Túró Rudi
Encyclopedia
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
since 1968. The bar is composed of a thin outer coating of chocolate and an inner filling of túró
Cottage cheese
Cottage cheese is a cheese curd product with a mild flavor. It is drained, but not pressed, so some whey remains and the individual curds remain loose. The curd is usually washed to remove acidity, giving sweet curd cheese. It is not aged or colored. Different styles of cottage cheese are made from...
(curd
Curd
Curds are a dairy product obtained by curdling milk with rennet or an edible acidic substance such as lemon juice or vinegar, and then draining off the liquid portion. The increased acidity causes the milk proteins to tangle into solid masses, or curds. The remaining liquid, which contains only...
). The "Rudi" in the product name comes from the Hungarian "rúd", which translates to rod (and is also a nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
for the name Rudolf).
The basic (plain, "natúr") bar is by far the most popular amongst Hungarians and comes in two sizes: the classic 30 gram bar and the larger ("óriás", giant) 51 gram bar. There are also less popular differently flavoured varieties of the bar, like apricot or peanut butter. The plain bar can be found with dark chocolate outer coating.
The "pöttyös" (spotty or spotted) theme is part of the marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
scheme of the bar, and the distinctive red polka-dots are readily associated with Túró Rudi by regular consumers. Friesland Hungária, Inc. (which claims to be the manufacturer of the "original" Túró Rudi) released its product in Slovakia, Romania, Spain and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
under the name DOTS in 2003. The version sold in Western Europe is said to be sweeter and comes with a milk chocolate coating to suit the taste of locals.
The bar is best kept refrigerated at 4 degrees Celsius
Celsius
Celsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
. The regular 31 gram
Gram
The gram is a metric system unit of mass....
bar and the óriás bar usually retail for about 70 Hungarian forint
Hungarian forint
The forint is the currency of Hungary. It is divided into 100 fillér, although fillér coins are no longer in circulation. The introduction of the forint on 1 August 1946 was a crucial step of the post-WWII stabilization of the Hungarian economy, and the currency remained relatively stable until...
s (about 24 euro cents) and 100 Hungarian forints (about 40 euro-cents), respectively.
Origin
The earliest form of Túró Rudi appeared in Russia under the name Cырок (Sirok), a rectangular bar of curd, butter and fat mixed together, covered with dark chocolate coating. Its coating is thinner and the filling is sweeter.It is widely acknowledged that Túró Rudi was based on it as designing and production begun after a study trip to the Soviet Union (presumably by Antal Deák).
Health controversy
From the beginning of its production Túró Rudi was marketed as the "healthy dessert", an opinion strongly supported by nutritional experts of the time. Later examintions however showed some less positive results. While the filling of Túró Rudis is genuine, good quality curd, the coating is not chocolate as many believe. It is a mixture of cocoa powder, hydrogenated vegetable fat, sugar and butter, containing several grams of trans fat which is believed to be one of the main causes of obesity and cardiovascular diseases.However Túró Rudi sales remain unbroken, the general public and experts opposing such concerns usually label these comments as an attempt to create hysteria, pointing out that the consumption of few bars per day is completely harmless, as it contains far less sugar and fat compared to most chocolate or dessert products on the market.
Culture
Túró Rudi, from the name Rudolf, is the name given to the Red Baron in the Hungarian translation of the Richard ScarryRichard Scarry
Richard McClure Scarry was a popular American children's author and illustrator who published over 300 books with total sales of over 100 million units worldwide....
children's books.