(; sometimes improperly rendered as ''kurtosh kolach''; ; ) is a

spit cake A spit cake is a European-styled cake made with layers of dough or Batter (cooking), batter deposited, one at a time, onto a tapered cylindrical rotating Spit (cooking aide), spit. The dough is baked by an open fire or a special oven, rotisserie ...

specific to

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...

from

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

, more specifically the

Székelys The Székelys (, Old Hungarian script, Székely runes: ), also referred to as Szeklers, are a Hungarians, Hungarian subgroup living mostly in the Székely Land in Romania. In addition to their native villages in Suceava County in Bukovina, a ...

.The origin and family of Kürtősh Kalách
/ref> Originally popular in the

Székely Land The Székely Land or Szeklerland (, , Old Hungarian script, Székely runes: 𐲥𐳋𐳓𐳉𐳗𐳌𐳞𐳖𐳇; and sometimes ; ; ) is a historic and ethnographic area in present-day Romania, inhabited mainly by Székelys, a subgroup of Hung ...

, it became popular in both

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 ...

and

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. The first written record dates back to 1679 and was found in the village of Úzdiszentpéter (now Sânpetru de Câmpie), while the first recipe appears in a manuscript cookbook dated in 1781. Earlier a festive treat, now it is part of everyday consumption. A similar pastry to ''kürtőskalács'' is ''Baumstriezel'', originating in the Transylvanian Saxon communities. Kürtőskalács is made from sweet, yeast

dough Dough is a malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from flour (which itself is made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops). Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes ...

(raised dough), of which a strip is spun and then wrapped around a truncated cone-shaped baking spit, and rolled in granulated sugar. It is roasted over

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

while basted with melted butter, until its surface cooks to a golden-brown color. During the baking process the sugar stuck on the caramelises and forms a crisp, shiny crust. The surface of the cake can then be topped with additional ingredients such as ground

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...

or powdered

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

Etymology

The name refers to a

stove A stove or range is a device that generates heat inside or on top of the device, for - local heating or cooking. Stoves can be powered with many fuels, such as natural gas, electricity, gasoline, wood, and coal. Due to concerns about air pollu ...

pipe ('), since the fresh, steaming cake in the shape of a truncated cone resembles a hot chimney. This opinion is shared by , scholar and philologist from

Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

: "...when taken off from the spit in one piece, the cake assumes the shape of a long vent or tube. Since the cake is served in this tubular form to family and guests, and consumers are faced with this typical, vent-like image of the dough to be torn off in strips, it is self-evident that its name must have been given with regard to the vent shape of the cake". Throughout the centuries, miscellaneous alternate names and spellings of "kürtőskalács" have been used. More references were mentioned even in the 19th century (e.g. 'spit-donut' or 'stick roll' or 'stick-donut'). The name "kürtőskalács" originated in Transylvania and became popular only by the middle of the 20th century. Until the end of the century it had different spellings (e.g. spelt with 'ö' as in ('horn cake') or in two words, as in . The present variant "kürtőskalács" was first used in print in a cookbook, published in 1926 by the book department of 'Brassói Lapok', a newspaper from

Brașov Brașov (, , ; , also ''Brasau''; ; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the county seat (i.e. administrative centre) of Brașov County. According to the 2021 Romanian census, ...

History

The first known record that hints at a family of cakes baked by rotating spit over cinders dates back to medieval times (about 1450) and is found in a manuscript from

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. The description mentions a strip of raised dough that has to be wound in a

helix A helix (; ) is a shape like a cylindrical coil spring or the thread of a machine screw. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is for ...

shape around a baking spit, and brushed with

egg yolk Among animals which produce eggs, the yolk (; also known as the vitellus) is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg whose primary function is to supply food for the development of the embryo. Some types of egg contain no yolk, for example bec ...

before baking. Since the 16th century, the evolution of the cake family proceeded in three branches. The first branch contains pastries that preserved the image of cake similar to the one mentioned above, with a strip wound on spit in a helical shape. The Szekler-Hungarian kürtőskalács, ''Skalický trdelník'' (

trdelník Trdelník (; or rarely trdlo or trozkol) is a kind of spit cake and variant of Kürtőskalács. It is made from dough that is wrapped around a stick, then baked and topped with sugar and walnut mix. Origin Trdelník has its origins in the no ...

from

Skalica Skalica (, , Latin: ''Sakolcium'') is the largest town in Skalica District in western Slovakia in the Záhorie region. Located near the Czech Republic, Czech border, Skalica has a population of around 15,000. Etymology The name is derived from Slo ...

), and the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

- Moravian ''trdlo/trdelnice/trdelník'', which is virtually the same as the latter, as well as the ''kürtősfánk'' (kürtősh donut) belong to this branch. The second branch has pastries made from batter, namely the Lithuanian '' raguolis'' and ''

šakotis Šakotis ("tree cake") ( , Baumkuchen'', the Austrian '' Prügeltorte'' and '' Prügelkrapfen'' as well as the Swedish '' Spettekaka''. The third branch is represented by one cake, the Transylvanian Saxon '' Baumstriezel'', where a continuous dough strip is placed on a spit. The first known recipe of Kürtőskalács originates from

, included in the 1784 cookbook of Countess Mária Mikes of Zabola ("‘kürtős kaláts’ à la Mrs. Poráni"). It makes no mention, however, of sweetening of any kind in the preparation. A recipe from the cookbook written by Kristóf Simai in 1795 in

Upper Hungary Upper Hungary (, "Upland"), is the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia. The region has also been called ''Felső-Magyarország'' ( literally: "Upper Hungary"; ). During the ...

