You would not think that the delicious fish soup (or chowder), the goulash cooked in a stew-pot on an open fire or the game stew you have just consumed in the evocative restaurants or fisher gardens, were the everyday food for the people of old who lived here, eaten (mainly by the men) during the course of their work. The landscape, where they passed their days, was very similar to that of today: it was surrounded by water rich in fish, game dwelled in the woods of the river flats, and they grazed their livestock in the wild green grass of pastureland adjacent to the rivers. They passed at least one week away from their families, so they took with them only non-perishable food, cereals and pasta, onion, lard and vegetables. As for the other kinds of nutrition they had to obtain them from nature.
The had a few and very simple tools: spike, grill, cauldron and clay pot. Most of the dishes were prepared in the cauldron, it was the smoke of the slow fire that made the taste so individual and unmistakable. If there is a chance (and there can be, of course, at these outdoor summer events), it is worthwhile comparing the dishes prepared in this manner and those served in the restaurants.
The first-rate goulash cooked in a stew-pot on an open fire is prepared in the manner just like our ancestors used to practice.

The lard cut into pieces was fried on a low fire until it released the fat then the fine-cut onion was cooked soft in it. In the meanwhile the meat was chopped and put in the cauldron and water was added. If they had potato, carrots, turnip at hand, the added them too, then salted the whole and cooked it until the meat was tender. Red pepper was added at the very end, not to let it embitter the dish. While the food bubbled in the pot, generating tempting smells, the toiling people went abaut their work. Mutton stew prepared in the cauldron remains one of the most favoured and sought-after delicacies of this area. Making the fish soup was not much more complicated. After the lard and the onion the cleaned and gutted small fish followed, preferably as many varieties as possible, with water and salt added. These ingredients constituted the basic sauce, with the difference that the ancients had no tools and time for sieving it, so the fish had to cook till it fell apart. When it was done, the slices of the bigger and more precious fish were added to the thick basic juice (or the whole, if the fish was young and small) and of course paprika. At this point those who were the most hungry could gather around the cauldron because the savoury fish soup of the Tisza was quite near the perfection. The remains (if any) turned into jelly in the cauldron by the morning tothe joy of those preparing to go to work.
Because hunting was forbidden for the ordinary people, hare, pheasant, roe deer or boar did appear on the menu, but rarely and in secrecy. For making a stew the game would be cut into finer pieces than in the case of their domestic counterparts or fish, because they were sometimes old speciments, and their muscles contained more sinews due their way of life then that of the cow or pig. Their flesh was not cured, in order not to lose the particular taste of the wild animals.

Fish was fried on a spike, on a grill or in a clay coat. It can be a lasting experience of a summer camp or excursion if we fry a freshly caught fish on a spike till it is crisp, or roast a large, sliced fish over the embers.
It was not so long ago that the menu of our ancestors featured the water chestnut (now listed among the protected European plants), collected from a boat and used as surrogate potato. To date, this plant overruns huge surfaces of Lake Tisza, and the drifting spiny fruit may sometimes annoy the bathers. Anyway, it is worth tasting the sauce prepared from the fruit in the Restaurant "Hableány" (Mermaid) at Tiszaörvény.
It was always been the job of the women to prepare the most prestigious festival pastry of the Hungarian peasants’ cuisine, the so-called "kalács". To date, there are many ladies at Karcag, who can bake as many as 20 or 25 types of this cake.