The gorgeous bright orange gravy on top of homemade chicken paprikash, one of the national dishes of Hungary, isn’t native at all: the paprika has been imported. The world-famous Hungarian pastries in Budapest bakery windows aren’t native either: the recipes and methods used to make them have been imported. However, these introduced foreign ingredients and processes don’t sentence the staples of Hungarian cuisine to a label of inauthenticity. Because Hungary is landlocked, its unique geographical and climatic features and its periodic cultural invasions have continuously evolved, rather than replaced, its national cuisine’s identity by bolstering its strong flavors.  

 

The landmarks of Hungarian cuisine are rooted in the settlement of the Magyars in the 9th century. Their migratory lifestyle meant that their meals had to be high in protein and in sustainability, so they dried and ground meats to flavor their hearty vegetable stews and soups (Food by Country). Although their resources were minimal, the rich flavors they extracted from these dried meats, onions, and spices became the longstanding basis of the ever-changing Hungarian cuisine for centuries to come.

 

The Magyars, although at the time new to the area, quickly learned the ins and outs of Hungary’s unique geographic setting as a relatively small and inland region. Hungary’s latitude, size, soil type, and thriving native crops are very similar to those of Indiana, meaning the country is best naturally suited for growing produce, especially grains and starches. Nearly two-thirds of Hungary’s total area is used for agriculture (Crop Trust), and for this reason, potatoes and other root vegetables are a key ingredient in many dishes. The same hearty but simplistic soups and roasts the Magyars would have cooked in their primitive cauldrons over open fires, like goulash, are still beloved Hungarian national dishes today (Laudan).

 

Hungary’s national dishes are also defined by its inland positioning. The country’s only waterfronts are on two rivers, the Danube and the Tisza, and the shores of the largest lake in Central Europe, Lake Balaton. While the rivers form the waterways of residential settlement, Lake Balaton is full of blue-green mineral water packed with freshwater fish. Families make halászlé, or fisherman’s soup, for dinner on Christmas Eve because the holiday falls in the prime of fishing season (Zwack). Halászlé also represents Hungary’s celebration of its own native resources, because it features as many types of native fish as possible, lending it a silky and rich flavor. To pay further homage to ancestral tradition, this soup is cooked in a cauldron over an open fire as the Magyars would have, and is prepared with only the freshest of ingredients, including the less often used fatty insides of the freshly-caught fish (Taste Hungary).

 

 

This tradition of strong, hearty, and flavorful traditional cuisine extends to Hungary’s drinks. There are at least twenty-two historic wine regions with unique microclimates in Hungary, which create different flavors and tastes from the thriving grapes (Visit Budapest). For example, Tokaj’s rolling foothills, which protect grapes from the cold winter winds and long summers and autumns, produce sweet grapes which are harvested late in the season (Bochanis). Tokaj, therefore, is famous for its sweet and bold white dessert wines which relieve the heavy flavors featured in accompanying dishes. However, other growing regions produce vastly different wines, including acidic white wines grown in the west’s mild snowy winters and heavier rainfall, champagnes and reds grown in the mountainous protections of the central region, and spicy reds grown in the south’s humid air (Visit Budapest). Surprisingly, the Magyars brought their knowledge of wine-making from the east, so these flavors are also very traditional accompaniments to early Hungarian cuisine.

 

 

Nearly six hundred years after Magyar settlement, however, these ancestral traditions began to evolve for the first time. In the 15th century, King Matthias of Hungary married Beatrice of Naples. The resulting alliance between Hungary and Italy brought Italian cooking styles into the spotlight in Hungary. With this more formal reintroduction, cooking became regarded as a noble activity rather than merely a necessary means of survival for the first time. In this collaborative period, the Italians introduced turkey, cheeses, pasta, and garlic into the modern Hungarian gastronomy. Trendy Italian cooking caught on with such ferocity that it gained the reputation and permanence it still holds in Hungarian society today.

