Recipe of the week: Hortobágy-style pancake

Combining meat and pancake is a common procedure all over the world, but the Hungarian Hortobágy-style pancake or crepe somehow stands out in the field of meaty specialties. Its origin is not as obvious as it sounds, but its recipe is just as time-consuming as it sounds. However, you must try to make it at home at least once in your life 🙂

Cookta.hu writes that even though the Hortobágy-style pancake is world-famous and is listed in all guide books as a Hungarian specialty, it’s actually not a real Hungarikum: it has nothing to do with the Hortobágy puszta (grassland biome on the Great Hungarian Plain) and it doesn’t look back on a long history. Still, it is very delicious when prepared properly, and it is still one of the most popular specialties you can get in Hungary.

The Hortobágy-style pancake was created for the 1958 world exhibition in Brussels (just like the Rákóczi cottage cheese cake, earlier) by a Hungarian chef, who thought that naming the meaty pancake Hortobágyi would be a great marketing plan. He filled the pancakes with veal stew. Thanks to its unique flavour it spread quite quickly among the visitors of the exhibition.

According to origo.hu, a very similar recipe is featured in a 1939 cookbook that was published by Andrea Kolmanné Lemhényi Dávid. She describes a pancake filled with veal stew and topped with sour cream mixed with gravy, which needs to be roasted in the oven. This is basically the gist of the Hortobágy-style pancake.

It is frequently referred to as the ultimate “leftover-saver” dish, because stew meals and pancakes are staples in the Hungarian cuisine, and you can also recycle other type of leftover bits in the filling. However, this is exactly why most people don’t suggest ordering it in a restaurant, only in trusty ones.

This great meal is actually a warm starter, but it is so filling that it stands its ground as a main course as well. It’s not the quickest dish, it requires several phases, but if you desire a truly divine Hungarian savoury meal, you should definitely try this recipe at home.

Regarding the recipe, it’s hard to choose the “real” one, because several variations have been created. It is commonly made with the meat of chicken thighs due to its juiciness. The key to the recipe probably lies in the quality of the paprika and sour cream that characterise many Hungarian meals.