4 traditional Hungarian Pentecost dishes

The holiday of Pentecost is rather difficult to grasp; people mainly associate it with the long weekend. What do we celebrate during this period? We have gathered some of the most important elements of Pentecost, and since food is an essential part of every holiday, especially in Hungary, we also wanted to share some traditional meals.

Pentecost is a Christian feast (with pagan and Jewish roots) celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter Sunday. The expression comes from the Greek word ‘pentecostē’, meaning “fiftieth”. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and marks the birth of the Christian Church. According to the New Testament, Jesus’s disciples were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, also known as Shavuot, taking place fifty days after Passover. It was originally an agricultural festival celebrating the harvest, but the bestowal of the Ten Commandments is also connected to this holiday. 

Hungarians usually spend the long weekend relaxing, enjoying family dinners and events, or visiting the open-air baths around the country. Some believers go on a pilgrimage to Csíksomlyó to honour the Virgin Mary.

Traditional Pentecost dishes

Culinary traditions heavily depend on seasonal vegetables, fruits, and the ideal time for slaughtering certain animals. The majority of traditional Hungarian dishes are based on meat – lamb and poultry (mainly chicken) are the most common choices for Pentecost meals, said Mihály Sipos, a farmer and advocate for self-sufficient food production, to NlCafe. His book Fenntartható visszafejlődés (Sustainable regression) presents his journey from the initial difficulties to the establishment of a functioning self-sufficient family farm.

As the weather gets better, more people choose to cook outside, and lamb stew is a typical Pentecost dish. The mating of the sheep occurs in autumn and spring, so the lambs born at Christmas reach the ideal weight of 25−30 kilograms by this holiday.

Pentecost lamb stew

You can use any part of the lamb, except the offal, and leave the tallow on the meat to retain its distinctive flavour, advises the farmer. The stew is cooked over a low flame on small twigs in an hour and a half/two hours.

• Add the lard and the finely chopped onions to the pot and cook them until the onions get glossy and slightly yellowish.
• Remove the pot from the fire, add in the paprika, and stir it. It is important to remove the pot from the fire because paprika burns easily.
• Add in the diced meat, cook until they turn white, and season them with freshly ground pepper, salt, parsley, and tarragon.
• Add a little water, some grains of juniper berries, and the secret weapon: a handful of dried and crushed fairy-ring mushrooms.
• When the meat is almost ready, add some minced garlic. Stew is usually served with potatoes and salad.

Chicken soup and breaded chicken