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Hungarian Goulash

A stew of beef, potatoes, and spices simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Hungarian Goulash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces.

  2. Brown the beef in a little fat.

Simmer

  1. Add enough water to cover the beef.

  2. Cut the potatoes into cubes and add them to the pot.

  3. Add mixed spices, salt, and pepper to taste.

  4. Simmer for two hours.

Finish

  1. Thicken the goulash with flour before serving.

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. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Long simmering breaks down tough connective tissue, making the cheaper cuts tender.
Fat
Browns the beef surface, adding deeper savoury flavour to the stew.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering, releasing starch that adds body and absorbs the seasoned liquid.
Mixed spices
Add aroma and warmth that permeate the simmering liquid and meat.
Flour
Its starch swells when heated in liquid, thickening the goulash into a richer sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the goulash with flour before serving. Flour starch only thickens when heated in liquid. Dry flour stirred in directly clumps into lumps that stay raw-tasting, so it should be blended smoothly into the liquid and simmered briefly.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Okrafits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, flour. 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.

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