GOULASH!!!

So, for dinner I will making my grandma's GOULASH!! I love Goulash!! Here is a little history of goulash:

goulash

Dictionary: gou·lash (gū'läsh', -lăsh)
A stew of beef or veal and vegetables, seasoned mainly with paprika.
A mixture of many different elements; a hodgepodge.
[Hungarian gulyás (hús), herdsman's (meat), goulash, from gulya, herdsman.]

from HungarianThis word originated in Hungary
Cowboys invented it. Hungarian cowboys, that is. More than a thousand years ago, they created their own version of Meals, Ready to-Eat by stewing and sun-drying cubed beef. They would pack this dried meat in bags and carry it with them. When they wanted a meal, they would cook the meat in a little water to make goulash, or a little more water to make goulash soup.
In Hungarian, gulyá means "herd of cattle," "herdsman" or "cowboy," and hús means "meat." Put gulyá and hús together and you have "meat cowboy style."
The word and the dish came into English as goulash in the nineteenth century, mentioned as early as 1866. In the twentieth century, at least according to a Gallup poll taken in 1969, goulash was among the five most popular meat dishes in America. Like its spelling, however, American goulas was not exactly the same as its Hungarian original.
A true Hungarian goulash, it is said, begins with onions browned in lard or bacon fat in a kettle or cast iron pan. To these you add water, beef cut into small cubes, and a generous amount of sweet paprika, Hungary's national spice. This simmers over low heat for an hour. Additional ingredients are possible, including potatoes, tomatoes and green peppers, salt, bay leaves, marjoram, garlic, caraway seeds, even cloves. Health-conscious cooks have substituted unsaturated vegetable oil for the lard, and there is a vegan meatless recipe featuring potatoes and rutabagas.
The one ingredient common to all these recipes is paprika (1896), another word which came into English in the nineteenth century courtesy of the Hungarian language and cuisine. Paprika ultimately comes from the same Latin word that gives us English pepper, but paprika is a distinctive mild spice ground from a red pepper cultivated in Hungary and ultimately borrowed from the Turks. Like goulash, paprika sometimes suffers a little in translation; one goulash recipe cautions that it is "most important to use real Hungarian paprika for ultimate flavor."
Unlike most languages of Europe, Hungarian does not belong to the Indo-European family but rather to a family known as Uralic; its one well-known relative is Finnish. More than ten million people, 98 percent of the population of Hungary, speak the language, along with two million more in Romania and about half a million each in Slovakia, Yugoslavia, and the United States. Aside from food, the Hungarian language has given us a dozen or so words, including the names of three dogs: the komondor (1931) and puli (1936), both sheep dogs, and the vizsla (1945), a hunting dog.

North American goulash
In the United States and Canada, various adaptations have made the dish more suitable for local preferences. Ground beef frequently replaces stew beef in North American recipies[citation needed], which reduces the cost as well as the cooking time. The meat and onions are then placed in the kettle, the other ingredients are added and the dish might be ready to serve in as little time as 20 to 30 minutes. North American goulash is commonly finished by the addition of noodles, pasta, or elbow macaroni. This form of the dish was made popular by its inclusion in popular cookbooks in the early and mid twentieth century, such as Betty Crocker's Cookbook.
Goulash is also a slang term in some parts of the United States, particularly the South, for a dish made with miscellaneous left-overs. Noodles or potatoes are usually added thereafter.

courstey of http://www.answers.com/topic/goulash


Well, there you go!! Some of the history of Goulash!! Now, here is how I make it...... I use diced tomatoes, tomato sauce,elbow macaroni,hot sauce and canned corn,one pound of ground beef, 1/2 pound of ground turkey, and some other secret seasonings! ;) I'm southern and we don't share all of our special recipes!! Now, this is my grandma's recipe and when she made it she always served it with mashed potatoes and green beans. I don't serve mine with mashed potatoes because I fill like the elbow macaroni and the corn is enough starch for the meal. I might serve some green beans though. Oh and another side will be cornbread!!! YUmmmmmmy! I will update with a pic of our meal after I make it!