Paprikagulasch – German style beef goulash from a family recipe

Beef goulash is one of my daughter’s favorite recipes. So without wine. But it still tastes great, including to us parents! Here is my family recipe for tender German style beef goulash with bell peppers.

I am always getting asked by my Indian in-laws, why don’t you have any curries in the Western cuisine. My answer is always: we do. Goulash, with pork or beef. My in-laws are actually catholic, so therefore no issues with either of those meats. I like goulash a lot, it is tasty and not that much work to make.

Preparing good goulash is actually pretty simple. The most important step is searing the meat. Depending on how well the meat has been aged, meat juices will ooze out during frying. If the meat is not well aged, quite a bit will ooze out. Too much of this and the meat will not sear or form roasting flavors.

Quality beef

Therefore, the following should be considered for a good goulash:

• buy good meat.
• buy good meat.
• buy good meat.

If you can, buy organic or from your local butcher (which I do). As mentioned, when buying make sure it’s aged properly. Often, to compensate for the higher cost of organic meat, it is not aged as it should. That said, buying organic or from a small butcher will usually go along with better conditions for the animals! If in doubt, ask your butcher where they source their meat.

Tips for the preparation of the goulash

After buying good meat, there are a few things you should keep in mind 🙂 (especially if the good meat was not aged well enough in the end).

• For the searing, don’t put all the meat into the Dutch Oven at once, but rather in 2-3 steps.
• Heat the Dutch Oven up properly, before searing the meat. This reduces the juices running out of the meat.
• If possible, skim off any meat juices that collect in your pot. Those would simmer the meat from simmering instead of searing.
• Do not salt the meat beforehand. Salt extracts water from the meat, which then leaks out in the pan. This is a bit of a philosophy question, there are cooks who salt meat anyway right before putting it in the pan. I don’t do it, it is also not necessary for the taste of a goulash.
• Braise for a long time. If the seared meat is braising with broth and spices in the Dutch Oven, the cooking time should be long. Often in recipes it is stated that it should be braised for 1.5 hours. I find this too short. Minimum 2 h, better 2.5 h. That makes it more tender.

If you keep this in mind, not much should go wrong and the goulash should be nice and tender and aromatic in the end.

I always recommend to use at least 800 g of meat. On the one hand, otherwise the effort is hardly worth it. Also, it is better to have a certain quantity in the pot for the braising process. This way it is constantly simmering – without burning.

Beef goulash in India

By the way, in the pictures you can see buffalo meat. Buying beef in Mumbai is a bit more difficult because it is forbidden here. But when it is prepared as goulash, you don’t really taste a difference.

In Germany, every butcher knows what goulash meat is. If you are abroad like me, buy lean beef (or buffalo 🙂 ). The meat used is undercut (the lower part of the round).

Also, unfortunately I don’t have a Dutch Oven on hand here, which is why I sauté everything in an iron skillet and ultimately finish cooking in a regular cooking pot. Therefore, while the description below is for the Dutch Oven, the pictures differ accordingly.

Also in the picture on top: homemade Swabian spaetzle, an egg noodle speciality from Southern Germany. They go great with a proper beef goulash!

Cooked with lots of love ♥ on From zero to curry.