(present-day

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

) first mentioned "sweetening subsequent to baking". The ''Skalicky trdelnik'', a variant from the 18th century is based on similar preparation, with the cake surface covered in chopped nuts (e.g. walnut, almond) before baking, and sugar that is added only subsequent to baking. Almost 100 years passed before the first mention was made of the next step in the evolution of kürtőskalács, the appearance of a caramelized sugar glaze, in ''Aunt Rézi's Cookbook'' written by Terézia Dolecskó in 1876, published in Szeged, Hungary. The recipe suggests "sprinkling sugar (sugar almond) on dough on spit a priory to baking". Due to the heat, the sugar is caramelized and also enters in what is known as Maillard reaction. The sugar glaze that melts to become caramel forms a continuous coat, also adds to firmness of cake. Shortly afterwards, pure sugar (not almond sugar) was applied to the dough's surface before baking, even with the omission of sweetening subsequent to baking. Ágnes Zilahi's cookbook entitled ''Valódi Magyar szakácskönyv'' (The Real Hungarian Cookbook), which appeared in Budapest in 1892, presents such a recipe. The first mention of additional toppings applied to the caramel glaze appears in ''Rézi néni szakácskönyve (Aunt Rézi's Cookbook)''. The use of ground, chopped or candied walnuts applied as an additional topping became popular only in the late 20th century. As far as we know Pál Kövi's cookbook, ''Erdélyi lakoma'' (Transylvanian Feast), which came out in 1980, seems to be the first source with the tip of applying this type of topping. The wide spectrum of cinnamon, coconut, cocoa, etc. toppings started to receive wide application only at the end of the century. The current, most frequently baked variant of kürtőskalács evolved in Szeklerland in the first half of the 20th century. It is specific to this variant that the surface of the raw dough wrapped around the spit flattens out by the usual procedure of rolling it on a flat surface sprinkled with granulated sugar. By this procedure the layers of dough wrapped around the spit are pressed together, rendering the cake smoother, more compact in structure and more elegant. The first written record of this technique appears in the cookbook of Mrs. Zathureczky, née Manci Zlech, which was published in Barót between 1934 and 1943. The cookbook, entitled ''Erdélyi ízek'' (''Flavors of Transylvania''), which appeared in Miercurea-Ciuc, published in 2007, gives a recipe of this sort.

Spread

Kürtőskalács became popular among the Hungarian nobility at the beginning of the 18th century. One hint at an Austrian or German origin is the fact that a conservative Transylvanian nobleman, Péter Apor, in his work ''Metamorphosis Transylvaniae'' does not mention Kürtőskalács in the list of traditional Hungarian foods, for all the evidence we have about the cake already existing in his wife's cuisine. In a letter from a mother superior in

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

addressed to Mrs Péter Apor, née Borbála Kálnoki, the writer asks Mrs. Apor to have a butler of hers taught the art of baking kürtőslalács: "Honored mother Superior prays you if she could send you a butler in the hope perchance you spare no pain and teach him kindly some art of baking kürtőslalács withal others". By the end of the 18th century, kürtőskalács had become popular in all Hungarian speaking regions as a defining element of both urban and rustic cuisine. In the first volume of ''A Székelyföld leírása'' (Description of the Szeklerland) from 1868,

Balázs Orbán Balázs Orbán, Baron of Lengyelfalva (3 February 1829 – 19 April 1890) was a Hungarians, Hungarian author, ethnographic collector, parliamentarian, correspondent member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1887). He is considered to have been ...

writes about the genesis legend of Udvarhelyszék, which holds that the Szeklers, chased into caves and later blockaded by the

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

, eventually made the enemy leave by presenting them a huge kürtőskalács made of straw which they held out of the cave to show they had supplies to endure the siege. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the recipe of the cake was recorded in numerous popular cookbooks. As a result of

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from Rural area, rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. ...

at the beginning of the 20th century, kürtőskalács was replaced by newer cakes. But on the eastern periphery of the Hungarian speaking regions, in the Szeklerland, the open fireplace survived to the end of the 19th century, and consequently, kürtőskalács has been preserved as a living tradition on regions dwelt by Szeklers. Up to the present kürtőskalács baked above cinders is regarded as essential to the Transylvanian wedding menu. Following the regime change of 1989, and the aftermath the kürtőskalács became the traditional local treat offered to tourists visiting Szekler villages and thus a representative element of the area, for a wider mass of people. This gastronomic tradition, which earlier had been preserved merely in rural Szekler communities, gradually found its way back to mainstream culture, mainly due to tourism. By the middle of the 1990s, kürtőskalács became popular in most cities in Hungary, and tourists visiting Hungary reported on "the gorgeous, sweet, tubular treat" with admiration. Due to its initial increase and later surge in popularity, initially in the Hungarian speaking community and later in the wide Transylvanian community mainly through tourism, the kürtőskalács is no longer regarded as a solely Szekler or Hungarian symbol, but rather as representative element in European gastronomy, as part of the greater family of chimney cakes, manufacturers of this sweet treat being present Europe-wide. Measures to have kürtőskalács registered in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

as a product of Protected designation of origin (PDO) have been taken, although as of 2024 no such designation has been attributed or recorded as pending in any EU-wide database of registered and/or protected status for foodstuffs.

