Túró Rudi is the name of a curd snack which has been popular in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

since 1968. The bar is composed of a thin chocolate-flavored outer coating and an inner filling of túró (

curd Curd is obtained by Denaturation (biochemistry), coagulating milk in a sequential process called curdling. It can be a final dairy product or the first stage in cheesemaking. The coagulation can be caused by adding rennet, a Kefir cheese, ...

). The "Rudi" in the product name comes from the Hungarian "rúd", which translates to ''rod'' or ''bar'' (and is also a

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

for the name " Rudolf"). Túró Rudi can be made in several different flavours and sizes. The basic (plain, "natúr") bar is cheaper and more popular and comes in two sizes: the classic bar and the large ("óriás", ''giant'') bar. There are differently-flavoured varieties of the bar, like apricot, strawberry and raspberry as jams in the túró, but coconut and vanilla are flavorings. Nut and caramel flavours are also available. The plain bar can be found with both a dark chocolate and a milk chocolate outer coating. The "pöttyös" (spotty or spotted with polka dots) theme is part of the

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

scheme of the bar, and the distinctive red polka-dots are readily associated with Túró Rudi by regular consumers. Friesland Hungária, Inc. (which claims to be the manufacturer of the "original" Túró Rudi) released its product in

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and

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under the name DOTS in 2003. The version sold in Western Europe is said to be sweeter and comes with a milk-chocolate coating to suit the taste of locals. Its first public appearance was in a Hungarian family film, ''Kismaszat és a Gézengúzok'' (roughly translated to ''Little Smear and the Rascals'') in the 1980s.

Origin

The earliest form of Túró Rudi appeared in Russia under the name Cырок (''Syrok'' meaning syr-cheese curd snack), a rectangular bar of curd, butter and fat mixed together, covered with dark chocolate coating. Its coating is thinner and the filling is sweeter. It is widely acknowledged that Túró Rudi was based on it, as design and production began after a study trip to the Soviet Union (presumably by Antal Deák). Sándor Klein, a teacher at the Budapest University of Technology, gave the product its name, which raised a bit of controversy as people thought the name was vulgar and had pornographic associations due to the fact that Rudi translates to bar or rod in Hungarian. Regardless, the name stayed, and throughout the 1970s the candy proved both popular and successful. Production moved from

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Mátészalka Mátészalka is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. It is on the Kraszna River, 52 kilometers from the city of Nyiregyhaza. Geography It covers an area of and has a population of 17 ...

and eventually grew to several additional factories throughout the 1980s.

Different versions

The original Túró Rudi has gone through many changes during the years, and many different manufacturer has its own Túró Rudi product. Opinions on which of them is the best usually vary a lot. Although the brand name is legally owned by Pöttyös, a few manufacturers claim that their product is much closer to the "original" Túró Rudi, mainly because it contains real túró (curd) and other unspecified "dairy products" or pickled vegetable fats.

Health controversy

From the beginning of its production, Túró Rudi was marketed as a "healthy dessert", an opinion strongly supported by nutritional experts of the time. Later examinations however showed some less positive results. While the filling of several (but not all) Túró Rudi has genuine, good quality curd; the coating is not chocolate as many believe. It is a mixture of cocoa powder, hydrogenated vegetable fat, sugar and butter, containing several grams (0.2–0.3 oz) of trans fat which is believed to be one of the main causes of

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess Adipose tissue, body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classifi ...

and

cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina, heart attack), heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumati ...

s .

International versions

Austria

The

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n company Landfrisch has also started selling its version of the bar, admittedly copied from the original Túró Rudi, under the name ''Landfrisch Rudi''. The 'Landfrisch Rudi' is also coated with chocolate, like its Hungarian predecessor, and in addition to the 'plain' version, it's also sold in vanilla and coconut flavors.

China

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, a copy of the product has been sold since October 2008 under the name ''Túró Kiittyy''
Image
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Poland

In Poland, Danone is distributing the product originally known as ''Danone Túró Rudi'' under the trademark ''Danio Batonik''.''Danio Batonik'' vending machine in Poland

References

External links

Official Túró Rudi Website

They Really Weren’t Joking About Taking Túró Rudi to China

Túró Rudi Fanlisting and general description of Túró
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turo Rudi Chocolate bars Hungarian cuisine Cheese dishes