 

However, seven Central European countries surround Hungary, so it has been invaded and conquered throughout history. Soon after King Matthias’s productive reign, the Turks invaded Hungary. With them, they brought new and vibrant flavors, such as coffee, peppers, and eggplants (Food in Every Country). Instead of overpowering and wiping out the flavors of Magyar heritage, these products allowed the Hungarians to find ways to creatively improve the dishes and traditions of their ancestors. For example, stuffed green peppers are featured prominently in famous Hungarian cookbooks (Stein), and coffeehouses have replaced open fires as centers of socialization and cultural mingling (Offbeat Budapest).

 

However, by far the most impactful contribution of the Turks to Hungary is the introduction of cuisine-defining paprika. The Hungarians have all but reclaimed their national identity by incorporating the imported deep red spice into each and every one of their national dishes and declaring it their national spice.

 

There are, of course, similar regional climatic advantages to growing paprika in Hungary as there are to growing grapes for wine. Hungarian paprika grows best in the driest, hottest areas of the country. For this reason, there are only two main paprika-growing regions: Kalocsa and Szeged. They produce similar paprika peppers, although most Hungarians will specify which region your paprika should originate from if you are following one of their recipes. To a seasoned chef, or even to a seasoned Hungarian, the specific flavors including acidity, sweetness, and spiciness of the peppers can be very different. Whether these differences is dictated by the regions’ different growing climates or just different production processes is scientifically debatable, but to Hungarian cooks, it is clear that the smokiness or sweetness of the paprika varieties in their spice cabinets are regional specialties.

 

If one judges a cuisine by its inclusion of ingredients originating in that place, Hungarian cuisine would be considered extremely inauthentic ― some of Hungary’s most representative ingredients are products of other countries and regions. The paprika, pasta, and sweet peppers introduced to Hungary from foreign lands have completely infiltrated its historic gastronomy. However, the beauty of Hungarian cuisine is its ability to take what has been forcibly introduced to its lands and make the best of it, injecting the new, imported ingredients and cooking styles into the dishes and methods of its culinary roots to continually improve upon the old. As Hungarian cuisine begins to “lighten up” (Fallon), the narrative will stay the same: Hungarian cooks will pay homage to the old, and welcome the new.

Works Cited

 

“A Guide To Budapest’s Coffee & Bar Culture.” Offbeat Budapest, 19 Sept. 2018, www.offbeatbudapest.com/budapest-city-guide/hungarian-coffee-and-drinking-culture.

 

Bochanis, Athena. “Hungarian Wine for the Win.” Wine Folly, 20 July 2016, winefolly.com/review/hungarian-wines-for-the-win/.

 

Fallon, Steve. “Six Secrets of Hungarian Cuisine.” Lonely Planet, Lonely Planet, 28 Apr. 2015, www.lonelyplanet.com/hungary/budapest/travel-tips-and-articles/six-secrets-of-hungarian-cuisine/40625c8c-8a11-5710-a052-1479d27603a2.

 

“Hungary.” Crop Trust, www.croptrust.org/country/hungary/.

 

“Hungary.” Food in Every Country, www.foodbycountry.com/Germany-to-Japan/Hungary.html.

 

Kociatkiewicz, Jerzy. “Tokaj Hetszolo Vineyard.” Wikimedia Commons, 17 Aug. 2007, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tokaj_Hetszolo_vineyard.jpg?uselang=fr.

 

Laudan, Rachel. “The Humble Beginnings of Goulash.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, Apr. 2016, www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/goulash-origins-food-history-atlas-of-eating-soup-smithsonian-journeys-travel-quarterly-danube-180958690/.

 

Stein, Joshua David. “Going Hungary: Meditations on a Last Meal.” Village Voice, 15 June 2018, www.villagevoice.com/2018/06/15/going-hungary-meditations-on-a-last-meal/.

 

User: TheMightyQuill. “Halászlé.” Wikimedia Commons, 17 June 2006, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Halászlé.jpg.

 

“Where To Eat Classic Fisherman’s Soup (Halászlé) in Budapest.” Taste Hungary, 10 Feb. 2015, tastehungary.com/journal/where-to-eat-classic-fishermans-soup-halaszle-in-budapest/.

 

“Wine Regions in Hungary.” Visit Budapest, visitbudapest.travel/wine-regions/.

 

Zwack, Anne Marshall. “Lake Balaton, Where Hungary Summers.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 June 1990, www.nytimes.com/1990/06/03/travel/lake-balaton-where-hungary-summers.html.