Rafting

PieSusan

PieSusan

Tortes Are Us
My Hungarian grandma taught me this technique to use when making soup after skimming. She would beat egg whites and pour them over the top of the soup and let the soup cook. Then, when she removed the cooked egg white, all the little bits that she couldn't skim would be stuck to the bottom of the cooked eggs. Does anyone else do this trick when making soup from scratch?

Also, sometimes rafting will save you from having to strain.
 
I haven't done it but my Hungarian grand mother used to often herself. I guess it is one of those cultural things. She learned to cook Italian when she married my grandfather who was pure Italian. Their first place was in an apartment over an Italian restaurant in Hell's Kitchen NY so she used to go down and help in the kitchen and the chef taught her how to cook Italian. In my opinion she was the best cook who's food I've ever eaten regardless.
 
I don't doubt it, joec. A lot of folks tend to think Hungarians have a special talent for cooking and baking. I am prejudiced being half Hungarian. I have known a lot of good cooks though.
 
I'm really weird in nationalities. 1/4 each Hungarian, Italian which are father's side, English and Cherokee Indian my mother's side. Go figure though my name is Italian.
 
What kind of "bits" are you trying to get rid of? I guess if you have fussy eaters it would be a good way to have clear soup, but you can also just strain it through cheese cloth to get the floaters out.

My DW works for a Hungarian church in Lorain, and they will be making Kolbaz and Hurka for Easter. This gentile really enjoys pan fried Hurka with sauerkraut. Good stuff!
 
lol, with great ideas and all of that good food, you'd think they'd change the name from hungary to something else.
 
Yes, lilylove. It removes all those little bits of scum that form and some of the fat that would congeal and you would toss the next day. I can't say it removes all of it.

I am in the midst of making a version of my Grandfather's Hungarian Beef and Barley and Vegetable Soup. I don't really have a recipe, I just do what I was shown.
 
Those are the best recipes at least for me. It is hard to put down on paper many of my grandmother's recipes because she never measured anything just knew how much and put it in. I pretty much do the same but often try to write them down for my kids after I'm gone. Really need to keep some of these things for them as I know they love them when I make them and want to know.
 
good on ya, joe.

i am constantly telling the guys that i work with (that are amateur foodies) to go visit their mamas and get them to write everything down.

my mil was an excellent slovakian cook, but never taught my wife any of her recipes or techniques. i think she thought if we could make it, then she'd have less to offer, or be less special in some way.
now that she's gone, some of those things that we loved about her are gone too. it's a shame.
 
It is a shame, bt. I don't have as many of the recipes as I would like but I do have lots. I also know how my grandma cooked so if I find a similar recipe online, I can usually tweak it.

Funny thing is I often find Hungarian recipes with Slovenian or Polish or some other Eastern European Country's name in front of it. lol ;-)

However, it is all good to me. What matters most is taste and that it is made with love.
 
I was fortunate in that my Polish grandmother taught me alot about cooking and baking. She would show me how to make things, have me make it myself and then let me know what I was doing wrong or right. Before she passed I was lucky to be able to get all her recipes from her written down and to know most of them I did right!! She was a great teacher.....

Barb
 
I also actually learned a lot about cooking from my grandmother and my wife spent a year with her learning how to cook. She can make most of the really outstanding dishes my grandmother made (at least my favorites) and I've picked her brain too to get them on paper. I know have most saved to my computer and slip them out from time to time. Even my pasta sauce is close to hers in taste though I don't spend 8 hours making it, even she said she couldn't taste the difference between them. But then she lived with us the last few years of her life.
 
It's a cultural heritage passed down from generation to generation. The foods of our forefathers.
I come from German background and have loved German dishes.
 
My Grandmother, who had a hungarian, russian background, honestly wasnt a great cook. But made a great vegetable/ mushroom barley soup. it was under seasoned since she had ulcers and diabetes.... but the general taste was there. No one ever thought to get the recipe from her. So literally on her death bed, I asked her for the recipe which she gave me. I remember how she stressed to use exactly 16 stringbeans :smile: to this day, I still count out 16 stringbeans every time i make the soup. Also, her measurements wernt conventional measurements, but were as measurements in relationship the the one pot she always used to make it ( fill to one inch from the top ...) So I was lucky enough to get the recipe from her, and also inherit the pot
 
The only thing that I don't remember how my mom made it is Swiss Steak. It wasn't something she made often. I know it had onion in it and no tomato. She pounded flour into the thin pieces of beef with a the side of a dish and she made it on top of the stove. This was always served with mashed potatoes from scratch and vegetables and salad. My mom always used fresh vegetables and almost always steamed them. She didn't like them boiled to death. I think she was before her time on that one.
 
I haven't done this since college. This is part of the technique to make consumme. We always mixed the cold egg whites with lean ground meat in the bottom of the pan, then CAREFULLY poured the cold stock over the mix so that it didn't break up the mass or create any holes. CAREFULLY put the pan over a low flame so that it heats up slowly (but not so slowly that bacteria grow). The raft will congeal and rise up through the pan, filtering all the particles of stuff out of the soup. We also used a 60 qt stockpot with a spigot on the bottom, so we didn't have to disturb the raft to get some soup.

Personally, I've found that if you saute the meat first, then deglaze with a good stock, you get two things:

1) a broth that is more clear. The uncooked blood in the meat is what makes the broth cloudy. Cook the meat first, and you get a clear broth.
2) More flavor, as you are creating fond in the pan, then deglazing which dissolves the fond into the broth.
 
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