Polish cuisine

For centuries, Polish cuisine was influenced by regional characteristics, and many nations lived on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . As a result, Eastern (Tatar-Turkish, and earlier Mongolian), Ruthenian , German , French , Italian and Jewish culinary influences are felt.

The most popular Polish dishes are dumplings , porridge , dumplings , cabbage rolls , chop, minced meat cutlet, bigos , galantine (meat jelly), pork shank; soups: beetroot , cabbage soup , chicken stock , tomato soup , pickle , mushroom soup, cold or cold borsch; dishes of cabbage and potatoes, various types of bread products (rye, wheat bread), pies , vegetables, fruits (apples, pears, berries, currants), cottage cheese , various types of meat (mainly pork , poultry and beef ), cooked different methods, as well as to a lesser extent marine and freshwater fish. A special Polish dessert is brushwood, but other desserts are also popular, such as poppy seed rolls , cheesecakes, gingerbread cookies , a yeast woman , donuts .

Specific dishes include flasks ( tripe soup), pickled cucumbers, sauerkraut , sour milk , kefir , buttermilk .

Among alcoholic beverages - vodka made from potatoes and cereals . She supplanted drinking honey , which was once popular. In Poland, hop beer is considered a traditional and frequently consumed drink, and wine , in turn, is drunk less often.

A popular drink is tea , in which sugar and a slice of lemon are often added. Tea was brought from England after Dutch merchants brought it to Europe . However, its distribution in the XIX century. attributed to the Russians during the sections of the Commonwealth. At that time, samovars from Russia appeared in Polish houses, where tea came as a gift to the royal court from China ; This happened about 50 years before the spread of tea in Holland. Coffee was also popular: a drink that appeared in the 18th century, also distributed among the lower layers of society - artisans and wealthy peasants.

Unlike other national cuisines, carbohydrates prevail in Polish and West Slavic cuisines, i.e. cereal dishes: cereals, bakery products and various flour dishes: dumplings, dumplings, soups, sauces. Poland is not only a country with a predominant agriculture, it has many forest areas (about 28% of the territory of Poland is covered by forests). Consequently, Polish cuisine includes many dishes from available products of forest origin (mushrooms, fruits, nuts and herbs). The choice of meat in Polish cuisine also depended on the distribution of forests.

Unlike other states, such as France or Hungary , in medieval Poland forests were not cut down for pasture and did not graze livestock in such numbers. Livestock, which was kept in a stable, was primarily a source of valuable dairy products . For meat, pigs were bred, most often grazed in forests near villages, as well as poultry. The meat of forest animals, which were often hunted, was also used. Therefore, typical types of meat for Polish cuisine are pork, poultry and various game - from rabbits and birds to roe deer and wild boars , as well as freshwater fish. Maintenance-free poultry were kept for eggs and meat. All edible parts, including tripe and blood, were used for food , from which they produced kashank (gryutsvurst) and black watering , an economical culinary dish known throughout Europe.

Due to historical conditions (limited access to the sea), in Polish cuisine there are primarily freshwater fish caught in lakes, streams, ponds and rivers, as well as crayfish that are often compared to lobsters, unknown in other European cuisines. Sea fish in Polish cuisine is, above all, herring , which can be easily pickled in salt and delivered to regions of Poland remote from the sea. Polish cuisine did not use perishable seafood such as shrimp or oysters . Caviar was also not a popular product, unlike Russian cuisine, where there was access to sturgeons .

A characteristic feature of Polish cuisine is a large number of soups and decoctions of local plants, grains, meat products, vegetables or fruits. The standard vegetables in Polish cuisine are, like the Western Slavs, beets, different types of cabbage, cucumbers, and earlier also wild plants such as sorrel , beet tops , sow thistle , dandelion or nettle .

