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Túrós Csusza (Curd Cheese Noodles with Cracklings)

Name: Túrós Csusza (Curd Cheese Noodles with Cracklings)
Prep time: 41 min
Total time: 1 h 11 min
Cuisine: Hungarian
Ingredients: all-purpose flour — 300 g; eggs — 300 g; salt — 5 g; smoked pork fatback — 150 g; twarog — 400 g; sour cream — 300 g; ground black pepper — 3 g; salt — 15 g; water — 3000 g

Túrós Csusza (Curd Cheese Noodles with Cracklings) reads salinity 4.4, sourness 4.3 and richness 3.8 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Hungarian main, about 1 hr 11 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 5.0 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 1.5 / 10
Sour & Bright — 4.3 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 0.8 / 10
Rich & Fat — 3.9 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 1.9 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Salinity 4.4 · Sourness 4.3 · Richness 3.8 · Funk & Ferment 3.5 · Umami 2.5 · Warm Spice 1.8 · Sweetness 1.3 · Heat 1.1 · Bitterness 0.7 · Earthy 0.7 · Floral 0.6 · Fruity 0.6

What's in it (9)

all-purpose flour — 300 g
eggs — 300 g
salt — 5 g
smoked pork fatback — 150 g
twarog — 400 g
sour cream — 300 g
ground black pepper — 3 g
salt — 15 g
water — 3000 g

Time & effort: about 1 hr 11 min (41 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 47.9 kcal, 1.7 g protein, 2.1 g fat, 5.6 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains dairy · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (11 steps)

Work the flour, eggs and salt into a very stiff dough and knead 8 minutes. It will fight you; Hungarian egg pasta uses no water and no oil and is meant to be dry and firm.
Rest under a bowl 30 minutes.
Roll the dough out as thin as you can, let it dry on the board for a few minutes, then tear it by hand into irregular squares about 3 cm across, 10 minutes of work. Csusza is torn, not cut, and the uneven thicknesses are deliberate: some edges go silky, some stay chewy.
Render the diced fatback slowly in a cold pan brought up to medium heat, 15 minutes, until the cracklings are gold and crisp and a good pool of fat has run. Lift the cracklings out and keep the fat.
Boil the pasta in the salted water for 4 minutes, until it floats and is just tender.
Drain, keeping a cup of the water.
Toss the hot pasta in the rendered fat for 1 minute so every piece is coated. The fat, not butter or oil, is what carries the smoke through the dish.
Take the pan off the heat and layer the pasta with the crumbled túró and most of the sour cream, 2 minutes, folding rather than stirring so the curd stays in distinct lumps. Heat applied to the túró turns it grainy and the sour cream splits.
Season with the pepper.
Scatter the cracklings over and put the rest of the sour cream on top. Túró is a dry, faintly sour fresh curd sold in Hungarian and Polish shops; ricotta is too wet and sweet, cottage cheese too mild, and neither gives you the dish.
Substitutions: belly can stand in for the smoked pork fatback.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Mangú con Los Tres Golpes — Dominican
Kaszinótojás (Hungarian Devilled Eggs) — Hungarian
Tiropita — Greek
Ayran — Turkish
Jameed (Dried Fermented Sheep's Yoghurt) — Jordanian

Keep reading: what salinity, sourness, richness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.