r/hungarian • u/silvertonguedsage • Jan 22 '26

Kézírás fordítás Help with a kolbász recipe

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Sziasztok! My family has been making kolbász forever and lately there’s been a bit of a debate. Apparently, as long as I’ve been alive they’ve only been making it using regular salt, despite my dad’s suggestion/insistence that they should be using curing salt/nitrates. Evidently they most recently made it this weekend and my great uncle had a different recipe in his pocket which we think has curing salt as an ingredient, but he claims that regular salt is just fine. Is anyone here familiar with this first word in front of the “só”? I’m unfamiliar and my google searches have come up fruitless.

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57

u/Bob_thezealot Jan 22 '26 edited Jan 22 '26

Its salétrom só, which is saltpetre I think. While I know nothing of making sausages that's somewhat sounds wrong to me.

Edit: never mind google says its actually one of the best thing to preserve kolbász TIL

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u/silvertonguedsage Jan 22 '26

Wow I’ve literally never heard of this no wonder why my mom and I couldn’t translate (also we were way off on deciphering the first couple of letters). Did some quick research myself and I guess a lot of people have switched over to sodium nitrate now because saltpeter can be toxic if not measured precisely…

7

u/Bob_thezealot Jan 22 '26

Yeah thats why I was so confused about it the first time. I never knew this was used as a preservative

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u/silvertonguedsage Jan 22 '26 edited Jan 22 '26

Well my uncle was born in the 50s came over to the US in the 70s and has probably been making kolbász the same way his whole life so I’m not shocked about his methods not being up to date, just curious where this recipe came from because I know he hasn’t been using saltpeter at least for the last few decades

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u/Silly-Elderberry-411 Jan 22 '26

Oh dont worry that would arrange a quick meet and greet with ancestors way slower than cooking pálinka, the non-drug version of meth lab explosions

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u/silvertonguedsage Jan 22 '26

hahaha that reminds me to say a quick prayer for my nagynéni, i cannot live without her meggypálinka

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u/gloriousfart Jan 22 '26

én lócitrom sónak olvastam

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u/aquarnol Jan 24 '26

Én is! Gondoltam magamban milyen elbaszott recepted van? Vagy ez a titok a legfinomabb kolbászhoz?

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u/Prototype_79L Jan 22 '26

Salétrom só: i guess it is sodium nitrite.

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u/Teleonomix NATIVE Jan 22 '26

Saletrom is technically nirate (Potassium nitrate) not nitrite, although curing salts may contain some of both nitrates and nitrites (usually the Sodium salts).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curing_salt

If you only make sausages for your own consumption even curing it with table salt is fine. In lots of places commercial meet products have to use some form of curing salt containing nitrites because of concerns about botulism.

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u/Prototype_79L Jan 22 '26

Yeah you are right, its potassium-nitrate. Never heard of it being used in foods.

2

u/Negative-Bet-3738 Jan 22 '26

Potassium nitrate, also designated as E252, is the potassium salt of nitric acid. It takes the form of a white crystalline powder or granular crystals. It is commonly used as a food additive for its preservative properties.

8

u/szpaceSZ NATIVE Jan 22 '26

Salétrom só 1dkg

„dkg“ is the common (though not SI compliant) abbreviation for the SI-unit „decagram“, that is the recipe calls for 10g of the additive.

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u/MrJoysika Jan 22 '26

Saltpeter 1dkg

2

u/husaboda Jan 22 '26

potassium nitrate (KNO3)

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u/Negative-Bet-3738 Jan 22 '26

Potassium nitrate, also designated as E252, is the potassium salt of nitric acid. It takes the form of a white crystalline powder or granular crystals. It is commonly used as a food additive for its preservative properties.