A huge role in Polish cuisine is also played by vegetables rich in nutrients that can be stored during the winter period, in particular leguminous plants, starting with peas and beans , and ending with bean , kohlrabi and turnip . In winter, Polish cuisine was enriched with nutritious nuts and acorns . Typical fruits in Polish cuisine are apples and forest fruits, as well as plums , pears , cherries , cherries , gooseberries and currants - these fruits are used in the preparation of dishes, desserts, pastries, tinctures, as well as stewed fruit and jams typical of Polish cuisine.

In Polish cuisine, the use of sour cream (both sour and fresh) is considered very important, which appears where yogurt is used in Balkan and oriental cuisines. Sour cream is the basis for the preparation of sauces, marinades and soups. Despite the use of sour cream and cottage cheese, Balkan yogurt is not produced in Polish cuisine, but with time the production of Tatar kefir began .

The next significant and nutritious product with a high protein content, in addition to eggs, is considered to be easy to prepare milk cottage cheese, used relatively often, as feta in Balkan and Middle Eastern cuisines. Sheep's milk is used primarily in the mountains ( shtepepok , feta cheese , etc.). Typical types of fat in Polish cuisine are: butter (requiring special storage and more complex production), lard and cracklings , as well as vegetable oils, and earlier - linseed oil and poppy seed oil . Today, rapeseed oil is mainly used. The rapidly becoming rancid vegetable oil in Poland was once used as sauces for salads, bread or pancakes. For frying, baking and dishes, for the preparation of which a high temperature was required, oil and lard were used. Persistent and easy-to-store pork fat was used for spreading on bread, dishes from cereals were sprinkled with cracklings.

The following standard tastes exist for Polish cuisine: salted, slightly fermented or pickled (for example, cucumbers, cabbage, cottage cheese, bread kvass), and in addition, moderately spicy ( horseradish , mustard , green onion , onion , garlic and overseas pepper), spicy and herbal ( juniper , nutmeg , anise , cumin ), sour (sour sour cream, cabbage and pickles), moreover, sweet-sour (obtained with apples, cranberries and other fruits added to dishes). Widely used spices in Polish cuisine are also dill and poppy seeds with specific flavors (and once also flax seed).

Currently, the sharp and strong taste in Polish and West Slavic cuisines is often softened with sour cream. In Polish cuisine, the reduction and emulsification of sauces and fats using vinegar, wine or other alcohol is relatively little used. Beer was used as a nutrient base for soups, and vodka and tinctures are traditionally used as alcoholic drinks. Reduction of fats and revitalization of tastes in dishes containing a lot of fat is obtained by adding sour cream, sour fruits or sour vegetables, and even with moderately sharp spices - horseradish, onion or mustard. In Polish cuisine, vinegar is not made on the basis of sour wine, as is done in countries where the wine industry predominates. In Poland, alcohol-based vinegar is made. Vinegar is often used in marinades.

Polish medieval chronicles describe Polish cuisine as plentiful, heavy, spicy, which often uses a large amount of meat and porridge, but it is not always tasty. In Polish cuisine of those times, in comparison with other European cuisines, a huge amount of spices was used, mostly pepper, nutmeg and juniper. This was due to trade agreements (the routes of which passed through Lviv ) with the countries of the Far East providing inexpensive spices. To this day, information has been preserved about fragrant, thick and very spicy sauces (gray juha and red juha [Polish. Jucha szara i jucha czerwona]).

The basis of the kitchen, both the noble and the rich peasantry, was household. People bought only salt and spices (especially pepper). Based on this, only what was given by the field, garden, garden, chicken coop and barn (stable) was used, and besides, people hunted game and caught river fish.

In addition, honey was used daily (instead of expensive overseas cane sugar), turnips and peas. The most popular alcoholic drinks were: beer, vodka and drinking honey, later there was an expensive wine that was brought from Silesia and Hungary , as well as by sea - from France , Spain , Portugal and Italy .

Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan (French Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan) left us with a rich description of Old Polish cuisine - a French marquis , engineer and writer who, traveling around Ukraine, wrote the book “Déscription de l'Ukrainie, qui sont plusieurs provinces du Royaume de Pologne, Contenuës depuis les confins de, jusques aux limites de leurs moeurs, façcons de vivres et de faire ^[1] "(" Description of Ukraine, which is the province of the Kingdom of Poland, extending from the borders of Muscovy, up to the borders of Transylvania "). In his opinion, the daily diet of the nobility included: sauerkraut with smoked pork lard, barley porridge, dumplings and dumplings with cottage cheese, lasagna, and also a dish completely forgotten today - grated peas with lard, which was considered an exceptional delicacy, which should not be dispensed with not a single event.

Novelties from abroad began to penetrate the self-sufficient old Polish cuisine. Queen Bon Sforza , who brought Italian cooks with her in 1518, made a great contribution to Polish cuisine. Previously, travelers to Rome , Padua or Bologna , representatives of the rich nobility and magnesia, became acquainted with this cuisine. Initially, this kitchen was critical: there was a story about a certain nobleman who had returned from Italy ahead of time because he was afraid that he would be fed with “hay” in winter, since he ate “grass” (salads) in the summer.

Monasteries were another factor contributing to the spread of foreign culinary traditions. Separate orders had their homes in Italy, Spain, France, Germany and maintained close contacts with them, including culinary ones. The monasteries were not closed to wealthy guests, and the dishes that were offered to them soon appeared in the manor houses. A large role was played by military cuisine and loot with the robbery of the camps of the defeated enemy.

Some of the oriental delicacies (especially sweets) have taken a permanent place in Polish cuisine. Dried meat, sausages and marinades also turned out to be military booty. In peacetime, oriental food began to be scarce, then the Armenians who had close contacts with the Balkans and Istanbul began to bring it, and sea fish was brought through Riga , Elblag and Gdansk - that is, from the Baltic.

In Polish cuisine, the main method of storing meat was the use of easily accessible rock salt: drying, pickling or easy fermentation, as well as the use of a large number of spicy spices, which had a great influence on the taste of meat. After the introduction of new technologies for cooling and storage of products in the XX century. processes such as salting , drying and pickling have been preserved in Polish cuisine to this day, primarily to preserve the traditional taste.

Potatoes in the Polish nobility were not yet known. True, in Chernetsky’s book one could find “tertofelle” (potato), which was baked in ashes and cut into slices, fried, but it was an overseas dish that could be found on noble tables. Only during the reign of Augustus III did its Saxon settlers begin to grow (at the end of the 18th century), and then all the rest.

Among the drinks, herbal decoctions, bread kvass , stewed fruit , vodka and fruit tinctures, drinking honey and beer were popular, and beer was also used in the preparation of lean dishes.

Soon, tea, which is no less popular in Russian cuisine, entered the ranks of traditional drinks in Polish cuisine, and after the Vienna campaign in Poland, Turkish coffee appeared, which is more expensive, less affordable, weathered faster, and therefore was less popular than tea.

The first surviving and found to date Polish cookbook “Compendium Ferculorum albo zebranie potraw ^[2] ” was written by Stanislav Chernetsky (Polsk. Stanisław Czerniecki) in 1682. And only a century later (in 1786) the following extensive work of Wojciecha Wieladka appeared under the title “Kucharz doskonały ^[3] ” (“The Perfect Culinary”) - it was very popular and reprinted many times.

The culinary enthusiasm of Stanislav Augustus led to the fashion for exquisite cuisine, which combines French and Polish culinary traditions. The student of the very famous chef Paul Tremont (Polish Paula Tremona) - Jan Schittler (Polish Jan Szyttler) is the author of the first systematic cookbooks in Poland.

Modern Polish cuisine differs from the old one in that instead of cereals, potatoes became the basis of nutrition, and game dishes gave way to pork and poultry. Tomatoes and peppers have become popular. The amount of meat consumed daily and accessible to all increased, while the consumption of offal decreased. Beetroot began to produce cheap sugar.

Soups ( Polish zupa ) (zupa) often make up the only dish for lunch or dinner. They usually snack on black rye bread from wholemeal flour.

