Székelygulyás (a Hungarian sauerkraut 'casserole')

Cabbage. One of the most underrated vegetables around. Sauerkraut: one of the most underrated preparations of that underrated vegetable. Too many people think of sauerkraut as the stuff you (or other people) put on hot dogs. Depending on your heritage, you may be a little more accustomed to it. Or not.

If you’re at all interested in the food of Eastern Europe, though, you’ve encountered it many times because it’s a fundamental ingredient of much of the cooking of that region. Especially Hungarian. A little earlier, I devoted a post to the use of sauerkraut in a dish claimed by both Romanians and Hungarians: varza a la Cluj if you’re Romanian and Kolozsvári rakott káposzta (Kolozsvar being the Hungarian name for the Romanian city of Cluj and káposzta being the word for cabbage.

The craving for sauerkraut struck again recently and so I perused the cookbook collection and decided to make a classic Hungarian dish this time: Székelygulyás or, sometimes, Székelykáposzta.

We interrupt this recipe post for a brief history lesson. The Székely or, as they are sometimes referred to, the Szeklers, are an ancient peoples in the region of what is now Romanian Transylvania. They claim descent from Attila’s Huns, professional historians’ doubts notwithstanding. Regardless of origins, they are a distinct Hungarian-speaking ethnic group accounting for a very significant portion of the significant Hungarian population in Romania. HOWEVER, this dish is NOT named for them. It is, instead, named for a gentleman by the name of Szekely. Lang describes it thus:
“It is a cabbage dish that is not Transylvanian and was not created by the inhabitants there, the Székelys, and it is not even a gulyás. According to a letter in the magazine of the Hungarian restaurateurs guild, it happened this way: In 1846 the librarian of Pest County came too late to a little restaurant, Zenélő Óra (the musical clock), to choose from the menu. The librarian, whose name was Székely (a rather common Hungarian name), asked the owner to serve the leftover sauerkraut and pork porkolt together on the very same plate. The improvisation was so good that the great poet Petőfi, who was nearby within hearing distance, the following day asked the restaurateur to give him Székely’s gulyás, meaning the same mixture Mr. Székely got the previous day. This time the owner topped it with sour cream and the dish, together with its name, became part of the everyday repertoire.”

Regardless of origin, Székelygulyás is so fundamental, so basic a dish of this region that you will not find a Hungarian cookbook without a recipe for it.

As with any dish of this kind, there is general agreement about the ingredients and preparation but disagreement about the fine points. Thus, some suggest adding green peppers, some push tomatoes, some suggest adding red peppers, some say marjoram, and so forth. I chose to rely, as before, on George Lang’s The Cuisine of Hungary. Lang is well-respected and widely cited and that’s good enough for me. Besides, his preparation had the virtue of clarity and simplicity.

Your ingredient list:
1 large diced onion
1/8 pound of lard
1½ pounds of diced lean pork
1 tablespoon of (sweet) paprika
2 tablespoons of tomato puree
2 pounds sauerkraut, well-drained
½ teaspoon caraway seeds
salt to taste (I didn’t use any)
½ cup sour cream



I began by sauteeing the onion in the lard until translucent; added the pork, and cooked until lightly browned. Lang says to cook it covered but I found this kept too much moisture in the pot (a large Dutch oven); the meat cooked faster with it off. (I used some nice-looking pork chops though most recipes will suggest that pork shoulder/pork butt is just fine. Most recipes suggest that the pork be cut in one-inch cubes; I cut mine about half that size because I just like it that way: more little pieces mean more little pieces of porky goodness scattered throughout the dish.



Next, add the tomato puree and the paprika. Next time, for what it’s worth, I will either add more tomato or leave it out entirely. I found that the amount called for added little in the way of color or taste. So too with the paprika. I think the dish is just fine with one tablespoon, but I think I might double it. At this point, pour in enough water to cover the meat and cook over low heat until the meat is done.



Squeeze any remaining liquid from the draining sauerkraut and add it to the pot with the caraway. (Again, though Lang doesn’t specify, I saw elsewhere that you should “bruise” the caraway and I think that’s a good idea to help release essential oils. Bruise whole seeds; don’t use powdered!) Cook for another ten to fifteen minutes, adding the salt at the very end, if you need it. I didn’t need any at all.



You can serve at this point (each dish topped with a splot of sour cream) or you can cool it and reheat the next day. I personally prefer it a bit more cooked; I like the pork to fall apart. Lang lists at least eight variations on this basic recipe, the most compelling of which (to me, at any rate) is to mix a little flour into the sour cream, add the whole thing to the dish and cook an additional ten minutes.