Variants

Three variants of kürtőskalács can be distinguished, which are nonetheless manufactured in a similar way. The recipe of the traditional, homemade variant became standardized at the beginning of the 20th century. The ingredients are firmly specified and it is usually baked above cinders. The essential ingredients are exclusively: sugar, wheat flour, butter, milk, eggs, yeast and salt. Additional toppings are restricted to ground or chopped walnut, almond, cinnamon powder or vanilla sugar made from natural vanilla powder. Variants at carnivals became popular in the late 20th century. With this variant, the recipe is more flexible so that it can be manufactured in smaller, mobile places, rendering it much cheaper. In this variant, butter can be replaced by vegetable oil or margarine, and milk by milk powder. Moreover, eggs can be replaced by egg powder or liquid eggs, but this ingredient can also be omitted. In exchange, grated lemon zest, natural citrus extract or citrus juice, rum or vanilla sugar powder can be added to the dough. The surface can be provided any additional topping that bears flavor and aroma. Further alternative variants appeared at the beginning of the 21st century. These recipes can be even more flexible. The dough can be made of non–wheat flour. The inner, tubular part can be also given an additional coating, and it can abound in other natural ingredients (e.g. pieces of fruit). Alternative kürtőskalács can be prepared gluten free as well. A cake that lacks ingredients of animal origin (milk, butter, eggs) can be labeled as 'Vegan' or 'Lent'. Kürtősfánk (Kürtősh Donut) is a similar-shaped cake, which is baked in oil or fat and topped with sugar after baking or stuffed with whipped cream.

Baking process

Kürtőskalács is made of a relatively hard and dry yeast-dough. A "twine" of dough is wrapped around the length of the spit, and then the spit with the strip of dough on it is rolled in sugar. Before or during baking, it's brushed with melted butter. The cake is ready when its surface has an even, brownish–red color. Strictly, homemade kürtőskalács can be made exclusively from natural ingredients (flour, sugar, milk, butter, eggs, yeast and salt). For other variants, of all ingredients it is merely margarine and vanilla sugar powder that can be synthetic, including ingredients of the final topping. Kürtőskalács can be enriched by further aromas and flavors if the completed cake is provided a final topping. Any topping can be used that does not contain salt, cheese, meat or other non-confectionery ingredients. Among pastries that are most closely related to kürtőskalács, the Transylvanian Saxon ''Baumstriezel'' has a cylinder shape, rather than a helix. Skalicky Trdelnik from Slovakia (formerly Upper Hungary), as well as Trdlo/Trdelnice/Trdelnik from the Czech–Moravian region, differ from kürtőskalács in that there is no caramel sugar glaze applied to their surface. File:Winding the Kurtosh Kalach.jpg, alt=, Winding the dough-strip on the spit File:Kürtős kalács.jpeg, alt=, After rolling in sugar File:Kurtoskalacs szentivanlaborfalva1.jpg, The baking is finished. File:Kürtős kalács kenése.jpg, alt=, Brushing with melted butter while baking File:Kürtőskalács in Budapest.jpg, Christmas market in

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 ...

File:Budapest-Baumkuchen 6363.jpg, Christmas market in

File:Miskolci Kocsonyafesztivál - 2015.02.07 (29).JPG, Festival in

Miskolc Miskolc ( , ; ; Czech language, Czech and ; ; ; ) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 as of 1 January 2014, Miskolc is the List of cities and towns in Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, ...

Foreign names

Neighboring nations have their own names for the cake. Amongst Saxons, who earlier dwelt in Transylvania, the literal translation of the word kürtőskalács, or ''Schornsteinkuchen'', became popular. Poles use the phonetic transcription of the word kürtőskalács and the translation of the adjective – noun cluster of ''magyar kalács'' or ''székely kalács'' (Kurtoszkalacz or ''węgierski kołacz'' and Romanians respectively use ''Cozonac Secuiesc,'' indicating it as a sweet treat similar to the much familiar ''Cozonac'' and its origin in the Szekler community of Transylvania). Other versions use either a phonetic transcription of the entire compound word (''Kurtosh Kalach''), or a phonetic transcription of the cluster's first element, such as "Kurtosh" for ''kürtős'' followed by a translation of its second element, such as "cake" for ''kalács''. The German name for the pastry is ''Baumstriezel''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurtoskalacs Hungarian pastries Hungarian cuisine Romanian cuisine Spit cakes