Best old fashioned goulash recipe: 59 photos
FAQ
Since American goulash calls for ground beef, it cooks much faster than Hungarian goulash which relies on low-and-slow cooking to render the beef tender.
It is made with simple ingredients like meat, peppers and root vegetables elevated to perfection by the use of Hungary's most famous spice: paprika. Goulash can be made with beef or pork but the traditional way of making it is with beef.
American goulash is more of a pasta and ground beef dish. Owing more influence to Italian-American cuisine than Hungarian, paprika isn't even a consistent addition, per Syracruse.com. The nostalgic family meal is synonymous with American chop suey, another macaroni-based one-pot dish.
It's subtle but if you've been making Goulash without Worcestershire sauce and feel like it's been missing something, this just might be what's missing! A tablespoon of sugar. Because that's what grandma did and that's because it perfectly balances out the acidic tomatoes and peppers.
It is one of the national dishes of Hungary and a symbol of the country. Its origins may be traced back as far as the 10th century to stews eaten by Hungarian shepherds.