No more cheap, low-quality Kürtőskalács
After the changes in bread, now the kürtőskalács sees a new beginning as well. Magyaridok.hu reports that the Hungarian agricultural ministry has introduced a new regulation on the kürtőskalács, regarding the recipe, the preparation process and the ingredients. According to this, only those products can be sold as kürtőskalács that meet the requirements, thus eliminating the pastries that only resemble the original kürtőskalács.
The kürtőskalács is one of the most popular pastries of the region, sold at almost every corner in Budapest, but with huge differences between the stands. The agricultural ministry has published a new regulation with the aim of establishing a uniform quality and getting rid of low-priced poor quality products.
According to the description, the kürtőskalács should be prepared with traditional methods, from raised dough, should be rolled and be at least 17 centimetres long, with the smallest diameter being at least 5 centimetres. The dough has to be rolled on a baking spit, then covered with sugar and roasted over charcoal. The end product should have a caramelised, shiny and crispy sugar coat, with the sweet dough baked evenly up to the point where it becomes soft and sleazy.
There is a differentiation between the traditional and the market-sold kürtőskalács. For the previous ones, only butter can be used, while for the latter, the butter can be substituted with oil, margarine, the eggs with powdered eggs, and the milk with powdered milk. If the latter option is chosen, then it should be indicated on the label. In the market-sold category, it is allowed to use flavourings like lemon zest, lemon juice, rum, raisins or chopped up dried fruits, and the vanilla beans can be swapped for vanilla flavouring.
You will recognise the traditional kürtőskalács from the EU symbol and the ‘traditional Hungarian pastry’ indicated on the label and from the crust: the traditional kürtős can be coated with nuts, almonds, peanuts and cinnamon, whereas the market-sold ones are usually coated with cocoa, coconut or chocolate, as these three flavourings are allowed only in the lesser quality category.
The most important rule is that the kürtőskalács can be sold only made fresh, if it was baked over four hours ago, then it cannot be sold.
Ce: bm
Source: magyaridok.hu
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4 Comments
I’m not sure “becomes soft and sleazy” is the right description for this, lol.
How can you regulate a food product? As a chef / baker, I am always looking to improve my skills and recipes. I have eaten some great Kurtoskalacs in hungary and some terrible ones. Personally, the biggest issue I have seen with street vendors in Hungary (and Czech) is that they don’t allow the dough to rise on the cooking roll. They are in a rush to sell as much as possible to the waiting tourists and don’t care about the quality of the Kurtos. They will put the dough onto the cooking roll, paint with oil, apply sugar and then bake. By doing this, the inside of the dough is usually uncooked. The dough needs to rise on the cooking roll so that the heat from the grill can pass through to the inside. Dictating a recipe is not the way to go. If a stall makes a bad ham- burger, no one will go back, the same as if a stall makes a bad Kurtoskalacs. I have taught hundreds of Hungarians how to make Kurtoskalacs and many use our recipe and say it’s better than what they have tasted in Budapest. Embrace innovation! My team invented the “Savoury” version and a couple of years ago, the Cornet version (for ice cream), images of which went VIRAL around the world. I have recently seen vendors in Hungary / Balaton making the cone version with ice cream and they have told me that they have got brilliant feedback! The cone with ice cream version is allowing vendors who would only sell HOT kurtoskalacs at Christmas market to get involved in the summer season too.
Oh and the Kurtoskalacs in the photo at the top of this news article looks terrible! Should be soft and fluffy on the inside and cooked. These look undercooked which will result in you getting a bad stomach from consuming undercooked dough.
The cooked dough should also have a nice taste and texture and shouldn’t be disguised by the sugar or topping.
“traditional kürtős can be coated with nuts, almonds, peanuts and cinnamon, whereas the market-sold ones are usually coated with cocoa, coconut or chocolate, as these three flavourings are allowed only in the lesser quality category”
How is a topping of say peanuts a ‘higher quality product’ than one say coated in coconut.. that’s how ‘insane’ this is..
We have a flavour where we use ‘freeze dried raspberry’ which is a very expensive topping option to use.
Don’t dictate, let vendors be creative and original.