Although we do eat meatballs cooked in tomato or other savory sauces in Hungary, Hungarian meatballs generally refer to smaller or bigger deep-fried meatballs made of ground pork.
This dish is called fasírt or fasírozott in Hungarian, and it is one of the most popular dishes that you can find at Hungarian homes or canteens. It is eaten either with vegetable stews as a simple dish, or with white bread as a sandwich.
How To Make Hungarian Fasirt
Hungarian fasirt is very easy to make, it is a cheap but hearty food. See recipe below for detailed instructions.
Regarding spices, sautéed onions, salt and pepper are common in all recipes. Some people add garlic and/or paprika to their meatballs while others don’t. This is totally up to your taste.
Sizes also vary, you can find little ones of the size of a ping pong ball (see my meatballs on the pictures), and much bigger ones with a diameter of even 4 inches (10 cm) or more.
One thing that is common in every Hungarian fasirt recipe is the method of cooking. Fasirt is always deep-fried.
My Hungarian fasirt recipe is kind of of the simpler ones. I don’t use neither garlic nor paprika, and like to make my meatballs smaller so they don’t have to be fried too long but the inside still gets cooked. The result is nice little balls, that have a crunchy coating and are moist in the middle.
Hungarian Fasírt
Equipment
- Frying pan
Ingredients
- 1 lbs ground pork (0.5 kg)
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ slices stale bread or 1 stale roll
- 1 onion medium, chopped
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil or lard or duck/goose fat
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup breadcrumbs approximately, only for coating
- vegetable oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Chop the onion and sautée on low heat in the oil or fat until translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Whisk the eggs lightly. Grate the bread in a food processor.
- Put every ingredient in a bowl, except the breadcrumbs. Mix everything well. (Season with paprika and/or minced garlic according to your taste.)
- Pour the breadcrumbs in a plate. Wet your hands and make nice little balls. Roll them in the breadcrumbs so it will cover them evenly.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Fry both sides until cooked through. My ping pog ball sized meatballs are perfect after 4-5 minutes, larger ones might need 10-12 minutes.
Ingredients is missing the eggs. How many do we need??
Sorry, some ingredients gone missing during website update. 1 egg for this quantity, recipe updated.
I would definitely add a lot of garlic, paprika and parsley.
Add the breadcrumbs to the mixture and use an airfryer (I use medium ground pork).