kbn :: The Kosher Blog | Koshirts | Kosearch.org | ShopKosher.net
The Kosher Blog Network
Finding the finer side of everyday kosher living
Recipes

NY Times does Hungarian Food

By sweinberger
Published December, 13 2006 1:46 pm
E-mail this entry
RSS 2.0 Comments
Trackback

While it’s been debated here, whether or not the food in question is indeed Hungarian; the NY Times Food Section has an article on Hungarian food and the Satmar Hassisdic community in Kiryas Yoel - which Joan Nathan considers one of the few local communities serving the dishes. I guess she’s never eaten in my corner of Brooklyn. The names of the dishes are all in Yiddish (the lingua franca of Satmar Hassidim), but the recipes come from Szatmarnemeti, Hungary. Recipes included for delkelekh, letcho & stuffed, roasted chicken (I’m not aware of a Yiddish name for it). Sorry, no recipes for shliskes, kraut-pletzlach (cabbage noodles), goulash or holopches (stuffed cabbage).

16 comments so far (Post your own)
1.At 2:39 pm on December 13th, 2006, DeisCane wrote:

Most Satmars have historically kept use of their Hungarian language alive. Also, letcho (sic. lecso) is a Hungarian word, not a Yiddish name.

2.At 3:56 pm on December 13th, 2006, velorutionary wrote:

It was a great read. I grew up eating these foods…

I remember the stuffed chicken being called “Helzel.”

3.At 4:05 pm on December 13th, 2006, DeisCane wrote:

A problem I had with the article was the implication that these foods weren’t being made in Hungary currently.

4.At 4:27 pm on December 13th, 2006, sweinberger wrote:

DeisCane: You’re right on both points. Letcho isn’t yiddish (oops) and she does imply that these are ‘lost’ dishes. I don’t like much of Joan Nathan’s works. In The Foods of Israel Today, her recipe for shlishkes starts with a description of potato dumplings, but the recipe she found is regular fusilli, tossed with fried breadcrumbs.

velorutionary: Isn’t helzel a stuffed neck? Of course, these names aren’t canon - different people, different names.

5.At 4:33 pm on December 13th, 2006, DeisCane wrote:

I can tell you from first hand experience that many/most if not all of these are still being made in Hungary. I leave in 27 hours for another trip, so I’ll double check that none fell out of the Hungarian cuisine since August. :-)

6.At 5:59 pm on December 13th, 2006, velorutionary wrote:

She does mention in her article that the food is still made in Hungary, but not really here in the States.

sweinberger:
Helzel does literally mean neck, and being that the filling used in stuffed “Helzel” is the same, the name is used for both dishes (at least in my family, most likely in others, too.)

7.At 10:13 am on December 14th, 2006, DeisCane wrote:

“Some are still made in Hungary, and I’ve come across Americans who make noodles and cabbage with poppy seeds or who remember shlishkes. But with assimilation, shortcuts, the passage of time and the passing of old cooks, many of these recipes may soon be lost.”

That’s what she wrote, velo. Pretty damn negative if you asked me.

8.At 11:35 am on December 19th, 2006, velorutionary wrote:

Deiscane,

What she is saying is that in America people aren’t making it the traditional way anymore, as a general rule. I doubt she visited Hungary and looked into local traditions there, so she may be wrong rather than negative.

9.At 12:22 pm on January 6th, 2007, EDIE wrote:

does anyone knows the recepe for the Hungarian Choc. Babka. My family used to refer to it as “cocoish”

thanks,

Edie

10.At 12:17 pm on January 7th, 2007, Togi wrote:

Give me a break. This type of chutzpah is just too much. I have really had it with some you trying to claim Hungarian food as Jewish–judging by this blog and by some of the articles an d
cookbooks being written. How dare to simply assume that various Hungarian food is Jewish. Szatmarnemeti [translated means German of Satmar, hence the Yiddish dialect] ] which was ceded to Rumania with the horrible treaty of Versailles/ Trianon after WWI. Jews assimilated, modified but kept the names of the traditional Hungarian dishes for their table, like poppy seed pastries, various yeast breads, dumplings,cabbage dishes, etc. They are every Christian Hungarian’s bread and butter. I make them regularly, as do my Hungarian friends.

Btw: Choc as one of you asks about is actually “csok” which means kiss, so it could be any number of things. It is probably a sweet. My mother made them with finely ground nuts and egg whites baked in a very cool oven for a long time. It could be a chocolate as well. They are shaped like the Hershey kiss, because when you plop them on the baking sheet you pull up to make a cone type form.
I wish people would ask those in the know and do just a bit of research before claiming things as theirs that are not true.

11.At 9:38 pm on January 7th, 2007, DeisCane wrote:

I don’t really see people in this thread claiming this Hungarian food as specifically Jewish.

Your history lesson seems extraneous.

“They are every Christian Hungarian’s bread and butter”

Most Christian Hungarians’ bread and butter involves pork in some way, shape or form.

12.At 9:40 pm on January 7th, 2007, DeisCane wrote:

Also, if you’re referring to EDIE’s post about “choc,” it seems fairly clear to me that she was abbreviating the word, “chocolate.”

13.At 11:27 pm on January 7th, 2007, deeni wrote:

Choc. is definitely chocolate. cocish cake is like a very rich babka.

14.At 4:47 pm on January 8th, 2007, DeisCane wrote:

FWIW, it would be spelled csokis. :-)

15.At 9:00 pm on February 17th, 2007, J. Eppel wrote:

Last time I checked Letcho is pork. Many hungarian dishes are pork. November and December in hungary are considered to be “Pig Slaughter” celebration. Kiss or Csokis are made with “real” coco powder and egg whites, vanilla, hazelnuts can be added. I cook many hungarian dishes, my parents taught us all to cook hungarian.

16.At 10:11 pm on February 18th, 2007, DeisCane wrote:

Lecso does NOT require pork, though it’s often made with lard as the grease, if for no other reason than it has been the most common fat in Hungary forever. Many Hungarians put hot dogs or sausage in there for the smokey flavor, but they are far from required and they’re not the heart of the dish. The cubanelles are.

As for Disznotor (the pig killing festival day), actually, the most common time is in mid-January, leaving approximately 3 months until Easter, at which they eat many of the pork dishes that were prepared and by then, properly cured.

Post a comment