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How Do You Actually Make Goulash?

For goulash, in addition to suitable meat, you also need onions, lard, garlic, tomato paste, various herbs, and, depending on the recipe, vinegar, especially for our beef goulash red wine, grape juice, or broth. In addition to salt and pepper, paprika powder, cayenne pepper, and caraway are suitable as spices, marjoram, thyme, and rosemary are suitable as herbs. However, goulash is a dish with many possible variations. Some also add diced bacon or fresh peppers.

The meat is usually from the shank or shoulder of beef, but you can also use pork shoulder, turkey leg, or veal leg. The main thing is that the meat is cut into cubes about three to four centimeters thick and suitable for stewing. You can also process mutton or lamb as well as other varieties into goulash.

Take the meat out of the fridge two hours before cooking so it can come to room temperature and not go into the pot freezing cold. Heat the lard in a roasting pan or casserole on the stove and roast the meat cubes in batches. Don’t put all the meat in the pot at once, as this means you won’t be able to brown all the pieces evenly on all sides. Too much meat juice would escape and the meat could become tough. Set the cooked meat aside for now.

Then peel the same amount of onions as meat and, depending on your preference, 2-3 fresh cloves of garlic and cut both into large cubes. Fry the onion and garlic pieces in the hot fat over medium heat. The garlic must not become too brown, otherwise, it will develop a bitter taste. Once the onion and garlic chunks are a nice golden color, add plenty of paprika powder. Mix everything together and let the paprika powder roast briefly. The pieces of meat are then put back into the pot and the whole thing is seasoned with salt, pepper, and possibly some tomato paste and cayenne pepper. If you want to add fried bacon bits, now is the time.

Fry the goulash again briefly and deglaze the dish with wine, juice, or broth. Bring everything to a boil and reduce the heat to medium-high. With the lid closed, the goulash must now stew for about 90 minutes. Stir occasionally, if the goulash sauce has reduced too much, simply add more water. About 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add lemon zest, ground cumin, and marjoram. If necessary, you can also add pieces of paprika, e.g. in our veal goulash with paprika.

A classic accompaniment to goulash are boiled potatoes, pasta, or rice. Incidentally, what is known as goulash in German-speaking countries corresponds more closely to the Pörkölt dish in Hungary. The Hungarian Gulyás has a more liquid consistency and is more like a goulash soup. Tip: try our recipe for a classic goulash soup or for a wonderfully flavorful goulash in a kettle! Of course, you can also do without meat altogether. You can prepare a vegetarian version with our pumpkin goulash recipe.

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Written by John Myers

Professional Chef with 25 years of industry experience at the highest levels. Restaurant owner. Beverage Director with experience creating world-class nationally recognized cocktail programs. Food writer with a distinctive Chef-driven voice and point of view.

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