🇭🇺 Hungary
Jókai bean soup
A Hungarian bean soup of dried beans cooked with smoked pork knuckle, carrot, a paprika-and-flour roux and csipetke (pinched dumplings), finished with sour cream; named after the writer Mór Jókai.
Origin and history
The soup is named after the writer Mór Jókai, but by tradition only: Hungarian food writers point out that his documented favourite was beans with görögolvasó beans and a pig's trotter, with no vegetables, roux or sausage, and that the name was probably attached to an existing soup later, by restaurateurs. The first printed recipe under the name appears in a revised edition of the Gundel cookbook.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 2 h 15 min
- Hands-on
- 45 min
Ingredients
- 250 g1 1/3 cups dried beans (pinto or white), soaked overnight if you like, drained
- 400 g14 oz smoked pork knuckle (füstölt csülök) or smoked pork shoulder, knuckle left whole, shoulder in 2 cm cubes
- 150 g5 oz smoked sausage (kolbász), sliced thin
- 2 tbsp lard or oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 1 parsnip or white root (fehérrépa), sliced
- 1/2 celeriac, peeled, in one piece
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
- 2 tbsp flour, for the rántás
- 2.5 litres2 1/2 quarts cold water
- 1 egg, for the csipetke
- 6 tbsp flour, for the csipetke, plus a pinch of salt
- 125 g1/2 cup sour cream (tejföl), to serve
- salt, black pepper, chopped parsley, to taste
Method
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1. Warm the lard in a large pot and cook the onion over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes until translucent.
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2. Add the smoked pork, drained beans, celeriac, garlic, paprika, pepper and bay leaves, then pour in the cold water; do not add salt yet.
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3. Bring to a boil, lower to a gentle simmer at about 95 °C (200 °F) and cook, partly covered, for about 1 hour 30 minutes until the beans and meat are tender.
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4. Meanwhile mix the egg, 6 tbsp flour and a pinch of salt into a firm dough and let it rest under a cloth.
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5. Add the carrots and parsnip to the soup and simmer 15 minutes until soft.
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6. In a frying pan, cook the sausage slices in their own fat for 8 to 10 minutes until browned; lift them out and keep them warm.
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7. Stir the 2 tbsp flour into the sausage fat to a paste, whisk in a few ladles of hot soup until smooth, and pour this roux back into the pot; simmer 1 to 2 minutes.
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8. Pinch small bits of the dough between your fingers into the simmering soup (csipetke); they are cooked 2 to 3 minutes after they float.
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9. Season with salt carefully, stir in the parsley, remove the bay leaves, and serve each bowl topped with the sausage and a spoonful of sour cream.
Notes
- Total time: 2 h 15 min (plus overnight soaking).
- The defining set: beans, smoked pork knuckle, root vegetables, a paprika-and-flour rántás, csipetke and sour cream at the table. Sources differ on details; the Gundel-style version cooks the knuckle, beans and sausage separately and assembles them in the bowl, a home version cooks everything in one pot, as here.
- Plain bableves (bean soup) is the generic Hungarian bean soup; the Jókai version is the one with csülök, csipetke and sour cream. Without the dumplings it is simply a good bableves.
- Some versions add a little tomato or green pepper, or a pinch of sugar with the roux. Smoked ribs can replace the knuckle.
- Pinto or white beans are the usual substitute for Hungarian dried beans. Make it a day ahead and add the csipetke when reheating, as they swell and soften overnight.
Adapted from Telex: A bableves sosem volt Jókai kedvence (Ács Bori, 2024), with the Gundel method, Offbeat Budapest: Jókai bean soup (adapted from historical Hungarian cookbooks), and Gundel cookbook (revised edition).
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.