Bogrács: Hungarian cooking pot
Goulash in a bogrács hung above an open fire.
A bogrács is a heavy pot used to cook outdoors, usually over a wood fire. It has a distinctive round shape and is made with either stainless steel, porcelain, cast iron, or cooper with some pots containing an enameled coating. Bogrács can come in a variety of sizes from small to very large. In English, the term bogrács is translated as “kettle“, “cauldron” or “stewpot“.
Bogrács was originally used by herdsmen for preparing “gulyás“, a hearty stewed soup containing meat and vegetables. These men worked in the fields far away from their villages and required food that would sustain them throughout the long harsh winters.
Today, bogrács is still widely used especially at outdoor gatherings. Some restaurants will even use bogrács as an ornamental item when serving “gulyás“.
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Category: Facts & Information
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Suzanne Urpecz, creator and editor of The Hungarian Girl. Click on my About page for more info.
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There used to be a Hungarian restaurant in Barrie called The Gulyás Pot, and they served gulyás in a cast-iron bogrács (though at the time I didn’t know what it was called). It’s since become a pub, but their gulyás was ridiculously good…and they had Warsteiner on tap
That’s neat. Was that your first introduction to goulash?
Interesting! I think in your restaurant you should have an outdoor pit fire with a bogarcs!
Oh yes, I plan to use ornamental bogarcs when serving goulash with a lit candle underneath.
Hi there! I’m from Hungary. Bogrács is not only used to cook gulyás, but all sors of food as well. Its main characteristic is, that after cooking, you don’t need to wash it perfectly clean. So this way a little scent from previous dishes remain
The other interesting food prepared in it is the “pörkölt” (translated: stew)The best ones are made out of cattle but pork doeas it as well. Its thicker than a soup and best with potatos cooked within or with “nokedli” a kind of a pasta.
Here you can find more info http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%B6rk%C3%B6lt its in Hungarian, but use google translate, that would give you a small picture
I’m from Hungary too, but I have never heard of such a custom that would require us not to clean our dishes completely. You should not write such a statement, because it is not true. If you don’t clean your dishes that’s just disgusting – not to mention stupid and dangerous.
Before the invention of the dish soap they used heat, water and sand to clean it, but never left it dirty.
I believe that the previous post was referring to a similar treatment of cast iron. You do not use soap to clean, but it is still rinsed out and cooked off. This is not just a Hungarian thing, it is how to properly clean things such as a wok, cast iron, or bogracs.
In Toronto, you can purchase a bogracs (and tripod) from the Mezes Macko Hungarian Deli:
http://www.mezesmacko.com/
Szep napot!
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll be buying a few shortly.
[...] said that harvest time can be a little fraught. We use a traditional Hungarian cooking pot called a bogrács for preparing many of our soups and sauces over an open fire in the [...]
please can you tell me where i can get/ buy a fire pit for my bogracs thsank you hope you can help m cook
Where can I purchase an authentic Bograc and stand in Australia?
Hi Peter,
Thanks for your question. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any suppliers in Australia that sell bogrács. If I do find out, I’ll certainly let you know.