Goulash

Lore & Background

The name goulash comes from the Hungarian word 'gulyás', meaning 'cattle herder' or 'cowboy'. The dish originally was gulyáshús ('goulash meat') prepared by herdsmen on the vast Puszta plains. In medieval times, Hungarian herdsmen used nearly every part of the animal, as meat was scarce. From the Middle Ages until the 19th century, the Puszta teemed with enormous cattle herds driven to markets in Moravia, Vienna, Nuremberg, and Venice; along the dusty trails, herdsmen would slaughter cattle and cook gulyáshús in heavy iron kettles over crackling fires, the aroma drifting across the grasslands.

Reader's Guide

In Hungarian cuisine, traditional gulyás is a hearty soup, not a thick stew—a crucial distinction from dishes like pörkölt and paprikás. Core ingredients include beef, onions, sweet paprika, caraway seeds, potatoes, carrots, and fresh egg noodles called csipetke (pinched from dough and dropped into the bubbling broth). Paprika and potatoes didn't join the party until after the 16th century, when they arrived from the New World. Modern goulash is typically made with beef, but original herdsmen used mutton (birkagulyás). Variations abound: bográcsgulyás is cooked in a kettle over an open fire, Székely gulyás adds sauerkraut and sour cream for tangy richness, and bean gulyás swaps meat for legumes. Outside Hungary, thick stews similar to pörkölt are popular across the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, with local spins in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia—each region adding its own twist of spice or vegetable.

Did You Know?

• Earlier versions of goulash did not include paprika, as it was not introduced to Europe until the 16th century.
• The word 'gulya' means 'herd of cattle' in Hungarian, and 'gulyás' means 'cattle herder' or 'cowboy'.
• In present-day Hungary, gulyás is known as a soup, and the Hungarian language makes a strict distinction between stews and gulyás.
• The name 'csipetke' comes from pinching small bits out of fresh dough (csipet meaning 'pinch') before adding them to the boiling soup.
• Legend has it that Hungarian shepherds would carry dried goulash bricks in their sheep-stomach bags, rehydrating them with water and fire to make a quick meal on the move.