In our country, there is no shortage of pacal, but it is certainly one of the most shareable foods. There are only two options, either you are disgusted by it or you love it. There is no middle ground. Hungarian cuisine makes many dishes from offal, which is basically healthy. Pacal is still a curiosity in restaurants today.
What is a pacal?
A pacal food made from the forequarters of cattle used for ruminating raw material. In Hungary, the raw, cleaned bale, cut into strips, is the primary material used. Beef stomachs are cleaned and sliced into strips about 1 cm wide before use. Its collagen and smooth muscle content give it the characteristic flavour of the dishes prepared from it. In the old days, dishes made from tripe were eaten by poorer people in our country and abroad. Today, it has become a gourmet delicacy.
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What do we make of it at home?
In Hungary, it is mostly - together with other types of meat - they make a stew of it. The typical, traditional recipe is not complicated. It starts with a stew base with onions, then the already precooked pacal is added. The dish is generously seasoned, paprika and we like to eat it spicy. It is usually served with potatoes as a side dish, but is usually eaten with fresh bread. Several varieties are known, such as the round, knuckle, marrow, ear, wolf pacal. The other common use is in pacalle soup.
Pacal is not a typical dish for family dinners, but rather just for a special occasion we prepare. It's most common in families where it's a tradition, but it's not often on the menu. One of the main reasons is that it is a lot of work. It is lengthy to prepare and takes a long time to cook. Therefore mostly eaten in restaurants, but wherever it's made, you can easily reduce cooking time by using pre-cooked strips, which are MATUSZ - VAD offer you can also find.
It is one of the dishes that has earned itself a place in the restaurant repertoire because of its national character.
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Interesting facts about the pacal
- In Portugal, Porto is nicknamed after the pacal. Because of poverty, sailors often ate it, especially with sausages and beans. The dish was called ”tripas à moda do Porto„, so the people of Porto were called ”tripeiros', or tripe-eaters.
- An Italian sailor is said to have escaped from the pirates by hiding in the hold of the ship when the battle seemed lost. Not just anywhere, but under a pile of tripe, so the smell probably deterred the pirates from rummaging around.
- Evangelical pastor Samuel Tessedik called Ilonka Szép „My dear only one”.
- In Mexico, the test of manhood is to eat a whole bowl of brutally chilli pacal. Do this and you become a man and win the favour of the girls.
- Funny saying by Frigyes Karinthy „Oh, paclak pacla, pacalfostó prostó”
- One of the chapter titles of the French writer Francois Rabelais's classic story, „How Garganella, pregnant with Gargantua, was fed with a pacalla.”
- No offal is eaten in America. Most of the tripe there is used for animal feed.
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The pacal is known worldwide
The sour Transylvanian pacalcsorba with sour cream, lots of garlic and lestyán. A Chinese seasoned with star anise and ginger. Perhaps this is a pacal dish that is recommended for beginner pacal lovers, it has a completely different taste than the pacal with drumsticks. In Poland eat a food called flaki, Porto the legendary dish of the city is tripas, Turkey they like pacalleve „iskembe corbasi” and eat it with bread. A Spanish callos a la madrilena is perhaps one of the most unpalatable dishes, as they add plenty of serrano ham and chorizo. In France make pork sausages, Switzerland -with nothing else but cheese and béchamel sauce. In most of Europe it is mostly prepared as a soup, but Mexico stuffed into tacos, India and cooked with chilli powder, coriander and lime.
