Sterc

by | Apr 28, 2020 | Noodles

Sterc is a simple and cheap dish, it can also be called the poor man’s Kaiserschmarrn. Nowadays sterc is rarely on the menu, it’s cooked mainly in the Transdanubian regions of Hungary.

Sterc is made from toasted flour combined with water and lard. Its color ranges from beige to brown depending on how long you toast the flour. It’s usually eaten with sour cream and fried bacon, however it can also be served as a dessert with powdered sugar and fruit jam.

Sterc
Sterc – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

  • 300 g (~2 1/3 cups) flour
  • 500 ml (~2 1/5 cups) water
  • 1 medium potato
  • 80 g (~1/3 cup) lard
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Peel the potato and cut into tiny cubes. Cook them in 500 ml / 2 1/5 cups of water until the dices start falling apart. Turn off the heat, leave the potatoes in the water and mash them.

Meanwhile in a dry deep skillet toast flour over medium low heat. Stir constantly for 4-5 minutes if you want a mild flavour and pale color, or for 7-8 minutes until flour becomes light brown and smells nutty.

While you are toasting the flour, in a small saucepan heat up the lard, then set aside.

Once the flour is done, add salt, and pour in the potato liquid and stir to combine. Then stir in the hot lard, so sterc becomes crumbly.

You can serve sterc salty with sour cream and fried bacon, or with powdered sugar and apricot jam.

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2 Comments

  1. THANK YOU!! For the sterc recipe! I’ve made it a few times already but using my own rendered pork fat…..just like my mother used to make!

    • I’m happy that the sterc recipe works for you.

Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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