What is this Hungarian Cheese Spread anyway?

Thanks for asking! The spread I make is a variation of the recipe my Hungarian mother made. She made traditional Körözött (koor-roo-zut) - A tangy spread made with cottage cheese, onions, caraway and, of course, Hungarian paprika. (My version is quite different - more on that later) You will find many variations of this spread throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, Austria and even Italy! The Italians call it "Spuma di formaggio all'ungherese" which, translates to Hungarian Cheese Mousse - Apologies to Italian speakers out there if I botched the translation.
In Germany and Austria and even parts of Hungary is it known as Liptaur.
However you call it, Korozott is a spicy cheese spread that can be made with sheep's-milk cheese, Feta, goat's milk cheese, quark cheese or cottage cheese. Liptauer cheese spread can be made of any soft cheesees. Cottage cheese, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, quark cheese, soft goat or sheep cheese are all suitable for this purpose. The cheese is mixed with local sour cream, butter, margarine or beer and finely chopped onions. Spices are added, like ground paprika, fresh parsley, usually whole caraway seeds (or ground caraway). Other recipes involve prepared mustard, Worcestershire sauce, capers or anchovy paste. Consumed on open sandwich, toast, crackers, bagels or as a filling in cold dishes like filled tomatoes, peppers, or hard boiled eggs. In Hungary there are many, many “körözött” recipes. Like Chili recipes in the U.S. Hungarians or those of Hungarian decent have their own family recipe and they often claim that their körözött is like their own individual interpretations of the dish.
As I mentioned earlier, my recipe is more influenced that a direct representation of my Mom's recipe and, as you will read in the following post, in some ways, Mom was right!