Skip to main content
Main

Hungarian Goulash

A hearty stew of veal, onions, potatoes, paprika, and cream simmered in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hungarian Goulash

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a kettle, heat the butter or drippings over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onions and fry until golden.

  3. Add the veal and cook until browned.

  4. Pour in the water, cover, and cook slowly until the meat is tender.

  5. Add the paprika, black pepper, and salt, then place the diced potatoes on top.

  6. Cover and cook until the potatoes are tender but not falling apart.

  7. Stir in the cream and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, covered cooking in liquid.
Onions
Frying until golden builds sweetness and savory depth that forms the base of the sauce.
Potatoes
Hold their shape during gentle cooking and thicken the sauce slightly as their starch releases.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the sauce at the end.
Butter or drippings
Carries heat for frying the onions and veal and adds rich flavor and browning.

The step that matters

Cook the potatoes until tender but not falling apart. Potatoes keep their shape only if heated gently and covered; vigorous boiling breaks down their starch and turns the stew mushy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, potato, butter, cream, pepper):

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, potato, butter, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More hungarian goulash recipes

Soup 3 See all 27 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes