Hungary · 8 h · Vegetarian · Dessert · For confident cooks
Sargaturo
In German: Sárgatúró (Ostereierkäse) · In English: Hungarian sweet egg cheese
For 8 servings · US units
Hungarian Easter egg cheese, set in a cloth and sliced cold
Sargaturo is a classic Hungarian Easter dish: milk and a generous number of eggs are cooked together gently until the mixture curdles, then drained in a cloth into a yellow ball. Sliced cold, it goes on the table alongside boiled ham — some cooks dice the ham and fold it right in. Mild and lightly sweet, speckled with raisins or apricots, it's the kind of thing you start the day before.
Ingredients
- 4¼ cupsmilkWhole milk, heated
- 10eggBeaten, only loosely whisked if a mosaic look is wanted
- 4¼ ozsugarMuch of it drains off with the whey
- 1 tbspGround vanilla may be used insteadSugar flavoured with vanilla or vanillin, usually sold in small sachets.Substitute: For one sachet, use about a heaped teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract, which makes little difference in doughs and creams. Extract is not suitable for dusting, because it makes the sugar damp. For that, leave scraped-out vanilla pods in a jar of sugar for a few days.Read more
- 1 pinchsaltAdded to the milk
- 2⅛ ozraisinsWashed and drained, cooked along (optional)
- 3½ ozDried apricotsChopped, instead of raisins (optional)
- 8¾ ozCrumbled into the hot milk for a richer mass (optional)Fresh cheese made from soured milk, mildly tangy; in Hungarian cooking, as túró, it is usually dry and crumbly rather than creamy.Substitute: Cottage cheese pushed through a sieve and drained overnight comes closest to the crumbly texture; drained ricotta also works but tastes sweeter and less tangy.Read more
Method
- Put the milk, sugar, vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt into a large pot and heat until it is almost boiling.
- Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk: beaten smooth they give an evenly yellow mass, beaten only loosely they leave a mosaic-like pattern.
- Wash and drain the raisins, or chop the dried apricots, and add them to the hot milk. If you like, crumble in the curd cheese now as well.
- Turn the heat down and pour the beaten eggs slowly into the hot milk in a thin stream, stirring as you go.
- Keep cooking over gentle heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture flocculates, turns grainy and clear whey separates out.
- Line a sieve or a bowl with muslin or a loosely woven cloth and pour in the hot mixture — much of the sugar runs off with the whey.
- Gather up the cloth, tie it firmly, shape it into a ball and hang it up, or simply let the mass drain in the lined sieve; it takes on the shape of the sieve or the cloth bundle.
- Let it rest somewhere cool until firm and completely cold, ideally overnight.
- Lift it out of the cloth, cut into slices and serve cold; keep the rest in the fridge.
Tips and variations
Golden raisins, dried cranberries or finely chopped apricots all work just as well as ordinary raisins — and with no dried fruit at all, just milk, egg, sugar and vanilla, it is still very good. Crumbled curd cheese makes the mass richer, and if you're in a hurry you can drain it for 1–2 hours at room temperature and then chill it for 2 hours instead. Some cooks beat the eggs with the sugar until foamy first, or only warm the milk rather than bringing it close to the boil. Serve Sargaturo cold in slices with boiled ham, and always keep it in the fridge — with that much egg it spoils easily.
Allergens
Contains: Eggs, Milk (including lactose)
May contain if you use the optional ingredients: Sulphur dioxide and sulphites
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
