A Karcag mutton stew was the first recipe to be included in the list of Hungaricums in 2013. For centuries, sheep have been the most important source of meat in the Nagykunság region, which has never been preserved, but eaten whole after slaughter. One sheep, one scrap, i.e. the whole animal is cooked at once in a large casserole.
Another way of preserving the tradition, besides declaring it a Hungaricum, is to organise a sheep-boiling festival in Karcag on the last Saturday of June. The only exceptions have been made in the last two years, then because of COVID. Jenőt Nagygyörgy, the President of the Karcag Sheep Brewers Association we asked him about what the real thing is mutton stew.
Well, what would it be like? Karcagi! Everything from the ears to the tail is included. The Kun people who prepared this dish were thrifty, because they used every part of the sheep. The stew includes the roasted head and shank, as well as all the offal: blubber, heart, lungs, liver, spleen. We really boil everything but the meat and the skin, but even the latter is processed and used. Incidentally, searing gives the stew a special flavour, which is quite different from just cooking the meat.
Why do you have to boil the bones in the stew?
What makes food even better are the substances that come out of the bones. I know that many places fillet sheep, I've even seen it at Gundel, but I much prefer it when the meat is cooked with the bone in.
What is the reason why you can't have a mutton stew without a bone chip? At least in my experience.
The majority of butchers still cut up the animal with an axe or cleaver, but we we're using a saw now, so we have a lot less bone chips. So the fact is, you've eaten the wrong mutton stew in the wrong place, so I suggest you try ours as soon as possible.
- Why did your recipe become a Hungaricum?
- Karcag has a centuries-old tradition of for cooking sheep, and our method is the most archaic, even within the Greater Hungary. Nowhere else is this dish cooked like it is here, perhaps only the Kazakhs' method is similar to ours. It is also important that it is a living tradition, and for that reason alone it should not be allowed to be lost. It is a warning sign that this dish has lost its popularity among young people and that nowadays they prefer to serve it as a fried dish. Fortunately, however, there are many weddings, christenings or name days where mutton stew is on the menu.
- Why should you try it?
- Precisely because it is unique. There are many misconceptions about sheep, such as that the meat „smells like sheep”, which is fine because you are aware of what you are eating. A real cook can see what he can get out of meat and knows how much fat to leave in the dish. We never use young mutton, as it is better to roast it, because it has a lot of moisture, which is not good for stew. You can make a juicy stock from 5-6 year old animals and use only natural ingredients in the cooking. Salt, ground red pepper, onion, garlic and a little fat underneath. There's nothing else in it, it's all dry matter that's not perishable. The finished dish is safe to put away, even in the freezer, because it will keep for a long time.
Is it worth adding mutton stew to the menu?
- If they can't prepare it well, I don't recommend it, because the guest will leave with a bad taste in their mouth. In our country, restaurants make larger portions of mutton stew, following the one sheep, one casserole principle, and then vacuum the dish so that it can be served fresh later. Unfortunately, in other parts of the country, some restaurants use the term 'Karcag' even when their stew has nothing to do with our tradition. The only place where you can get Karcagi is in our Nimród or the Park restaurant.
He told me that they cook mutton stew in a kaszroj, a big pot, and usually over an open fire. If you don't have a garden, can't build a fire, and don't have a kaszro, shouldn't you start cooking sheep?
Of course it is, it's just that a whole sheep, head and all, means 27-28 kilos of meat, which is very difficult to cook in a gas cooker. Although I think a big batch is the way to go, you can try smaller batches: you can do 5 or 10 kilos, but make sure you have a proportion of each part. If you want to start, I would advise you to call a Karcag sheep cooker, or, failing that, you should definitely visit our website, where you will find the original mutton stew recipe. Choosing the right meat requires more experience, but the dish itself can be prepared by anyone who has made a stew before. You're sure to find a mutton stew that will either be similar to a carcass stew or not.
