Question about an ingredient ("deu kat") in Hungarian Goulash

[woodsprite]

My son's girlfriend found a cache of old family recipes when they were doing some cleaning. This recipe sounds pretty much as expected up until the last addition of water.

1) brown the onions and beef in oil, add 2 tbls each of salt, paprika, and hot paprika (we're backing off the hot to 1tbls), add 2 qts of water and simmer 20 min. I'd like to tell her to cut back on the salt. That sounds like a ton and a half.

2) add 2 more qts of water, add diced potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, celery and carrots, bring to a 2nd simmer and cook for another 20 min.

3) add in 2 more cups of water and 2 tbls deu kat. Cook 40 min. until everything is tender.

I'm thinking that maybe it's cornstarch or flour. Maybe it's something that sounds like that but great grandmom munged the spelling. Maybe it's a type of alcohol.

Looks like we'll be eating dinner pretty late tonight But that's OK!

My son made "Hunger Game" brownies for dessert - a light chocolate brownie flavored with honey, sugar, cinnamon and chipotle. They're his favorite and he'd never made them for his GF before.

If you have any ideas what the last ingredient is, please let me know. Lord knows we have tons of spices, additions, etc. in the house.

[pfitz59]

1. its got to be starch or flour

that's all that's missing

[left-of-center2012]

2. deu kat

two cats ?

[revmclaren]

3. Dukat is a type of dill.

Many cultures use it in their cooking. It could be that.

[woodsprite]

4. Thank you all so much!

We're going with the dill as what goes into the last water, because I didn't know it but she is making spaetzle-type noodles and they will thicken the broth.

She likes to cook and try new things out on our family on Thursdays. In her family (she lives w/ her grandad, aunt, and mom), they don't like spicy things or to try anything new. If she's not there to cook, they order out. We're getting spoiled! She made paella a week or so ago, coca-cola cake another time, dry rub bbq ribs, pork loin with calvados, lemon raspberry cheesecake cupcakes, carrot cake, sour gummy vodka spritzers, etc. to name a few things.

[Warpy]

5. I'm thinking you're going to miss that tablespoon of hot paprika

given the amount of water and veg. Salt is easier to correct at the table.

I'm wondering if the mystery ingredient might be lightly ground caraway seed, common in that region.

Dill weed would be underwhelming. Dill seed would be overpowering. Caraway plays beautifully with the other ingredients.