Lángos

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lángos
salt

Lángos (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈlaːŋɡoʃ][1]) is a typical Hungarian food. Nowadays it is a deep fried flatbread, but in the past it was made of the last bits of the bread-dough and baked at the front of a brick or clay oven, to be served hot as the breakfast of the bread-baking day. [2][3]

Etymology and history

Lángos sold at a street vendor

The name comes from láng, the Hungarian word for flame.[4]

Up to the mid 20th century, bread was baked once a week due to the cost of heating up the large oven and the lengthy process kneading up to 80 pounds of dough. Because the bread loaf, typical to Hungary, was 6 to 10 pounds each, traditionally they used to bake smaller (1-2 pounds) "cipó" rolls for the evening and the next day. The name lángos (literally meaning "flamed") comes from baking these flat breads in the morning while the oven was still heating up.[5] "Lángos" were also used as a side to lunch.

After the communist takeover, with no large scale flour stocks in private households, and as nearly everybody became an employee working in shifts, traditional bread-baking procedure diminished. People started to buy their bread in foodstores in smaller quantities. With no leftover dough and no oven heated up, no lángos was baked. After

kolbász sausages in the 1960s and '70s. Up to the early '80s, there were only 3 varieties: plain (with or without garlic and salt) and with cabbage or potato in the dough. The first new varieties introduced in the '80s were with sour cream and grated cheese.[6]
In the mid 1980s hotdogs and hamburgers became the new favorite streetfoods of the Hungarians, but in the mid '90s lángos came back with many new varieties and has since spread across the globe.

Variations

Lángos topped with grated cheese, sour cream, bacon, onion and parsley

The dough for lángos is made of water or milk, flour,

jam
.

Lángos being fried

In the early 2000s, some people built small, portable clay ovens and started to sell oven baked lángos, called "kenyérlángos" (bread-lángos) at festivals and fairs. Although reminiscent of the traditional lángos, it is more like a pizza with sour cream, onions and bacon.

Lángos is popular all year long. As it is a rather affordable and simple food, it is often sold around bus stations, fairs, local markets and all over Eastern European countries during local celebrations or sport events. It is sold at many

Mekike"). In Slovenia it is known as Langaš and in Macedonia and Bulgaria as Mekitsa. It is also popular in Romania
(especially in Transylvania) as langoși. It is also extremely popular in Poland where it is known as "langosz" and in the UK where it is called "langos" or "Hungarian Fried Bread."

See also

References

  1. ^ "A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára / L / langalló".
  2. ^ a b "NetCooks - Hungarian Langos Recipe". Netcooks.com. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  3. ^ a b c June Meyers Authentic Hungarian Heirloom Recipes Cookbook
  4. ^ "Magyar etimológiai szótár / L / lángos".
  5. ^ "MAGYAR NÉPRAJZI LEXIKON / K / kenyérlepény".
  6. ^ Szabó, Gyula; Pál, László (1986). "Kisipar a vendéglátásban az államosítástól napjainkig" [Small business in the gastronomy since the nationalization until today]. Researchpaper of the National Association of Small Businesses (KISOSZ) "for Internal Use" (in Hungarian). KISOSZ – via National Archives of Hungary (Nemzeti Levéltár).
  7. ^ "Hungarian lángos". suncakemom.com. 25 January 2019.

External links

  • Media related to Langos at Wikimedia Commons
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lángos&oldid=1216886909"