The Hungarian Kitchen: Gulyásleves (goulash soup)

As mentioned in the pörkölt recipe thread from three years ago, what is known as gulyás in Hungarian is actually more of a hearty soup than one of the thick stews that go under the name "goulash" or "gulasch" (or some variant thereof) on restaurant menus across the world. Gulyás is a Hungarian word meaning "herdsman" or "cowboy," and the usual origin story for the name of the dish goes that these herdsmen would dry goulash meat and vegetables in the sun and then carry it along with them on the herding trail. When they wanted a meal, they would reconstitute the meat and vegetables with water and cook it in a kettle on the plain. The story goes back all the way to the 9th century (according to some sources), so it's clear that the original gulyás preparations would not have had the signature spice of paprika in them, as paprika wasn't introduced to Hungary until about the 16th century by the Turks (or possibly Balkan peoples fleeing the Turks) and really didn't become popular in Hungarian cuisine until the 19th century.

In Hungary, you will generally find it under the soup section of a restaurant's menu, and usually under the name gulyásleves, meaning "herdsman's soup" or just "goulash soup." At some restaurants that you may also find it under the name bográcsgulyás, as well, meaning "cauldron/kettle goulash," as this refers to the traditional method of making it outdoors in a kettle suspended from a tripod over a fire. Like so They are often served in mini-kettles at the touristy restaurants along the Danube in Budapest. At some froufrou restaurants, you may even see something like bélszín gulyás on the menu, which refers to beef filet (bélszín) being used as the main meat (instead of the usual stewing cuts). And you will also find real honest-to-goodness bográcsgulyás cooked outdoors at festivals, picnics, and other events throughout Hungary. The is even a gulyas festival right here in Norridge where you can see the cooking kettles and goulashes cooked in the traditional manner. In any case, all of these are soupy concoctions.

On to the recipe. As I said in the pörkölt thread, if you take pörkölt and add more liquid to it, along with some potatoes, you will have your basic Hungarian goulash (soup.) It's essentially just a soupier version of that dish, but I do make a few adjustments, and I'll add a few notes regarding the spicing, the ingredients, variations, etc., where I can. This is a dish that probably has as many recipes as there are cooks, but the basics that almost everyone can agree on are: meat, onions, paprika, potatoes. George Lang, the late Hungarian-American restaurateur and co-owner of Gundel (the most well-known and prestigious restaurant in Hungary), had very strong opinions on what is proper: "Never use any other spice besides caraway. Never Frenchify it with wine. Never Germanize it with brown sauce. Never put in any other garniture besides diced potatoes or galuska. But many variations are possible---you may use fresh tomatoes or tomato purée, garlic, sliced green peppers, hot cherry peppers to make it spicy, and so on." I generally agree with him, but I add other root vegetables, too, as is common in Budapest. My recipe reflects my own experiences with goulash soup as it had been served to me over five and a half years while living in Hungary.

Ingredients:


2 1/4 lbs of beef chuck, cut into 1/2"-3/4" cubes. Shin, boneless short ribs, other stewing cuts work well, too.
Beef ribs/soup bones (optional)
One large (3/4 lb) onion, chopped into fine dice.
1 Italian frying pepper or cubanelle or mild banana pepper
2 quarts water
1 carrot, peeled, cut into thin disks
1 parsnip, peeled, cut into thin disks
1/2 celery root, peeled, cut into 1/2"-3/4" cubes
2-4 medium potatoes, (usually peeled, but I didn't). cut into 1/2"-3/4" cubes
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 generous tablespoons paprika (remember, use Hungarian sweet paprika if you can. Unsmoked Spanish dulce paprika will work, too, as will the sweet California paprika from Penzey's or The Spice House)
1 teaspoon caraway seeds, whole
salt
pepper
parsley to garnish

Let me breakdown the philosophy there. For goulash soup, I go for a 3:1 meat:onions by weight ratio. If you want it thicker, richer, and sweeter, feel free to up this to 2:1 but, in general, I like to do this lighter on the onion than pörkölt, where I aim for 2:1. (Doing some research on Hungarian websites, the ratios vary wildly, with extremes up to 1:1, but typically settle in at around 4:1 to 3:1). I generally work at one generous tablespoon of paprika per pound of meat, one quart of water (or broth or stock if you prefer it richer) per pound of meat, 1 garlic clove and 1/2 teaspoon caraway per pound of meat. Potatoes I aim for 2/3 lb - 1 lb per pound of meat, and the root vegetables (carrot + parsnip + celery root) in roughly equal amounts, totaling 2/3 - 1 pound. Feel free to adjust down any of the vegetables (it's doubtful that you will want more than those amounts). As for the root vegetables, I personally find carrots and parsnips ideal, and I like a bit of celery root, but you can also use parsley root or kohlrabi in the mix, too. Green celery stalks, too, but Hungarian typically use the root. Or, if you want to keep it simple, just use the potatoes.

