Bryndzové halušky

What it is

Bryndzové halušky is a dish made from five ingredients: potatoes, flour, salt, bryndza, and smoked bacon. Raw potatoes are grated, mixed with flour, and dropped in small pieces into boiling water. The cooked dumplings are mixed with bryndza diluted with a few tablespoons of the water they were boiled in and drizzled with melted bacon.

The taste is simple yet very expressive: soft potato dough, salty tangy bryndza, and crispy cracklings. A glass of sour milk or žinčica is served with the dumplings.

The best dumplings are in the season of fresh bryndza, from May to autumn, at salaš: this is what Slovakia calls both shepherd's farms and roadside restaurants with mountain cuisine.

History and name

The dish is younger than it seems. Potatoes settled in the Slovak mountains only in the 19th century; before that, daily food consisted of porridge — barley, buckwheat, millet. Bryndza has been made here since the times of Wallachian colonization, approximately from the 15th century.

Ingredients and allergens

Potato1 kg rawIn the mountains, potatoes are called bulba, ripa, bandurky, or kompyr — the basis for riplianka, deruny, and pies.

Wheat flour250–300 gFor the dough of varenyky, palačinky, bobalyok, and pasky.Contains allergens: gluten

Slovak bryndza250 gSoft crushed cheese made from matured sheep's curd — the basis for bryndza dumplings.Contains allergens: milk

Smoked bacon150 g, to serveSmoked brisket is cut into cubes and rendered — it is poured over dumplings, pies, and mamaliga.

Eggswith egg, the dumplings are firmer, optionalChicken eggs — for the dough of hombovtsi, palačint, pasky, and deruny.Contains allergens: eggs

Sour creamoptionalThick homemade sour cream is the base for banosh and machanka, a common dressing for Carpathian dishes.Contains allergens: milk

Also: salt

Contains allergens: gluten, milk
Depending on how it is served, may contain: eggs

Ingredients of the traditional recipe; every cook and every place may do it differently — please ask when ordering. We cannot guarantee the absence of allergens or traces.

How it is traditionally made

Serves: 4 servings

• Potato — 1 kg raw
• Wheat flour — 250–300 g
• Slovak bryndza — 250 g
• Smoked bacon — 150 g
• Salt
• Eggs — with egg, the dumplings are firmer
• Sour cream

1. Peel the potatoes and grate them finely. Add salt, add flour, and knead a thick, sticky dough.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Place the dough on a board and cut small pieces into the boiling water with a knife or press through a dumpling sieve.
3. Cook until the dumplings float to the surface, and then for another minute or two. Remove with a slotted spoon; leave a bit of the broth.
4. Cut the bacon into cubes and render it in a pan until crispy cracklings.
5. Mash the bryndza with 3–5 tablespoons of hot broth, mix with the dumplings.
6. Serve on plates, topped with cracklings and fat.

How it is served

Hot, with a glass of sour milk or žinčica.

Variants

The same dumplings with stewed sauerkraut are called strapáčky.

The traditional method as described by our sources; every family does it its own way. We have not tested this recipe in a professional kitchen.

Where it is eaten

The area is approximate and based on the sources below. The dish is cooked outside it too, and ethnographic borders are blurred.

Mountain and foothill Slovakia: Orava, Liptov, Turiec, Spiš, Pogrón, Kysuce. The map shows entire regions — the area is approximate. Today, dumplings are prepared throughout the country.

When it is eaten

Occasions: Everyday food · Polonyna (May — September)

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