Meggyleves

sour cherries simmered with sugar, cinnamon, and a splash of red wine, enriched with soured cream and served ice-cold as a startling sweet-sour first course of the Hungarian summer

Origin: Hungary

From the journey of Cherry.

Carried west across Anatolia and the Ottoman Balkans, the sour cherry sank deep into the cooking of Central Europe, and Hungary made of it one of the most surprising of all European dishes: meggyleves, cold sour cherry soup. The meggy, the Morello cherry, is simmered with sugar, a stick of cinnamon and a clove or two, a strip of lemon, and a splash of red wine, then thickened lightly and enriched with soured cream whisked in off the heat, and chilled until ice-cold. It is served not as a pudding but as a first course, a startling, beautiful, deep-red soup that is at once sweet, sour, spiced, and creamy, eaten to open a summer meal. To the unaccustomed it is a surprise, a fruit soup served before the main course rather than after; to Hungarians it is the taste of summer itself, of the cherry season and the hot months, cooling and refreshing on the hottest days. The sour cherry runs through the whole Central European table besides, into strudels, dumplings, and cakes, but meggyleves is its most distinctive and beloved Hungarian form.

Ingredients

The Soup

600 g sour cherries (meggy/Morello), stoned (fresh or frozen)
700 ml water
100 g sugar, to taste
1 stick cinnamon
2 cloves
1 strip lemon peel, plus 1 tbsp juice
100 ml dry red wine (optional)
1 pinch salt

The Enrichment

200 ml soured cream
1 tbsp plain flour

Method

Put the cherries, water, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel, salt, and the wine, if using, in a pan. Bring to a simmer and cook gently for 15 minutes, until the cherries are soft.
Whisk the flour smoothly into the soured cream in a bowl, then temper it: whisk in a ladleful of the hot cherry liquid, then a second, to warm the cream gradually.
Off the heat, whisk the tempered cream mixture back into the soup. Return to a very gentle heat for a minute or two to thicken slightly, stirring, but do not let it boil.
Stir in the lemon juice, remove the cinnamon, cloves, and lemon peel, and cool. Chill thoroughly, for several hours or overnight.
Serve cold in bowls, with a swirl of extra soured cream and a few reserved cherries if you like.

Notes

Morello or other sour cherries are essential; sweet cherries make it flat. Some cooks use only soured cream, others add a little double cream for richness, and some thicken with cornflour instead of flour. The red wine is traditional but optional. Serve it well chilled; it is a soup, eaten before the meal, not a dessert.

The Gastrographer

Name: Meggyleves
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Hungary
Ingredients: 600 g sour cherries (meggy/Morello), stoned (fresh or frozen); 700 ml water; 100 g sugar, to taste; 1 stick cinnamon; 2 cloves; 1 strip lemon peel, plus 1 tbsp juice; 100 ml dry red wine (optional); 200 ml soured cream; 1 tbsp plain flour; 1 pinch salt

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control