Thickening dishes with a rántás (“RAN-TASH”) is an important element of Hungarian cooking. Recipes won’t usually explain how to make a roux, the old ones assumed that it was common kitchen knowledge.
József Venesz writes: “It is very important that the roux should be made with hot fat, oil, or butter, browned, lightly or to a darker color – as needed. When thickening dishes with a roux, take care to prevent lumpiness: to avoid this, thin the roux when ready and brown with a small quantity of cold water. Always mix well until smooth and then add to the dish mixing constantly.”
Nowadays it is totally UNnecessary to put “rantas” into anything.
It was used in olden days, to “stretch” the food in poorer households.
Since it is basically just flower and grease
mixed together, you might as well eat bread with your soup, if you so prefer.
I would like to reply to Margherita’s statement “Margerita at September 19, 2011 1:16 AM” regarding “Nowadays it is totally UNnecessary to put “rantas” into anything.”
1. The recipe calls for it. To omit the “rántás”, would change the recipe and therefore it would not be “Töltött Paprika”!
2. As for: “It was used in olden days, to “stretch” the food in poorer households.”
This may well apply in the US or the UK but not in Hungary.
We were “dirt poor” but always had a vegetable garden, kept chooks and had access to meat, especially pork by bartering vegetables for it.
Perhaps Margerita would also like to instruct the great Escoffier, Jaques Pépin, or Larousse, as to why there is no necessity for “beurre manié” or “roux blanc” or “roux brun” or “béchamel”, just to mention a few. After all, they are only “flour sic(flower)and grease!!!
Perhaps, when making “hungarian Goulash” we should not dust the meat with flour either?
The reason that roux or in hungarian(“rántás”) is put into Töltött Paprika is to reduce the acidity of the tomatoes, counteract some of the sweetness of the sugar and compliment the sour cream when used.
And, last but not least, we do eat it with rustic hungarian woodfired bread.
BTW. When we make hungarian “pörkölt”, we use finely chopped onions to provide the thickening agent, so it is not always “flour sic(flower)and grease”!
Another point worth mentioning is that you can put a lot of sweet paprika powder into a dish for that thickening effect – I’ve told everybody about that.
My brother in in Hungary makes a wonderful paprika powder (actually his wife just this week had about 20 women working on the paprika almost a whole day) and we bring it to friends and family in Germany. I’ve often been told by them that it’s the best paprika in the world …