HFF 6.6: Literary

The Challenge: Literary. Try a making a dish mentioned in a song or story.

It's time to try the famous Paprika Hendl that so impressed Jonathan Harker in Dracula.

The Recipe: While I did find paprika hendl in the 1866 Viennese cookbook "Die" Soldaten-Kuche, I decided to try looking for it in translation as well. I found a few English recipes for "Hungarian Pepper Chicken" which at a glance use the same ingredients (chicken, onions, paprika, cream), and opted for one of those. From The Domestic Monthly:

PAPRIKA CHICKEN OR CHICKEN WITH HUNGARIAN PEPPER--Take one tender fat spring chicken; cut it in quarters; cut up one white onion very fine; while cutting it have one ounce of butter into a pan to heat; when hot , but not at all scorched, put in the chicken and onions; cover up closely ; fry very slowly for fifteen minutes; then put in half a pint of sweet cream and what paprika or Hungarian pepper can be put on the point of a knife. Have ready a few small flour dumplings and add them when the chicken has cooked fifteen minutes. Let them cook ten minutes longer and serve. This dish will have a reddish color from the paprika. 

The Date/Year and Region: 1885, New York

How Did You Make It: On a half scale (a whole chicken would be too much for me). I started by melting 1 oz of butter on the stove, while setting a pan of water to boil. I then set about making a batch of Norfolk dumplings (The School Cookery Book, 1881) but combining a scant cup of flour with 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt, then adding 1/2 cup cold water. Worked into a dough, these were dropped in the boiling water to cook for ~20 minutes. I then diced half an onion, and added it to the melted butter, along with 2.5 lb chicken bone-in thighs (my approximation of "half a chicken," which isn't an option at the grocery store). I covered the chicken and let is cook for 15 minutes, turning the meat over twice. At that point, I added 1 cup of heavy cream and 1 "knife-point" of paprika (which I'd estimate around 1 tsp), and stirred it all together, then added the cooked dumplings. I let it all cook a further 10 minutes.

Time to Complete: ~35 minutes

Total Cost: $8

How Successful Was It?: Tasty. I was worried about the lack of salt, since the fricassed chicken recipes I've tried have turned out insipid without salt, but it tasted fine. I found that adding a pinch of salt to my serving did enhance the flavor a bit. I was also concerned about having sufficient paprika: the instructions describe it as "red" from the spice, but my version is a pretty sad orange at best. It still tastes fine, but certainly didn't make me start chugging water the way Jonathan does upon trying the dish in Dracula. The dumplings I was also a little worried about (they differ from my usual in having no egg or pepper), but they held their shape just find and took on the sauce flavor beautifully. So, I now have a new go-to dumpling recipe when eggs aren't convenient.

How Accurate Is It?: Fairly. I used a modern kitchen. As noted, my main departures were using the chicken thighs instead of quartered chicken, and the possible confusion about the paprika amounts (though I did measure it on a butter knife). During a previous book-club discussion, it came out that paprika comes in both sweet and hot varieties, but that this dish usually uses the milder paprika.

Nearly all cooked.

Paprika hendl, except not red.