Serve it over boiled potatoes or dumplings. And enjoy.

Very nice, Gypsy Boy!

LTHForum is getting quite a collection of Hungarian recipies and this certainly makes a worthy and elegant addition.

I'm able to get decent saurkraut in Stockholm (decent though not excellent) but anything beyond supermakret-type paprika eludes me. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong markets.

Thanks for the post and inspiration!

I make this recipe the same, minus the tomato puree. I don't use any at all, only because, the way I was taught the recipe didn't include it. I also encorporate all the sour cream into the dish prior to serving. Again, I just think it was the way I was taught the dish. I can't imagine that it would make a big difference. My mother in law is actually Szekely, she's from Gheorghe, or Sepsiszentgyörgy if you like.

It's interesting because when I was learning to cook Hungarian dishes I ended up learning two ways, the more traditional way, and then the recipes like this with the Szekely spin on them. I enjoyed seeing you prepare this recipe.

Looks perfect! Thanks for expanding the Hungarian collection of recipes. Erzsi, it's your turn now.

That's pretty much exactly the same way I make mine except I use slightly fattier pork (shoulder, like you mention), and omit the tomato puree (like Erzsi). Rendered bacon fat is great in place of lard if you've got it. I'm surprised that you felt one tablespoon of paprika might not have been enough for the dish. The final product looks perfect to me.

Amazing how many variants we already have! I use bacon grease, double the tomato puree, pork shoulder, a tsp of a mixed 'goulash' seasoning (has some caraway already in it) that I got in Salzburgh, plus (don't hate me for this, pls!) the remainder as Spanish smoked paprika. I also add a bit of this




near the end of cooking, then swirl in the sour cream just before serving.

Everyone's a bit different, but it ALL sounds great! And Gypsy Boy--it looks wonderful, tnx so much for the pix.

Geo

Geo wrote:Amazing how many variants we already have! I use bacon grease, double the tomato puree, pork shoulder, a tsp of a mixed 'goulash' seasoning (has some caraway already in it) that I got in Salzburgh, plus (don't hate me for this, pls!) the remainder as Spanish smoked paprika. I also add a bit of this




near the end of cooking, then swirl in the sour cream just before serving.

Everyone's a bit different, but it ALL sounds great! And Gypsy Boy--it looks wonderful, tnx so much for the pix.

Geo

I smuggled three tubes of that back in my suitcase on my last trip to Hungary.

For those who are not intimately familiar with Hungarian food products or who cannot read Magyar, the tube contains paprika paste (sometimes called paprika cream) and it comes in both mild and hot versions.

Oooops, sorry! Tnx Gypsy Boy, I forgot to mention what it is...!

It used to not be available in the US, and the guys at the Hungarian economic legation in D.C. told me they brought it in in the diplomatic bag for their own use. But I can get it in several places in Montreal.

Geo

Nice job, Gypsy Boy. I love this stuff, it's one of my favorite Hungarian dishes.

As I was picking up some fresh pork hocks a few days ago, I remembered this thread and decided to do a similar dish from Lang's The Cuisine of Hungary. I've done this dish a few times over the years (Pig's feet as in Brasso, p.230), and I have always been amazed by the transformation of sauerkraut into something so wonderfully savory.

Substituting the fresh pork hocks for feet, I went about searing them in lard, and then braising them in sauerkraut under a foundation of lard fried onions, with garlic, caraway and paprika. Once the hocks are meltingly tender, you add a good amount of sour cream, a touch of flour and some fresh chopped dill for the last 5-10 minutes of cooking. Total cooking time is about three hours.

Perfect meal for a cold day.

This reads like a great cold-weather recipe, which I will try next week.

The German half of my pedigree loves sauerkraut, and the Irish half is, naturally, big for potatoes, so I don't see how this can miss. Pork, of course, is universal.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Mike

My mom makes the same thing but dumps the stew with sauerkraut on some par cooked rice and finishes the whole thing as a casserole in the oven. In the end up have some seriously rich rice with some nicely browned pork and sauerkraut on top. Serve with sour cream and you have a hell of a dish.

That does look so good. I'll have to try it. I love cabbage in any form. And I love sauerkraut. Most people don't know how to make it. Most just dump it out of a can or jar and are surprised how blah it is. Drain it, saute it in a little bacon fat, add some finely diced bacon and onion that you fried out to get the fat, and add about 2 tbsp. of brown sugar. Caroway seeds optional. Yum.