• Zhur , zurek ( Polish żur, żurek ) - soup based on soured flour, often rye or wheat, but sometimes different.
• Red borsch ( polish. Barszcz czerwony ) - beetroot soup. Sorcerers ( Polish: Kołduny ) are often added to the finished red borsch.
• White borsch ( polish. Barszcz biały ) - soup based on zhura . Pieces of sausage and halves of a boiled egg are put in the finished white borsch. Looks like pickle.
• Cucumber soup ( pol . Zupa ogórkowa ) - sour soup with cucumbers.
• Rosul ( Polish: Rosół ) - “brine”, transparent, “like a tear”, a poultry or beef broth with pasta or noodles, densely sprinkled with herbs.
• Kapusnyak ( Polish kapuśniak ). Russian analogue - cabbage soup .
• Grohówka ( Polish grochówka ) - pea soup .
• Flaki - beef stomach soup.
• Czernina ( pol . Czernina ) - soup with goose blood.

Polish cuisine is replete with chopped meat dishes, with a side dish of buckwheat or stewed cabbage . However, meat from pork or duck is often baked whole. The food is plentifully seasoned with pickles , pickled mushrooms, mustard and horseradish .

• Bigos ( Polish: bigos ) - stewed cabbage with meat. Bigos has long been a symbol of Polish cuisine ^[4] .
• Sausage
• Sorcerers
• Polendvitsa - smoked sirloin tenderloin.
• Saltison - boiled or baked in the gut pork offal with spices.
• Pyzy is a semblance of zeppelins . Prepared from grated and squeezed potatoes, with spicy minced meat inside. Unlike zeppelins, they are not boiled, but fried in a pan, then heated in the oven without water, oil, as it is.
• Polish-style fish - fried and stewed fish fillet with garnish and sauce.

• Kapitka - a dish of grated potatoes.

Traditional Polish dessert is sweet cakes ( Polish ciasta ), most often yeast, as well as a variety of rolls with poppy seeds, raisins, nuts and dried fruits, mazurkas , apple, cottage cheese pies and gingerbread cookies. One of the favorite Polish delicacies is donuts stuffed with jam from a wild rose.

• Vodka ( polish. Wódka ) is the most typical Polish alcoholic beverage.

• Tinctures, the most original of which is bison , infused on the stems of grass bison from Belovezhskaya Pushcha , which is eaten by bison. Also stark , similar technology for cooking with whiskey. Also fruit cordial .

• Beer ( Polish piwo ) is also a traditional Polish low-alcohol drink. Breweries in cities such as Живywiec, Varka or Elblлонg have centuries-old traditions in the preparation of this drink.

In cold weather, Poles drink heated beer (“ gzhanets ”) or wine with the addition of honey and seasonings from fragrant roots (see kramambulya , mulled wine ).

• Silesian cuisine is rich in potato dishes. A typical dish in Silesia is potato dumpling dumplings with the addition of raw grated potatoes. White cabbage and red cabbage dishes are also popular (red cabbage is usually stewed with the addition of smoked loin). Among the sweet delicacies, Silesian “poppies” ( Polish makówki ) - a dessert made from mashed poppy with the addition of honey , raisins , nuts and dried fruits, deserve special attention. The sweet mass, laid on thin slices of sweet bread or cookies, is poured with hot milk, then cooled and served. Many Silesian dishes resemble Greater Poland cuisine. Connoisseurs and connoisseurs of delicious food have a special weakness for the so-called "cartouches" ( Polish kartacz ) - a variety of dumplings with a complex filling of meat with mushrooms or cabbage with mushrooms.

• In the mountainous regions of Lesser Poland ( Tatra Mountains , Beskydy Mountains ) beer stew with beer and spices and vegetables are popular. Of the soups, residents of the Beskyd region prefer "zhur" on whey and "fermented milk" - a type of cabbage with a lot of pork meat, including smoked meat. The attribute of the cuisine of Polish highlanders living in the Tatra and Podhale (Podhale) regions are sheep’s cheeses “Bundza” ( Polish bundz ) and “ oscyscka ”, as well as baked lamb. In these places, the alum is also popular, cooked on a pork head broth, which is served with hot boiled potatoes, laid in separate deep dishes.