Most recipes don't call for soup bones, but there were some cheap beef ribs on sale at Pete's Market, so I cleavered them in half and added them to add a bit of richness and gelatin to the broth, as I make the soup using water as my liquid.

First, as with the other Hungarian recipes, we start by frying the onions and peppers in fat. I used some rendered chicken fat I had sitting in the fridge. Animal fats are preferable for flavor (lard is traditional), but neutral oils are fine, too. Sunflower oil is usually used in Hungary if lard is not. Do not brown the onions. I also add a little bit of salt here (about a teaspoon):



When translucent (I could actually gone a little longer here), add the garlic, cook for a minute or two, and add your paprika and caraway seeds:



Turn down the heat (be careful not to let the paprika burn), mix it well with the onions, and let cook for about a minute, until the mixture is fragrant. Add beef.
Now, I'm not browning my beef for this recipe, but you are more than welcome to do that to increase the richness and depth of flavor. Just do that first in the recipe, set the seared meat aside, and add it at this point. Most Hungarian recipes I've seen do not seem to sear the meat.



Mix well, get the meat nice and coated in paprika, let cook for a minute or two, and then add your liquid:



I am just using plain-ol' water. (George Lang specifically calls for hot water, claiming cold water toughens the meat, but I have never had a problem using cold water.) I'm most used to goulash soup having a light beef broth taste, but if you want to make it really beefy, you are welcome to use some rich stock here. I also add another dose of salt at this point, maybe another teaspoon or two, and a few turns of the grinder of black pepper. Like I said, I'm using some soup bones here, too, to increase the richness of the broth slightly.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover. When the beef starts softening (anywhere from 1.5 - 3 hours or so. Here it was around 2.5 hours), add your vegetables:



Simmer, covered, until vegetables are cooked through. Adjust for salt (you probably will have to add a good bit more), and serve, garnished with parsley and banana pepper rings, if you like:



A couple quick notes and variations: You can also add a ripe, diced tomato in there, or a tablespoon or so of tomato paste. If using, I usually put it in just before I add the water, letting it fry up a little, so the tomato thoroughly cooks and dissolves into the soup. You can also try starting this as with the pörkölt recipe and let the meat and onions stew in their own juices (only adding water to keep from burning), and not adding additional water or broth until you add the soup vegetables when the meat has softened. I've not tried this, but I seem to recall reading in Cook's Illustrated (in their Hungarian beef stew article) that this results in the meat browning without having to sear it first, so it's worth trying.

Even though George Lang says caraway is the only spice aside from paprika that belongs in goulash, I've seen some recipes that also incorporate marjoram. I typically see this in Austrian and German variants of goulash, although I have seen Hungarian recipes that call for it. Typically, at least around Budapest, it's not a standard ingredient.

You can also serve this with csipetke, "pinched noodles," a simple pasta made from flour, egg, water, and salt, but I find the potatoes provide enough starch for the dish.

As with most other Hungarian dishes, I prefer using sweet paprika for its exceptional flavor and color, and adding heat at the table in the form of dried peppers (red cherry peppers are traditional, although I will use whatever hot dried chiles I happen to have around).

Also, flour is never used to thicken the soup in Hungarian versions of goulash, although you may see flour in Austrian and German versions of goulash soup. Thyme, bay leaf, vinegar, and more tomato paste also find themselves often in those versions. In general, I've found Austrian and German versions of goulash soup to be thicker (either through flour or tomato paste), more concentrated in flavor (beef stock instead of water; more tomato paste; more onion), and more varied in the spicing (with the marjoram and/or thyme). So if you want to veer off in that direction, I would keep those notes in mind.

Binko-

This is fabulous. Thanks so much for posting. It sounds like a perfect dish for a cold winter's day!

By the way, did beef just suddenly become more expensive? At my local Pete's Fresh Market, the cheapest I could find chuck or pot roast for was $4.49/lb. I'm used to these prices being at least a buck a pound cheaper. Chicken is still pretty cheap, though. Even the wings there are only $1.49/pound if you buy the family pack, but the beef seems to have gone up a buck a pound in price across the board over the last month or so.

