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Hungarian Goulash

A stew of cubed steak, onions, butter, paprika, salt, stewed tomato, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hungarian Goulash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the steak into cubes and slice the onions thinly.

  2. In a large saucepan, heat the butter until it bubbles.

Cook

  1. Add the meat and onions, browning them slightly.

  2. Stew slowly until the meat is tender, adding water if needed.

  3. One-half hour before it's done, add salt, paprika, and a little stewed tomato.

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 + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Becomes tender through slow stewing, giving the goulash its main body.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, building flavour into the stew.
Butter
Carries the heat and adds richness while the meat and onions brown.
Stewed tomato
Adds acidity and moisture, rounding out the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the seasonings half an hour before the end. Paprika is a ground spice that can turn bitter or scorched if cooked too long or at high heat, so adding it late in a slow stew keeps its flavour fresh and mild.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter. 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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