• Masurian and Pomeranian cuisine is famous for its fish soups ( Polish. Zupa rybna ).

• Brynza Podhalyanskaya (in Polish sources in Russian - “Brynza Podhalyanskaya”) is a pickled cheese made from sheep’s milk in the Podhale region (northern Tatras ). In 2007, the first of the country's brands was registered as a “Product of Regional Importance with a Protected Name and Geographical Origin” (PDO) ^{[5] [6]} .

• Kuchmistrzostwo
• Stanisław Czerniecki, Compendium ferculorum, albo zebranie potraw, Krakow 1682.
• Wojciech Wielądko, Kucharz doskonały, pożyteczny dla zatrudniających się gospodarstwem. Okazując sposób poznawania, rozbierania różnego rodzaju mięsiwa, ryb, etc. przytym naukę daiąc przezorną o mocy, czyli wyśmienitości warzywa i ziół, oraz wyborze onych używania. Tudzież robiena wódek, likworów, syropów, ciast i cukrów. z francuskiego przetłomaczony i wielą przydatkami pomnożony przez Woyciecha Wielądka. Warszawa 1783,
• Jan Szyttler, Kuchnia myśliwska, czyli na łowach, 1823,
• Jan Szyttler, Kucharz dobrze usposobiony, 1830,
• Jan Szyttler, Kucharz Nowy dla osób osłabionych 1837,
• Jan Szyttler, Kucharka oszczędna, 1846
• Anna Ciundziewicka, Gospodynię litewską, Wilno 1848,
• Wincenta Zawadzka, Kucharkę litewską, Wilno 1854
• Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, 365 obiadów za pięć złotych, Warszawa 1858
• Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, Jedyne praktyczne przepisy wszelkich zapasów spiżarnianych oraz pieczenia ciast, Warszawa 1858
• Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, Poradnik porządku i różnych nowości gospodarskich (Warszawa 1876),
• Rebeka Wolff, Polska kuchnia koszerna, 1877
• Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, Naukę robienia kwiatów bez pomocy nauczyciela (Warszawa i Kraków 1879)
• Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, Nauka robienia kwiatów bez pomocy nauczyciela: z 239 rycinami. Warszawa: nakład autorski: Gebethner i Wolff, 1879
• Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, Jedyne praktyczne przepisy konfitur, różnych marynat, wędlin, wódek, likierów, win owocowych, miodów oraz ciast: według wydania z 1885 roku. Warszawa: nakład autorki, 1885.
• Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, Cokolwiek bądź chcesz wyczyścić, czyli Porządki domowe / przez Lucynę C. Warszawa: Gebethner i Wolff, 1887.
• Marta Norkowska, Najnowsza kuchnia wytworna i gospodarska, 1902,
• Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, Baby, placki i mazurki: praktyczne przepisy pieczenia chleba, bułek, placków, mazurków, tortów, ciastek, pierników itp / przez Lucynę Ćwierczakiewiczową. Warszawa: nakładem Jana Fiszera, 1909.
• Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, Obiady, ciasta, konfitury. Rzeszów: Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1991. Warszawa. Lwów: nakład i własność Jana Fiszera, 1911.
• Marta Norkowska, Spiżarnie i zapasy zimowe, 1911,
• Maria Ochorowicz-Monatowa, Uniwersalna Książka Kucharska, Lwów 1926
• Maria Disslowa, Jak gotować: Praktyczny podręcznik kucharstwa, Poznań Wydawnictwo Polskie R. Wegnera 1931
• Elżbieta Kiewnarska, 109 potraw, 1940)
• Poradnik Dobrej Gospodyni, 1954,
• Zofia Czerna, Książka kucharska, 1954,
• Kuchnia polska, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Ekonomiczne 1959,
• Kucharz gastronom, (Wydawnictwo Przemysłu Lekkiego i Spożywczego, 1963,
• Henryk Dębski, Współczesna kuchnia polska, 1983.

• Polish cuisine