Nowadays, very few people group wine soup with traditional Hungarian Christmas dishes, and a whole generation may have never even had it. However, before the trinity of fish soup, bejgli, and stuffed cabbage, which now dominates the tables during the holidays, wine soup was still the star of Hungarian Christmas.
Translated by Fanni Kaszás
From the mid-1800s until the seventies of the last century, wine soup had a steady, permanent place on the Christmas menu. Originally from the German-speaking world, it is probable that the Swabians who settled in Hungary in the 19th century brought it with them from Germany, and its consumption at Christmas was also a common custom in Austria.