There is some irresistible attraction in the chicken soup, which makes this vital drink one of the most cultivated dishes in Hungarian cuisine. Perhaps the essence of life is what is steaming there on a plate full of soup, maybe another, sure: Eden of Újházy had a recipe for a chicken soup.
It was a strange and gastronomically exciting world in the 19th century. the end of the 20th century and the XX. In the first half of the 20th century, Hungary, especially for Budapest. Poets, writers, actors and actresses and artists who like coffee houses and restaurants are not only cultural, but they have left their mark on Hungarian gastronomy as well.
Who else like’s Hungary’s favorite chicken soup?
Ede Ujhazy was one of our celebrated theatrical performers at the time, who did not only make excellent performances on stage, but also set the standards in the kitchen art. As Master Balazs says in his book “Stories about laid tables and their surroundings”:
“Ede Ujhazy, a prominent actor of the century, was a tall, light-skinned man. He is also a gastronomical figure in the eyes of the general public.
So he was the pioneer of realistic acting, who loved culinary adventures so much that he had run a pub for a short time. The hospitality baptistically styled at the UjhAzi Pub could have been a legendary legendary such as Geza Gardonyi, Sandor Brody, Ferenc Herczeg, or Ilka Palmay and Emilia Markus.
The guests often saw the Master “rumble with pots and pans.” Unfortunately, Eden ujhazy’s pub owner’s career did not last long, so the legendary soup was born in the Gundel Restaurant’s predecessor, Wampetics, sometime between 1889 and 1893.
Mischief on the cube: it was not a hen, but a cock
Few people know, but sitting at the Wampetics table when he chipped the finest broth recipe for the head chef, he mentioned the ingredients among the ingredients, not the hen. As the actor’s contemporary, Endre Nagy, writer, journalist and color director, wrote in his memoirs:
“He did not regret the effort, the cost, and traveled to Debrecen to obtain the material of his own soup. Old cocks had to be used for this soup, with hardened muscles gathering together with the storm of love storms. They had to cook for three days until they got into the soup and cooked with the vegetables, especially with the legendary celery. He was especially careful not to get crooked and other distinctive organs, whose superficial ability believed superstitiously. It was a sign of his distinctive attention when he offered someone with such a piece. …. “
The chicken soup that inspires
After serving in the Wampetics restaurant, a cocktail prepared on the basis of the Master’s instructions, they quickly took over the color of the restaurants that gave themselves something. This interest is mainly due to contemporary authors such as Gyula Krudy, Elek Magyar, the Endre Nagy quoted, and Zsigmond Moricz, who also mentioned the novel meat of ujhazy in their works. Moricz, for example, painted a plastic picture in her short story Lunch:
“- Well, what a soup,” said the boss. “Such a soup, my friend, you can’t get it anywhere in the world, just here we are.” Because the soup must be prepared so that it contains beef and wings as well. Preferably duck. Then he cooks together for so long, at least twenty-four hours, that it is like sand. Even the cow’s bones must be cooked soft. But if there’s a cock in it, it’s even better. Big cock. Old cock. Black-haired, big-legged cock that has been practicing the art of love for years. It must be in all parts of the soup, bursting and decomposing into its smallest sub-elements. Such a plate soup puts the patient on his feet and makes him a healthy young man. ”
In any case, due to the limitations of purchasing opportunities, 15 years after the death of Ujhazy, this gorgeous soup began to be made with chickens, as there was a strong shortage of roosters, especially from old cocks in Debrecen.