Also cabbage is very healthy and has a lot of good things in it from a health perspective.

What type of sauerkraut are you using? I assume its an upgrade from plain old Frank's. The Polish brand in the jars? Perhaps you make your own?

After some experimentation, I've found that using the bagged stuff (which, often as not, means Frank's) works out perfectly well. I don't have the devotion or the discipline to make my own (though it's a project worth reconsidering). The canned stuff--any brand--is too..."preserved" to my palate. My sense, though, is that it's probably not unlike the advice people give on what wine to use in cooking: never cook with anything you wouldn't drink on its own. If you like the flavor of the sauerkraut, whatever its provenance, use it. And good luck!

I agree with Gypsy Boy. I've never had any problems with Frank's myself--I mean, it's all naturally fermented sauerkraut, isn't it? While I can just go down to the Polish deli and pick some sauerkraut from the barrel, Frank's does fine.

Hi,

I am making this over the weekend. One cannot have too much pork or sauerkraut, plus it has six years since this thread saw the light of day.

Thanks, Binko!

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I am making this over the weekend. One cannot have too much pork or sauerkraut, plus it has six years since this thread saw the light of day.

Thanks, Binko!

Regards,
Cathy2

Don't thank me. This one was all Gypsy Boy's doing!

Binko wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I am making this over the weekend. One cannot have too much pork or sauerkraut, plus it has six years since this thread saw the light of day.

Thanks, Binko!

Regards,
Cathy2

Don't thank me. This one was all Gypsy Boy's doing!

I always associate you with Hungarian dishes. Duh!

Thank you, Gypsy Boy!

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I am making this over the weekend. One cannot have too much pork or sauerkraut, plus it has six years since this thread saw the light of day.

Thanks, Binko!

Regards,
Cathy2

I will make it this week as I have a leftover 1# of Bavarian Wine Sauerkraut from New Year's Day

Just BTW, I've started to make my own whole-head sauerkraut and it is astounding! Texture and flavour are infinitely better than anything you can buy in the store. I highly recommend it. Tonight I'm using it with Kassler Ripchen--smoked and cured pork chops. It's fantastic to cook with.

Geo

https://agardenerstable.com/2014/02/11/how-to-pickled-cabbages-whole/

Geo wrote:Just BTW, I've started to make my own whole-head sauerkraut and it is astounding!

Oh, wow. I never even heard of such a thing and, sure enough, second sentence of the article you linked to, that author expresses the same sentiment .... Hmmm... Gotta give this a try. Have you been doing it core intact, core scored, or core removed?

Binko, you're going to *love* this stuff.

I did my first batch with the core removed and I think that that allowed too much penetration. The current batch is just cross-cut and it's clearly going along better.

Had some of the first batch last night. Oh wow, just sooo good!

BTW, two cautions: make sure that the heads are always covered with brine; and, secondly, I think her approximation of salt saturation might be a bit high. But the final kraut can also be soaked a bit, and not lose flavour or texture.

Try it, and tell us what you think! You're our pioneer in MittelEuropa! : )

Geo

Alright Geo, I went for it. Two cabbage heads plus water to cover, 7600g. 235g for a 3% brine. Sitting in the garage now with a towel to cover. How long should I wait? I'm thinking one month before I test the first one.

I'd go six weeks, Turkob. Maybe take a tiny core sample at a month, but don't expect completion. Takes a while for the salt to penetrate. Hope you like it-- we sure do!

Geo

What type of container for the brine + heads do you use? My parents always used the big ceramic pots and kept them in a dark corner of the basement.

Puckjam,

I use a special crock that allows you to make a water seal at the top.

Geo
https://tinyurl.com/r8ezm3z

Geo wrote:Puckjam,

I use a special crock that allows you to make a water seal at the top.

Geo
https://tinyurl.com/r8ezm3z

For my kraut, I use a five-gallon food safe pail and a two-gallon ziploc bag filled with water emulating the brine to prevent any dilution if the bag should leak.

Cheap and it gets the job done.

I have been contemplating fermenting whole head cabbages, too. I am really grooving to this topic.

Regards,
Cathy2

I buy sarma from the Croation Church here in Milwaukee twice a year. They have sales in the spring and fall each year as a fundraiser. You have to order in advance. It freezes well and it is always made from sour heads....That in itself makes it a winner.

Does it need to be air tight? Mine is sitting in a stock pot with a towel on top.