I've noticed the price increase as well, Binko. It has gotten to the point where the trip to Peoria Packing is economically justified. Case in point ribeye roast @ $4.49/lb. divides up into 4, maybe five meals for the two us. Compare to easily 2.5x or treble the cost locally. The higher quality beef and better taste is just icing on the cake.

Back to the OP, looks fantastic and I will be making this soon.

Yeah, I may have to start going to Peoria Packing for beef, too. I tend to go their only for their pork, but if I can't find anything cheaper in the neighborhood, I'll have a look.

Another variation I just remembered is made with chicken. Most recipes I've seen for csirkegulyás use either whole chicken or chicken legs and thighs, and use about 1.5-2x as much meat by weight as I have above for the beef variation. I assume this is because of the milder flavor of chicken and to account for the bones. Also note that if you do the chicken version, it will be done much more quickly. I've only encountered this once in Hungary, at a friend's family's farmhouse in Zala county in southwest Hungary, where it was served somewhere in between a pörkölt and gulyásleves in consistency, with bone-in, skin-on chicken quarters. Served with some local table wine and thick, crusty Hungarian bread, that was one of the most memorable and delicious meals I had in Hungary. The fresh-from-the-farm chicken and high-quality paprika really shone in this preparation.

News reports kept saying the price of meat would go up due to drought. The farmers slaughtered a lot last end of summer which might have dropped prices momentarily but now they are migrating upwards.

That's beautiful, Binko. I'm used to the German version, having eaten metric tons of it in Bierstube over the years. Your version looks simpler and, in a certain sense, 'purer' than what I'm used to. I'll have to try it soon. I've still got some Austrian goulash spice--paprika with ground caraway included--but I think I'll follow your method of spicing.

On beef prices: Kansas City is certainly the beef capitol, and we've had beef prices skyrocket lately. Oxtail is now above $4/lb. Making beef stock suddenly looks like costing a dinner at Ruth's Chris's. The only break is weekly loss leaders: rib eye or strips for $5.99/lb, which makes no sense to me. Am I supposed to make my beef broth from rib eye now???

Geo

Thanks, Binko. I always appreciate your thorough approach to a recipe. And I love Hungarian food. There is not enough fall and winter anymore for me to get enough of it. I will make a point of following your instructions here. And perhaps top off the meal with a walnut-whipped cream torte a la Lang - a dessert too rich to follow most holiday meals.

Geo wrote:That's beautiful, Binko. I'm used to the German version, having eaten metric tons of it in Bierstube over the years. Your version looks simpler and, in a certain sense, 'purer' than what I'm used to. I'll have to try it soon. I've still got some Austrian goulash spice--paprika with ground caraway included--but I think I'll follow your method of spicing.

Yeah, do it once that way to see what a Hungarian goulash soup is typically like, and then change it to your tastes. Like I said, if you want to do more German style, use beef broth, increase the onions to at least 2:1 if not 1:1 with meat, add marjoram (about 1/2 tsp per pound), perhaps a bit of thyme, and use (more) tomato paste, maybe up to 2T per pound. A little bit of red wine, too, if you wish. Also, the soup vegetables might need to be reduced or even eliminated (except for the potatoes, where I would use almost an equal amount as the meat.)

I'll be honest. My favorite goulash soup that I ever had was just across the Hungarian border in Austria at some random roadside restaurant. It was either in Nickelsdorf or not too far up the road past it. It was a much beefier tasting soup than what is served in Hungary and if you're using mediocre paprika, your soup is not going to suffer much. In the Hungarian version, if the paprika is subpar, you're not going to be able to cover it up. That said, I did like the richness of that particular Austrian version and the extra hit of flavor the marjoram offered. I'm a sucker for marjoram, though, being of Polish decent.

Any tips on finding sweet banana peppers? Hot ones I can find everywhere but no luck on the sweet variety. NW side preferred, I'm in Jeff Park.

I'm sure that Binko will rain fire upon my head for saying so, but in a pinch you could go to any Latino market and get California Anaheims (should be some that are trending yellow/orange) and use them. Pretty close to Italian frying peppers which are close to Hungarian paprikas.

Geo

Geo wrote:I'm sure that Binko will rain fire upon my head for saying so, but in a pinch you could go to any Latino market and get California Anaheims (should be some that are trending yellow/orange) and use them. Pretty close to Italian frying peppers which are close to Hungarian paprikas.

