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Secrets of the Hungarian kitchen – Most popular spices and herbs
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New year.. new kitchen? Give your spice cabinet a piquant makeover by stocking up on the most popular ingredients Hungarians use to season their oh-so-tasty traditional dishes, from chicken paprikash to goulash soup. In this article, we will get you familiar with the top 4 most essential Hungarian spices and herbs used in the local cuisine. Aprons on, people!
Paprika – The king of Hungarian spices
The absolute star of the spice cabinet, paprika is an indispensable ingredient in Hungarian cuisine. Locals love to sprinkle it in abundance on every possible dish from meaty meals to soups and savoury pancakes. If you are not on the spicy side, watch out because you might even find it in supposedly sweet products such as chocolate. Hungarian paprika has gained quite a bit of fame around the world for its outstanding quality. Even if you live abroad, chances are you will find it in most of the bigger supermarket chains.
According to centuries-old practice, locals leave large bundles of chilly paprika under the sun to dry off which brings out an irresistible aroma. Following this process, the plant is crushed and ground into powder. Some households or small manufacturers even keep the seeds inside when preparing paprika powder. This practice is often wrongly believed to be the factor that determines the level of piquancy, which can range from sweet and mild to hot as hell.
Whether the paprika will just pleasantly tickle your taste buds or you will end up in tears while desperately gulping large glasses of water in fact depends on the region the spice comes from.
Paprika cultivated in northern Hungary grows in slightly colder temperatures which will result in a sweeter flavour while the southern version will likely give a hard time to people who have low spice tolerance.
Marjoram – The herb of love
Occasionally, Hungarians like to come up with mocking terms to claim their local versions of the joys far-flung lands possess but their own country lacks, just think of the Hungarian sea (we mean Lake Balaton if you suddenly felt unsure about your geography skills). It is no different with the spices either as marjoram is often referred to as the Hungarian oregano even though the two plants do not bear similarities in taste.
Marjoram was thought to be the herb of love in ancient Greece and was linked to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.
According to the myth, she was born from the foam of the sea, near Cyprus. As she stepped on the island, the place suddenly blossomed over with marjoram. No wonder, this plant became the symbol of love and happiness among couples and newlyweds. In Hungarian folklore, young girls who reached the age to get married used to place a small bundle of marjoram under their pillows in the hope of finding a suitable husband in the village. There is even a Hungarian folk song that mentions marjoram in a context that it should be planted in the garden of lovers who suffer from heartache over losing their sweethearts.
It’s a shame that the article did not include minerals. Then it could have included salt. Generally speaking, both restaurants and home cooks use so much salt as to render most dishes inedible to those of us with refined palettes or those of us who try to eat reasonably healthily.