New Home on the Range: Towards an American History of Hungarian Goulash

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The dish we call “goulash” was born, famously, on the grasslands of Hungary. A filling soup of beef, onions, (usually) potatoes and pasta, and seasoned generously with paprika, it began its career as food for cattlemen: the name comes from the Hungarian gulyas, or “cowboy.” It is the pride of Hungarian cuisine and Hungarian culture’s mealtime ambassador to the world. But Googling a recipe for it today yields version after version containing “un-Hungarian” combinations of ingredients—Worcestershire sauce, “Italian seasoning,” dill pickles, sweet corn, soy sauce—that more evokes Hamburger Helper than the hardy herdsman.

This paper aims to find out how gulyasleves, “cowboy soup,” turned into an anything-goes mish-mash, and to explore the changing cultural significance of the dish as it transitioned from immigrant cuisine to mainstream Americana. How did regional influences shape this evolution? When, where, and in what circumstances did goulash lose its “Hungarianness?” And what does all of this say about how dishes—and entire cuisines—change (or not) as they are passed from one socio-cultural setting to another? To investigate these questions, I will be combing 19th/20th century cookbooks, newspapers, menus, and other sources, mapping out the form and meaning of “goulash” across the U.S.A.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Andrew Behrendt is Associate Teaching Professor of History at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He specializes in the history of tourism and cuisine, with articles on these topics appearing in Hungarian Cultural Studies, the History of the Habsburg Monarchy series of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the Innsbruck/New Orleans series on Contemporary Austrian Studies (forthcoming). He is working on his first book, The Food Cultures of Hungary, which will appear as part of the Bloomsbury Global Kitchen series