My Hungarian friend Gabor Kalman, whom I reference blind in my introduction to my körözött recipe at Maud Newton (his was the insistence on feta), writes in suggesting that my grade school travails might have been avoided:
"Well, the truth is that the no.1 ingredient of any real körözött is Liptauer (liptoi turo) and because it was not available in America in the late fifties during the Hungarian invasion, most people went about to find substitutes, or a way to create something similar without it. I am sure that is the reason your classmates thought it tasted like wild ape shit. I found that certain sheep milk feta particularly the Romanian brinza comes quite close to Liptauer. I'll try it on you if you are courageous enough to visit us now, and if you still find it disgusting, I'll never tell you what I am reading nowdays!"
Now, isn't it funny that I stumbled onto your blog the 1st time, when you're discussing körözött ? I'm Hungarian myself, been missing the Liptoi turo the whole time - so next week I'll go searching for the Romanian brinza... The world is so small !
Posted by: lady jane grey | December 16, 2007 at 02:18 PM
There is a Bulgarian sheep cheese which is the exact equivalent of liptoi. That's what I use in my korozott.
Posted by: Tom Baroth | May 11, 2009 at 06:15 PM