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Hungarian Goulash

A hearty stew of beef and veal with onions, paprika, caraway, and potatoes, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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. Melt the chicken fat in a pot.

  2. Add the chopped onion and sauté until translucent.

  3. Add the beef and veal, frying until browned.

  4. Season with salt, paprika, sugar, and caraway seeds.

  5. Pour in the hot water, cover, and let simmer until the meat is tender.

  6. Drain the parboiled potatoes and add them to the meat.

  7. Thicken the mixture with a little flour.

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. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Caraway + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main meaty texture and savory flavor as it browns and becomes tender.
Veal
Adds tender meat texture and mild savory flavor alongside the beef.
Onion
Sweetens and builds the savory base as it softens in the fat.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, soaking up the sauce and making the stew more filling.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a richer, heavier sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with a little flour. Flour needs to be cooked in the liquid to lose its raw taste and to thicken evenly. Adding it in small amounts and stirring well prevents lumps and keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the caraway

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, beef, veal, sugar, potato, flour):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, beef, veal, sugar, potato, 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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