SC - My Potato Salad

[Mordonna22@aol.com]

Adamantius wrote:
>Would anyone like to explain their take on the use of the word "goulash"
>in re American cooking as a reference to any of several types of dishes
>_other_ than the Hungarian/Austrian/German family of dishes known by
>that name, all generally meat stews/soups flavored with paprika?
...
>I know
>that German versions of goulash are considered pretty non-canonical by
>Hungarians, tending to contain odd things at times, including sausages
>and potatoes. In general, though, goulash as conceived in Europe is a
>far more simple, and also more sophisticated (terms not mutually
>exclusive, I assure you), than American dishes by that name.


I´m not an American, but I know of quite a few heretical versions of gulyás
all the same. Some of the Scandinavian versions I know of (at least the
older ones) are just simple meat stews in a thick sauce, with a couple of
onions and carrots, usually potatoes, no peppers or tomatoes, and maybe half
a teaspoon of paprika. The version my mother cooked didn´t even include
paprika, and the sauce was colored dark brown. But it was still called glás
(gulyás). Simple, yes. Sophisticated - well.

I was in Hungary the year before last and had many many bowls of gulyás. As
far as I can recall, all the versions included potatoes. And my two
Hungarian cookbooks (one of them by the great Károly Gundel) have several
versions of gulyás, all with potatoes. So I´m not sure Hungarians would
consider them an odd addition. Here is Gundel´s definition of the different
"basic dish-groups which use paprika":

Gulyás: prepared with onion and paprika, contains cubed potato and small
bits of dough (csipetke) and is a soup-like dish.
Pörkölt: more like a stew. Chopped onion is used to a greater extent and the
gravy is thicker and richer.
Paprikás: an elegant pörkölt. White meat is used, less onion and less
paprika flavor it. On the other hand the addition of sour cream or a mixture
of sour and sweet cream produces a smoother gravy.
Tokány: similar to pörkölt or paprikás, however the meat is not cubed but
cut in thin strips. Paprika often loses its dominant role: black pepper and
marjoram will be used more extensively; also bacon, sausage or mushrooms and
green peas may be used to add flavor.

Nanna

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