zsírral

Zsírral is the instrumental form of the Hungarian noun zsír, meaning fat or grease. It is used to indicate that fat is the medium, means, or ingredient with which an action is performed. In Hungarian grammar, the instrumental case is formed by adding the suffix -ral/-rel to the noun; because zsír ends with a consonant, the form becomes zsírral due to assimilation (the r is effectively doubled).

The form is common in culinary language and in descriptions of preparation. For example, a dish may be cooked "zsírral" to indicate fat is used as the cooking medium or ingredient. Examples include: A hagymát zsírral dinsztelik (They sauté the onions in fat) and A pörköltet zsírral készítik (The pörkölt is prepared with fat). In practice, speakers may contrast zsírral with other fats such as vajjal (with butter) or olajjal (with oil).

Beyond cooking, zsírral can also mark means or method in non-culinary contexts, though it is most often encountered in recipes and informal descriptions of preparation. The word derives from zsír and uses the standard instrumental suffix -ral, making it one of the common Hungarian forms to express "with X" or "using X" in accompaniment or medium contexts.