Huszárcsók means 'Hussar's kiss' in Hungarian - a phrase I would never have googled had I not seen this recipe back in the 2000s. I was a rather inexperienced baker at the time and easily disappointed when things didn't work out and I remember making these cookies 3-4 times before a picture was shareable. My problem was that dough collapsed in the oven. Huszárcsók is supposed to be a thumbprint cookie that you fill with raspberry jam so if the dough is not refrigerated long enough before shaping, the thumbprint pattern is lost. Now that I look at the Food.com version, I realize that Huszárcsók is not exactly a thumbprint cookie - it's only a cookie that you decorate with raspberry jam. To avoid the seeds in raspberry jam, I used banana marmalade - which turns a lovely red after cooking even though bananas are white-ish.
I looked in vain around the Web for the original Huszárcsók -or a story that would justify its name. It seemed to be an early 20th century recipe inspired by real and fictional hussars. Even for people outside Hungary, 'hussar' is not deprived of meaning. I still remember The Horseman on the Roof (Le hussar sur le toit), a 1995 historical film by Jean Paul Rappenau although I ignored until now Victoria and her Hussar (Viktoria und ihr Husar), a 1930 operetta from Hungary that was also made into a film. But for a history-lover, there are few cookies that deserve a blog post as much as Huszárcsók.
Hussars were a type of irregular cavalrymen active in many parts of Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries and they also exist today but the original hussars flourished in medieval Hungary when the country shared a border with the vast Ottoman empire. A lot of them were Serbs, that's why one etymology links the word huszár with the Serbian husar or gusar (meaning a horseman who fought against Ottoman Turks, or a privateer). Other etymologies suggest:
- that huszár is a 100% Hungarian term, meaning a type of skilled horsemen (Huns, Avars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Mongols, Tatars) who fought in the steppes of medieval Europe with arrows, lances & sabers.
- that hussar was paraphrased from the Roman cursarius, a member of light cavalry recruited in the Byzantine empire and usually of Serbian origin.
- that huszár was composed of the Hungarian words husz+ár, which means 'twenty acres' -because every landowner with twenty acres provided his overlord with a fully equipped (peasant) soldier.
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| Archduke Joseph of Austria, Palatine of Hungary in 19th c. Hussar uniform |
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| Early 19th century Polish winged Hussar |
Medieval hussar regiments possibly developed from Serbian warrior bands that fled into Hungary after the Ottoman conquest in late 14th century. The Hungarian vice-regent John Hunyadi recruited such men for his guard and his son Matthias Corvinus, who became king of Hungary, organized troops into a body called Hussars. These warriors formed the Black Army of Hungary, who received their name from the colour of their armour. Led by Matthias Corvinus, hussars fought successfully against Turks, Bohemians, and Poles. After the king's death, they became a standard military force alongside the regular army of Hungary -entrusted with scouting and raiding.
During the 17th century, hussars were transformed into light cavalry and often recruited in the Habsburg empire. Arrows, lances & sabers were exchanged for guns and shields were abandoned. At the same time, heavily armed Polish-Lithuanian hussars developed into the elite of their Commonwealth armies. They fought many great battles in the northeast of Europe while Croatian hussars (often mixed with Hungarian, Serbian, Albanian and Cossack horsemen) defended the interests of Hungary on the Military Front, where modern Croatia meets with Serbia and Bosnia. Around the same time and until the 19th century, Prussia, France, northern Italy, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Russia developed their own regiments of hussars that were modelled on the original hussars from Hungary who increasingly became mercenaries. During the Napoleonic wars, British, French and Russian armies included large numbers of hussars. Spanish regiments of hussars also fought in the colonies.
Hussars traditionally wore moustaches and long hair that was braided on either side and queued at the back. They were the last to abandon the queue at the beginning of the nineteenth century but kept the moustache when others did not. After 1700, they were dressed in colorful uniforms, according to Hungarian fashions -and wore especially tall hats made of fur. Both in real life and fiction, they had a reputation for being reckless adventurers in war and in love (hence the name of the cookies that inspired this post) although 18th century hussars were also notorious for their unfair treatment of civilians.
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