredients we cook with, are simple. The fertile Hungarian plain and the favourable climate provide excellent conditions for growing tasty vegetables, fruits, and to raise domestic animals whose meat is savoury.

Several special ingredients are account for the distinctive flavour of Hungarian meals:

• Hungarian paprika
• lard
• onion an garlic
• sour cream
• cottage cheese, walnut and poppy seed in sweet courses

There are also a few unique Hungarian cooking methods that we use to prepare our dishes.

You must be hungry by now after reading all above. Download one of our recipe ebooks A Taste of Hungary or Hungarian Desserts and try making some of the dishes!

Ancient Hungarian Cuisine

During the nation's colourful history Hungarian cuisine got influences from many ethnic gastronomies. In the first couple of centuries AD our ancestors lived in the Euro-Asian steppe. They were a semi-nomadic group that lived as hunters and fishermen.

Around 500 AD the Magyar tribes migrated and settled down near the River Don. They got into contact with Turks and Bulgarians and learned much about cooking from them.

Soup was a very important meal in Hungarian cuisine at that time, as it is today. A perfect Hungarian lunch always starts with some kind of soup. It was a complete meal and more like a stew in those nomadic years. They usually served soups with a small round-shaped pasta, tarhonya. We still have tarhonya as a garnish in our menus.

Other ancient Hungarian dishes are stuffed cabbage, beef soup, fish soup, and the famous goulash. They are still very popular. Ancient Hungarian cooking used several types of grains, like millet, oat and later wheat.

The most delicious dishes were always made in a single pot. This pot was usually the bogrács, a cast iron kettle, hung on an iron stick over the fire. Bogrács is a very popular cooking utensil today, we use it for outdoor cookings.

After settling down in the Carpathian Basin our ancestors incorporated pork in their cuisine. We often cook pork dishes today especially in the villages where almost every family raises its own pork and butcher it during winter time within a great feast called disznótor.

In the early middle ages after the consolidation of the Hungarian State, Hungarian cuisine had influences from both western and eastern nations. Especially the great invasions left their marks on our cooking.

See our Hungarian Recipe eBooks for authentic main dish and dessert recipes.

King Matthias-Italian influence, Renaissance cooking

King Matthias in the 15th century introduced western culinary methods. He married to an Italian princess, Beatrice, so Italian flavours enriched Hungarian gastronomy. Turkey was brought to Hungary in that time. Today Hungarian turkey is considered one of the best in Europe. Beatrice also brought with her cheeses, pastas, garlic and onions.

The first written records of Hungarian gastronomy date back to the 15th century. According to King Matthias' chronicles, the most popular dishes were pork, beef, venison, lamb, and game. Every food was served with gravies made from their own juices. People dunked their bread in these savoury sauces.

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 The Turks and the Paprika

The 150-year Turkish rule had lots of impacts on Hungarian cuisine.They brought paprika to Hungary, which became a symbol of Hungarian cooking. Before paprika, ancient Hungarian cooks used dill, horseradish, marjoram, rosemary, sage, and wild mushrooms. Hungary's climate is very favourable for growing paprika, our country is a leading producer of this spice.

First, only peasants cooked with paprika, the privileged grew it in their garden for decoration purposes.

Paprika became an alternative spice to pepper, when the price of the latter started to increase. That's why Hungarians called paprika "török bors"=Turkish pepper at first. It eventually replaced pepper in Hungarian kitchens in the 19th century. They added paprika to meat stews, soups, creating today's paprikás and pörkölt

The Turks took away all domestic animals except for pigs during their raids; they mustn't eat pork because of their religion. Pork dishes have started to become prevalent in Hungarian cuisine since that time.

Other culinary advantages of the Turkish rule were strudel, lángos, riced pilafs, and stuffed vegetables. Besides paprika the Turks brought into Hungary several other plants such as tomato, corn, tobacco, cherry, and sour cherry plants.
Hungarian language preserved these culinary contributions, for example the other name we use for corn is Turkish wheat.

Let's not leave out coffee, the Turks introduced this drink to Hungary. Hungarians called coffee "black soup" in that era. Coffe culture and coffe houses were an integral part of Budapest's cultural and social growth at the turn of the last century.

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