In the framework of the International Danube Day 2022 celebration, on 2.7.2022. in Kopačevo (Kopački rit Nature Park), DANUBEPARKS has presented our new cookbook "One river, ten countries, countless flavors" developed in the framework of the Transdanube Travel Stories project.
In the cookbook, you can find 12 food stories and recipes - 1 from each of the 10 Danube countries (from Germany to Romania), and 2 ancient Roman recipes. One of the dishes presented in the cookbook is "Šokac bean soup" which was prepared for the visitors and organizers of the International Danube Day celebration.
You can find paragraph about the Šokac bean soup from DANUBEPARKS cookbook below:
"Sokac bean soup is a delicious bean soup, recently known as bean goulash. It is a real specialty of Mohács with extremely interesting preparation.
Lunch was prepared in the fields, in the vineyards, it was cooked on its own and did not require constant supervision.
It is based on the traditional dish of the Croatian national minority Šokci who live in Mohács. This gastronomic specialty is a bean dish prepared in a fireproof earthen pot over an open fire.It dates to old times when these people, who were farmers, prepared this dish at the edge of the fields in an earthen pot surrounded with burning wood.
To prepare this dish, you need a round pot with a suitable inner bow (bastard) that can withstand high temperatures. It is available in different sizes and designs: one-eared and two-eared, glazed and unglazed, with or without metal mesh. The metal mesh had its significant purpose. If the pot broke during cooking, the entire contents would leak out if there is no metal casing or mesh that held it together.
In the times of our ancestors, there was great poverty, and food cooked in such dishes was eaten for two or three days. This dish was not cooked directly on the fire but by it, so that the pot was exposed to the temperature on one side. The temperature in the bowl rose, and the food thus stirred on its own. In the old days, at the beginning of a working day in the field, a pot was put by the fire after one job was done, then the soup was seasoned after one of the next jobs and so on. The dish cooked on its own. There was no time to work in the field and dedicate to cooking and that is why this dish was prepared in this way. This dish was initially considered to be food for the poor because only vegetables and beans were used, and adding several types of meat has become a habit only recently."
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Transdanube Travel Stories is co-funded by the European Union (ERDF, IPA, ENI). You can find out more about project HERE.