Hortobágyi Palacsinta
Hortobágyi palacsinta takes its name from the Hortobágy, the vast grassy puszta of eastern Hungary long associated with herdsmen, horses, and simple open-fire cooking. Unlike most of Hungary's savory pancake dishes, this one was not a centuries-old peasant recipe but a deliberate restaurant invention: the chef Károly Gundel and his colleagues created it in 1958 for a tourism event tied to the newly popular puszta, wrapping a rich paprika-spiced meat ragout inside a thin crêpe and finishing it with a sour cream sauce built from the braising juices. The dish quickly became a fixture of Hungarian restaurant menus both at home and abroad, prized for the way it dresses up humble pancake batter with a genuinely luxurious filling. It remains one of the few Hungarian classics with a documented birthdate and inventor, and it is still often served as a starter rather than a main course, one or two rolled pancakes per plate, glistening under a spoonful of extra paprika sauce.
Thin, home-style crêpes
Delicate, crêpe-like pancakes serve as the wrapper for the meat filling, not as a sweet dessert base.
Slow-braised veal filling
Ground veal or pork is braised slowly with onion and sweet paprika until deeply tender.
Paprika cream sauce
The leftover braising juices are bound with sour cream and flour into a velvety, rosy-orange sauce.
Rolled and gratinéed
The filled pancakes are rolled, arranged in a dish, and covered with sauce before a brief turn in the oven.
Ingredients 4 servings
- 8 thin crêpe-style pancakes
- 400g ground veal or pork
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp sweet paprika
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 200ml heavy sour cream
- 2 tbsp flour
- 300ml beef or chicken broth
- Salt, black pepper, and 2 tbsp lard
How to make it
- 1Start by making a thin crêpe batter from flour, eggs, milk, and a pinch of salt, then rest it for twenty minutes before cooking eight delicate pancakes in a lightly buttered pan.
- 2In a separate pot, soften the chopped onions in lard until translucent, then stir in the sweet paprika off the heat so it does not scorch and turn bitter.
- 3Add the ground veal or pork along with crushed garlic, season with salt and pepper, and braise everything slowly with a splash of broth until the meat is completely tender.
- 4Once cooled slightly, run the meat mixture through a grinder or chop it very finely so it spreads smoothly inside each pancake.
- 5Spoon the filling onto each crêpe, roll it up snugly, and arrange the rolls seam-side down in a buttered baking dish.
- 6Whisk the remaining broth with sour cream and flour, pour it over the rolled pancakes, and bake briefly until the sauce turns glossy and bubbling.
- 7Serve the pancakes hot, two per plate, with extra sauce spooned over the top and a light dusting of paprika for color.
Nutritional info
per serving (~400 ml)
Estimated nutritional values.
Pairs perfectly with
