Hús: 101

I began writing this as a post on duck confit, but looking back at the title now that I've written most of the following post I realized that I had to finish this post first. I'll retitle it of course.

I finally ventured to expand my Hungarian vocabulary by learning butchery terms. I thought I had adequate knowledge before arriving in Hungary to be able to point at a piece of meat and guess what kind of cut it is and what part of the animal it is from. The only problem is, and I knew this coming here, that although some cuts may be cross-cultural, many are not; so the cut may look familiar, but don't really know what it is. Even if it is labeled, though most of what I've seen is very poorly labeled, some words are easily translatable because it refers to a body part like leg, thigh, neck, or liver. The real problem begins when knew terms are used that either refer to a style, city, or simply is a word I haven't learned yet.

Below are some terms I've been working on. Thanks to www.chew.hu I've been able to easily look up terms, but the organization is lackluster and doesn't aid direct referece for a specifc animal. I must stress that this is all a work in progress and most likely has many errors and misunderstandings on my part. With that in mind, and taking this all with a grain of salt (I couldn't resist), I give you hús (meat)!

First the easy stuff: marha means beef, sertés means pork, baromfi means poultry which can refer to many different birds but the most common are- kacsa which means duck, csirke which means chicken, and pulyka which means turkey. Bárány refers to lamb, while juh refers to mutton.

OK, now that we know some animals the cuts are the next stop on the express train of Hungarian culinary knowledge: the Paprika Express. Some cuts refer to the same part of many different animals, one such example is mel which means breast. Still others only refer to only one animal. For example csülök refers to the leg cut of pig and translates to knuckle, whereas lábszár means the same thing but refers to beef.

Speaking of the cow: Beef

• Bélszín-tenderloin
• Szűzérmek-tenderloin medallions
  
• Lapocka-blade or shoulder, good for gulyás
  
• Fehérpecsenye-eye of round
• Hátszín-round or rump
• Nyak-neck
  
• Rostélyos/magas hátszín-ribeye
• Belsőségek/zúza-offal/innards/variety meats
  
• Fartő-rump
• Borda-ribs
• Csontvelő-bone marrow, called velős csont if it's still in the bone
  
• Felsál-tip/rump
  
• Lapos hátszín-short loin or strip loin
• Szegy-brisket/breast

The All-Holy Pig:

• Csülök-knuckle
• Lapocka-blade or shoulder, good for gulyás
• Sonka-ham
  
• Tarja-neck
• Belsőségek/zúza-offal/innards/variety meats
• Fartő-rump
• Borda-ribs
• Comb-leg
• Frikandó-leg round
• Oldalas-rack of ribs
  
• Pecsenye-schnitzel, generically any thin slice of meat for breading and frying
• Szűzérmek-tenderloin medallions

Poultry:

• Fartő-rump
• Mel-breast
• Comb-leg/thigh
• Bontott csirke-gutted chicken for roasting
• Belsőségek/zúza-offal/innards/variety meats

Lamb

• Gerinc-literally spine this connotes the tender cuts of lamb
  
• Szegy-brisket/breast
• Belsőségek/zúza-offal/innards/variety meats

Who Knows?

• Gyíkhús-lizard meat: this is unidentifiable and low grade meat, yum!
• Belsőségek/zúza-offal/innards/variety meats
• Máj-liver
  
• Velőrózsa/velő-brains