Goulash - Gulyasz

If you've traveled in Germany you probably have encountered "Goulaschsuppe" or Goulash Soup. This is usually pleasant stuff and inexpensive, a beef soup with little beef in it and lots of flavor. That has about the same relationship with "real" Goulash as canned bean chili with beefy "Texas" chili.

I had bought a 3 pound tray of "flap meat" from Costco. Flap meat CAN be simply grilled and eaten, it resembles hanger steak, but what I prefer is to make it into soup or stew, including chili, goulash, or carbonnade a la flammande (stovery). The beefy flavor is wonderful and the long wet cooking makes the meat deliciously tender. We are invited to a friend's house 50 miles away and we often take food when we visit those friends, largely because our cooking is appreciated there so much. Louise made a cake and I made goulash. These friends don't like food that is the least bit hot.

There are two main recipes that I like. One is in Jon Peterson's "Soup" and that is an exquisitely detailed recipe which produces a rather wet and soupy version of goulash. Still full of beef and beef flavor. The other, which I made last night, is from "The Best Soups and Stews" from America's Test Kitchen. That leads to a thicker stew, almost pure beef with sauce. When I make this for myself I use quite a bit of hot paprika, so it comes out like Hungarian (Texas) Chili, but this time I used no hot paprika at all so it is purely savory and mmm it's good this way, too. I'll just type in the ingredients:

1 (3 pound) beef chuck roast (I used the flap meat)
3 Tb vegetable oil or lard (I actually used the lard!)
3 medium large onions coarsely chopped
6 medium cloves garlic, minced
5 tablespoons sweet paprika
1/4 cup flour
3 cups chicken stock
2 Tb tomato paste
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried marjoram
2 large bell peppers, red and green (mine were yellow and orange)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

So you cut the meat into 1.5 inch cubes, dry and saute in Dutch Oven until browned, and set aside.
You put the onions into the pan and fry 8 minutes and then add the garlic for another minute.
Dust the onions with the paprika and flour and fry for a couple of minutes (I think of this as the "masala")
Gradually add the chicken stock, scraping and stirring. This turns the masala into a sauce.
Add the tomato paste, bay leaves, marjoram, and some salt (if you had low salt chicken broth).
Add the meat, put a lid on the dutch oven and stick in 300 degree oven for 1 hr 20 min.
Add the coarsely chopped peppers and continue in the oven for another 40 minutes.
When ready to serve, mix 1/2 cup hot sauce with 1/2 cup sour cream and stir back into the stew.

All that paprika plus the 2 fresh peppers gives a wonderful peppery sweetness to the broth. Using chicken broth instead of beef broth keeps it a little lighter. I wanted to loosen up the sauce a bit so I added a cup of red wine (cotes du Rhone). I put it out on the balcony (chilly outside) imagining that I would be able to remove a layer of fat from the top this morning but it didn't really separate that way. Sure does taste good though!!!

Do you make goulash? Ever make the very meaty kind like this??

Frank, to the best of my recollection I have never seen "flap meat" for sale in a supermarket here. I do have a local meat distributor who will sell to the public though. Some he sells by the piece, some by the case depending on how he gets it shipped in. At times I see flap meat on his price list and at other times he is out. I suppose it is a piece that is sold most often to the restaurants, but I will pick some up, unless I have to buy a 40# case. Thanks for the recipe.

Bob, thanks for the reply. Naturally "America's Test Kitchen" has reasons for everything and they tell you why chuck roast is best. So it might actually be better than flap meat if that is hard to find. I suppose I buy it mainly because it's nearly always available in the meat department at my local Costco (in NJ). Meat is surprisingly regional -- Californians are always talking about Tri-Tip, and that is next to impossible to find here, under that name. I've seen it at a couple of the better butchers in Manhattan but never in NJ. I'm not entirely sure what flap meat =IS= but I enjoy cooking with it. If you are familiar with hanger steak, that's clearly in the same ball-park.

PS if I make this again soon (a possibility) I believe I will skip stirring in the half cup of sour cream at the end. It really changed the flavor -- someone mentioned Stroganoff and it was very reminiscent of that. I think it's better to leave it out and pass the sour cream separately. Without the sour cream it was just wonderfully beefy and fragrant with the paprika. The sour cream partly covered those up.

Thanks for this, Frank - it looks like a good recipe for the kind of cold, foggy days we've been having lately. I like the idea of passing the sour cream at the table rather than adding it in before serving.

[Jenise]

I love goulash! A former best friend and her husband were Hungarian--they left that country as teenagers--and she used to make goulash frequently. She always served it on top of a pile of her homemade spaetzle. I miss it, though have never made it myself.

I envy you being able to buy flap steak--did you say you bought it at Costco? I used to be able to get it in Los Angeles, but not up here. I even asked for it but was told that there was no demand in our region for it, meaning they have made some decision at HQ about which ethnicities appreciate certain cuts (Mexican would be one for flap steak), and we're not strong enough in any of them up here for it to come our way.

I get the same response when I beg butchers to sell tri-tip.

Perhaps if I got all my friends to visit Costco wearing flip flops, Hawaiian shirts, and sunglasses they might re-consider??

How would the cooking time need to be adjusted for venison (of which I have an abundance, thanks to Gail's marksmanship on Thanksgiving Day).

Venison sounds delicious. You just keep fishing out a bite of meat and when you barely have to chew it, you're there!!

Upon reflection, this seems the perfect venison dish for the slow-cooker - put it on in the morning, wonderful meal ready after we get home from work.