# Porridges, Mushes

Mush was an important food in the past, but less so in this century. The Original basic materials (millet, buckwheat, spelt) are now grown only sporadically, their place has been taken primarily by maize. The grain is first ground into coarse meal (dara) or in the case of rice, which has {285.} recently become widespread, left whole. We shall mention only a few of the extremely varied and numerous ways of preparing mush.

In the Great Plain, mush made of millet is first cooked in salt water. When the water had boiled down completely, the mush is turned out or left in the pot and eaten with lard and milk. The puliszka (maize porridge) of Transylvania differs from this only a little. Finely ground maize meal is thrown all at once into rapidly boiling water and, as it cooks, it sticks together in one big lump. When it is ready, it is turned out on a wooden board, sliced up, and eaten, mostly with milk. The bálmos is similarly a dish of Transylvania. Among the many ways of preparing it, the most frequent is to pour the whey back on the cheese and let it drip down again. Then the juice that was improved in this way is boiled, and sifted maize meal dribbled into it.

The meaty mushes are the dishes for feasts or community work. In the Őrség they cook millet or buckwheat mush in meat stock and season it with pepper and salt. They put the pieces of meat into it after the stock has boiled down completely and pour onion, browned in lard, on top. Sometimes they also mix a roux with it, to make it more filling. Ludaskása (goose mush) is made in the same way, and it figures among the more prestigious dishes. Kitolókása (“farewell” mush) is served at a wedding, and in many places a pretzel is put on top of it. This marks the conclusion of the wedding.

The dishes listed and introduced above are all, with the exception of the puliszka, poured porridges, which means that the grits or flour is cooked slowly and with constant stirring in boiling water. Beside these, the Hungarian peasantry also eats mashed porridge. They make these from grits, beans, pealed and chopped up potatoes. The latter dish has spread, primarily from the middle of the last century, in the form of mushy dishes, even among the peasantry, but its preparation in the form of a cooked and thickened vegetable has occurred only rarely.

One important group of the mushy foods is called sterc. Flour is browned in a raw or half cooked state, then boiling water poured on it and it is eaten mostly with lard. The name of these dishes and of their method of preparation points to an origin through the mediation of the Austrian kitchen, and we can emphasize their western connections. There are two basic forms of sterc. Flour is browned in a pan for the dry sterc and hot water is poured on it when it begins to change its colour. When this boils down lard is put under the meal and they keep stirring it until it turns to crumbs. Recently mashed potatoes are mixed into it, which shows very well the adaptation of the new raw material to an old technique. Mush sterc is made by throwing the meal into boiling water all at once, and this sticks together in one big lump. They pour off the water from under it after half an hour of cooking, then break it apart with a wooden spoon and brown it on lard until it turns into crumbs. This method of preparation has disappeared almost completely and can be found only sporadically in various parts of Transdanubia.