Geo

Poblanos are not what I'd call an ideal substitution: they're thicker-walled, often at least slightly spicy.
Cubanelles are possibly another substitution (but may also have some heat), or the mini sweets (jalapeno-sized sweet peppers), although the minis are probably still too thick-walled.

Geo wrote:I'm sure that Binko will rain fire upon my head for saying so, but in a pinch you could go to any Latino market and get California Anaheims (should be some that are trending yellow/orange) and use them. Pretty close to Italian frying peppers which are close to Hungarian paprikas.

Geo

Anaheims are fine, but spicier than the typical Hungarian sweet peppers (although I have used hot Hungarian peppers in goulash soup on occasion.) They will work. As will cubanelles (as mentioned in my recipe.) Cubanelles, in my experience, are less spicy than Anaheims. It really doesn't matter that much. Anaheim, hot or sweet banana, cubanelle, Italian frying pepper, gypsy peppers, all those will work fine, depending on what level of heat you want. (I agree on not using poblanos if you're trying to remain as true to style as possible, as they have a very distinct flavor to them that puts me in the mind of Mexican food rather than Hungarian. That said, hey, I do think they would work well, just lend a different flavor profile.) I just stick with mild and add spice later, so that's why my preference is for the mild Italian frying pepper types of peppers. And there are plenty of Hungarian cooks in the US who just use the regular ol' bell peppers. I think they're too fleshy and have too strong a "green" flavor (if using green peppers), but you can certainly use them. It's not going to ruin your recipe or anything. Were I using bells, I'd probably opt for yellow. My suggestions above are mainly for those who want to try to replicate something they might get served in Hungary as closely as possible. I have no issues with substitutions or additions.

I use "Gulasch Creme" as a substitute for most of the ground paprika. One jar to six lbs of meat. It removes the grittiness from the paprika. My nagymama used to make here
own creme. You can get the product of Bende

http://www.bende.com/univer-goulash-cream-p-354/


444 Roosevelt Rd
Glen Ellyn
(630) 469-6525

925 Corporate Woods Pkwy
Vernon Hills
(847) 913-0304

Yes, goulash (or paprika) cream works well, too. I prefer it with powdered paprika, myself. Never noticed any grittiness. Goulash cream is kind of a pre-mixed assortment of flavors. The Univer one has bell peppers, paprika, onion, celery, salt, tomato, MSG, etc., in it. I have no issues with it, as I often will use Accent (MSG) to amp up the flavors, but you can just control those flavors yourself just as easily.

While y'all are looking at the Goulash cream at Bende, you might also want to check out Erős Pista ("Strong Steve"), which I've mentioned in my other Hungarian posts. This is an excellent way to add heat to your goulash at the table. Essentially, it's the Hungarian version of sambal oelek.

Started cooking at 8:30 , who needs sleep? Veggies go in after Colbert.

Good luck! Don't forget to adjust salt liberally at the end and, if your tastes desire it, I'm not going to scold you if you want to throw in a bouillon cube to amplify the beef flavors. Like I said, I generally prefer a delicate broth flavor to this, but it's up to you to decide what you like. If I'm making this for guests, I usually play the beef flavors a little more forward with beef broth or a stock cube or two.

I did add a bit of beef broth House smells AWESOME.

Octarine wrote:I did add a bit of beef broth House smells AWESOME.

Beef broth smells good while cooking but after that it smells normal even irritate sometime.

The Humble Beginnings of Goulash

Rachel Laudan on the invention of goulash:

The invention of goulash began with one of the humblest groups in Hungarian society, the cowherds, according to the distinguished Hungarian ethnologist Eszter Kisbán. Groups of five or six single men, with their dogs and a couple of horses to pull their supply cart, spent months or even a year at a time out on the plains tending tall, slender gray cattle with long upturned horns. They cooked for themselves in large cauldrons slung from a pole supported by posts over an open fire, using simple, nonperishable supplies: millet, lard, bacon, onions, salt, and sometimes black pepper. If one of the cattle died or was slaughtered, the cowherds would feast on a rare dish of fresh meat, a simple stew made by browning the meat in lard and onions, adding water and, if available, black pepper. At some point, they began substituting coarsely ground dried red chilies from home gardens for the pepper. In the villages, some unknown innovator had rediscovered what was already known in the Americas, that chilies could be dried, crushed underfoot, and pounded in a mortar. By the end of the 18th century, travelers were commenting on this rough, spicy peasant dish that left a pleasant warmth in the stomach. Since the Hungarian term for herdsmen was gulyás, the travelers called this herdsmen’s meat, or gulyás hús.