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Bograch in Transcarpathian

Transcarpathian bograch

A delicious, hearty meat dish borrowed from Hungarian cuisine. My husband and I first tried it at a restaurant of national cuisine in Mukachevo, while staying with friends. Even then, bograch amazed us with its rich, meaty flavor and aroma, and with how incredibly filling and tasty it is — and pretty spicy too. It's rich and thick, something between a first and second course, because at heart it's a goulash, a hot main dish. I'd suggest making it as a standalone dish, not for a holiday table where lots of different dishes are expected. Because, given how nourishing and rich it is, it can replace a whole meal, and your guests risk not getting to try anything else on the table. Men will love this dish, and women who aren't dieting will be pleased too. The key feature of this dish is that it should have a lot of meat and meat products, both fresh and smoked — at least 3 kinds. Ideally, some of the meat should be on the bone. Ideally, of course, this dish is cooked in a kettle outdoors (the name bograch comes from that word — the Hungarian for kettle). But at home it comes out no less delicious. Making it is no less involved than making a good borscht with all its components, but the result is worth it — take my word for it; and if you don't believe me, then try it and see. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Mama Sladkoezhek

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Pork

500

Beef

500

Pork ribs (I used young pork)

500

Dry-cured sausage (hunter-style; in Transcarpathia they use a homemade smoked sausage called pyknytsi)

200

Pork belly (smoked, with streaks of meat — namely smoked pork belly)

150

Potatoes (large)

Carrots (medium)

Tomatoes

Bell pepper (the dish will be even more colorful if you use one red and one green, though it's not essential)

Onion

Garlic

Paprika (ground)

Hot chili pepper (about 1/2 inch; if you like spicier food, use more)

Thyme (dried)

0.5

Caraway (1/4-1/2 tsp)

Ground hot pepper

0.5

Dill

Parsley

Salt (I used about 2 tbsp)

Red wine (dry)

100

Flour

Chicken eggs

Salt (a pinch)

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 31 % 9 g

Fats 45 % 13 g

Carbohydrates 24 % 7 g

182 kcal

GI: 86 / 0 / 14

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make Transcarpathian bograch? The ingredients you'll need. The onion, garlic, potatoes, and carrots are already peeled, and the herbs picked over. All of the above, along with the meat and peppers, have been washed thoroughly. To repeat, most of the meat and meat products are fresh, while a smaller part is smoked. Paprika is a must for this dish — it gives it its characteristic flavor.
Step 2:

Trim the fat from the ribs and the fattier part of the pork belly, chop it up, and render it down to cracklings in a hot kettle. Lift the cracklings out with a slotted spoon and set them aside for now.
Step 3:

Cut the ribs apart between the bones, and cut the rest of the meat into large cubes, as for pilaf.
Step 4:

In the pork fat, fry the onion, cut into small cubes, until lightly golden. Add the ground paprika to the kettle and fry over medium heat for no more than 5 minutes, stirring. Your job is to watch the paprika closely: if it burns, it will hopelessly ruin the flavor of a wonderful dish like bograch.
Step 5:

Right after that, add the cubed meat and the ribs, stir thoroughly, and keep it over the heat for a couple of minutes. Add water so that almost all the meat is covered with liquid. Simmer it all over low heat, stirring now and then.
Step 6:

As needed, top up the water so the meat always stays in a small amount of liquid, for 2–2.5 hours (until it's nearly done). In my bograch the meat was young and cooked in 1 hour 50 minutes.
Step 7:

Now, while the meat cooks, start making the csipetke — pinched dough (the Hungarian word csipkedni means "to pinch"). Essentially these are just little dumplings pinched off a piece of dough, dried a bit while the goulash cooks, and then added to it. So, knead a dough from 1 egg and the flour (no water). Knead it well.
Step 8:

You can gather the dough into a ball and pinch off random pieces from it, or roll it into ropes and, with floured hands, pinch off irregular pieces about the size of a large fingernail.
Step 9:

Then leave these pieces of dough to dry on a wooden board lightly dusted with flour. Before adding them to the bograch, turn them over on the board a few times, spreading them out evenly. When you put them in the kettle, try to take along as little flour as possible.
Step 10:

Next, as the recipe says, add the rest of the water, salt, the diced carrots, the spices, the hot pepper, the crushed caraway, and the minced garlic. Cook it all for another 30 minutes.
Step 11:

While the bograch-goulash cooks with the carrots and spices, cut the potatoes into fairly large chunks.
Step 12:

You can peel the tomatoes; the peppers need to be seeded. Cut these vegetables, and the carrots, into fairly large cubes, and chop the garlic medium-fine.
Step 13:

Cut the sausages into rounds, and the pork belly into cubes.
Step 14:

After 30 minutes, add all the cut vegetables to the kettle along with the cracklings you made earlier and the sliced homemade sausage (pyknytsi) and pork belly. Add water again so everything is just covered (by about a finger's width). Cook, covered, for another 30 minutes.
Step 15:

Then add the csipetke to the kettle. They cook quickly — literally 5 minutes. When they're done, they'll float to the surface of the bograch.
Step 16:

Chop a generous amount of fresh herbs and add them to the bograch-goulash. Stir, bring to a boil, and at this point add 100 ml of dry red wine. Let it come to a boil once more, and that's it — homemade bograch-goulash is ready!

A little about the history of bograch: the Hungarian word gulya means a herd of cows, and gulyás means a cattle herder. Accordingly, gulyás hús (hús means meat), or gulyás for short, translates as "herdsman's meat." For many centuries, herders cooked meat in their famous bogrács (kettles). That's where the dish's name bográcsgulyás comes from — goulash cooked in a kettle. Bograch-goulash (bograch-gujás) can be considered a purely Transcarpathian dish, since the region has many Hungarian towns and villages whose cooking traditions long ago blended with the culinary preferences of Transcarpathians. There are all sorts of variations on this recipe. In some areas they use beans instead of potatoes, and somewhere they add mushrooms. If the dish is cooked in a kettle over a fire, they also add a pork or veal shank, boiling it until the bones come away, then remove the bones, chop the meat, and return it to the bograch. And also, as soon as the kettle leaves the fire, a burning ember of a hardwood or fruit tree is plunged into the boiling goulash for a few seconds. Bograch-goulash (bogrács) is served in deep bowls in big portions (400–500 g). Bograch is truly one of the culinary calling cards of Transcarpathia. In the Berehove district, in the village of Koson, they even hold a Bograch Festival in early May, where several teams cook a couple thousand liters of it at once.
For how to choose the perfect pot for soup, porridge, or pickling cucumbers, see the article on pots.
Keep in mind that how you cut the carrots affects the final result of this dish: grated carrots will turn to mush during cooking and blend evenly with the rest of the ingredients, while carrots cut into sticks or cubes will hold their shape.
Since everyone's sense of saltiness, sweetness, bitterness, heat, acidity, and pungency is different, always add spices and seasonings to your own taste! If you're using a seasoning for the first time, keep in mind that some spices are especially easy to overdo (chili pepper, for instance).